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Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

theguardian.com

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Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#81

Post by bjt2n3904 »

magikaram wrote: post #10

"The underlying message of course is that humans ought to take such things as science, research and knowledge seriously, lest we create our own Idiocracy." Rather, I felt the underlying message of the film is that the film is a critique of the consumerism and corporatism of the US. The 'idiocracy' with how the government runs, the downward trend of education in the US, and the pessimistic views of our future.

> "The underlying message of course is that humans ought to take such things as science, research and knowledge seriously, lest we create our own Idiocracy."

And this right here is the problem I have with Idiocracy. Amazing movie, annoying fanbase.

Everyone thinks that the movie is a perfect illustration of what's wrong with . If you watch that movie, and think, " would never create such a society", then the movie is about you.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#83

Post by mattkevan »

sabhiram wrote: post #68
mattkevan wrote: post #52

Idiocracy doesn’t actually go far enough to match current-day reality. In the film, people were smart enough to understand they weren’t all that intelligent. Even the president was willing to defer to someone who knew more than him. The last couple of years have proven that to be rather naive when it comes to our real leadership.

Well, the Rock did just announce that he is interested in politics. Kidding aside, he would likely make a much better leader than the current self indulgent noise.

For all his flaws, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (had to write his name in full) is actually a good leader who genuinely wants the best for his people.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#84

Post by neuronic »

seanhandley wrote: post #56

The irony for me here is that the author adds no additional intelligence or insight of their own - this is a simple retelling of the story of the Idiocracy film - framed as a prophecy coming true - simply to add eyeballs to the content machine that pays their salary.

If more people watch the film and become aware of the state of our "society" maybe such a blog post still served a purpose.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#86

Post by edoceo »

seanhandley wrote: post #56

The irony for me here is that the author adds no additional intelligence or insight of their own - this is a simple retelling of the story of the Idiocracy film - framed as a prophecy coming true - simply to add eyeballs to the content machine that pays their salary.

I like money.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#87

Post by dfxm12 »

jrs235 wrote: post #15
magikaram wrote: post #10

"The underlying message of course is that humans ought to take such things as science, research and knowledge seriously, lest we create our own Idiocracy." Rather, I felt the underlying message of the film is that the film is a critique of the consumerism and corporatism of the US. The 'idiocracy' with how the government runs, the downward trend of education in the US, and the pessimistic views of our future.

I felt the underlying message was "Intelligent people, stop focusing on career and start having more kids (we really are in a race to the bottom)!"

I think that was more of a minor plot point to move the story along rather than the real message. Judge just took a common theme, probably popularized in The Time Machine (The HG Wells book, not the ride in the film), to get us from point A to Point B quickly. After all, it was such a small part of the movie compared to how much time was spent focusing on lowest common denominator entertainment (ow my balls), commercialism (Brawndo), corporatism (Brawndo owning the USDA), issues with automation, etc.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#88

Post by krrrh »

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #45

One thing that is maybe missing in this discussion is that this is not a new phenomenon. Greek antiquity had a period of intellectual enlightenment when science became popular enough to rival religion (see eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_rerum_natura ) then long medieval and dark periods where this was no longer the case. Then a renaissance, many aspects of which were also non lasting. The important thing to rea…

Orwell said, "There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them."

Given the record of technocratic missteps, misguided social engineering, bad policies and wars, one could make the case that we could collectively do a lot better if intellectual elites could be taught some common sense and humility.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#89

Post by chrsig »

fairity wrote: post #85

This prophecy is flat out wrong because it ignores the future impact of genetic engineering. The rise of genetic engineering is going to allow humans to solely give birth to geniuses. This will more than counteract this idiocracy effect.

You're presuming that the species lasts another couple centuries.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#90

Post by hamiltonians »

it's interesting how you have stories about how america is dumbing down going viral here juxtaposed with quanta magazine articles about quantum numb3r theory or some super complicated concept no one but 50 ppl can understand. what is it then. how can it be both. i guess society is getting both dumber and smarter.
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