A future full of happy morons?

Idiocracy (2006)

This science-fiction film is no masterpiece, but it portrays a pretty close prediction to what Nietzsche predicted the future would be like. He envisaged a dystopian tomorrow where mediocrity is held in high esteem. Emphasis is on triviality and popularism. Evidence of this already gaining traction. Just look around us. People are frequently numbed by visual gratifications. Nobody thinks anymore. Intellectual discourse is just too energy-consuming; blind acceptance is becoming the norm. Astronomical science is centuries old, but many still swear the Earth is flat. Sowing wild oats without a care about the offspring that springs out of such an unholy union is defended as one's right to empowerment. 

Investing a wealth of time in something as ludicrous as catching 'Pokemon Go' is a legitimately approved pastime for a modern full-grown adult. Intellectual achievement is un-cool (and is becoming increasingly expensive for the average Joe). The people who least can afford to finance to provide for their children are the very people who have more than they can care for. Instead of using effective contraception to keep the aftermath of their carnal desires in check, they merely embrace their handiwork as a 'gift from God'.

Gluttony is hailed. Gulping tonnes of junk food is accepted as a lawful sport. Society is deep into consumerism without care about how the bill is going to be paid tomorrow. Living on credit is the modern way of living. Being prudent or thrifty is so yesterday. Speaking and writing well is vilified as queer. They lace their speech with profanity and hail it as a creative licence. The audience thinks it is a comedy when one spews obscenity in his conversation. Comedians get standing ovation when they curse or denigrate own's religious belief. 

The film imagines what the world would be like in 2505, and it does not look pretty. Earth is one big rubbish dump. Upkeep of high rise erections and structures is neglected as people are no longer interested in science. The world has lost its lustre in inventing and discovering. Corporations are bending over backwards to keep clients (i.e. everybody) happy, rewarding them with meaningless pleasures. People are lazy, indulging in purposeless cybergames consuming gallons of soda. It seems water is impure and is only helpful for sanitation. For all intents and purposes, it is Gatorade. The people of the future even water their crops with Gatorade with disastrous outcomes.

Everyone is required by the law to have a bar-code tattooed on their arm for identification, tracking and ease of business transactions. Society has become much dumber to indiscriminate breeding. Everyone is a happy moron craving for carnal pleasure and fantasy lacking in agency. Thinking is done by the powers that be.

The protagonist, an average Joe US Army Corporal, is transported five centuries into the future in a failed Army suspended animation experiment. The fellow subject in the experiment is a prostitute who was running away from her boyfriend pimp. Our subjects land in a lot of trouble with the law, but being the most intelligent person of the time, he is picked out by the POTUS office. Together, he tries to start crop planting, and he eventually takes over the post of President!

Not quite the wacky movie that it portrays, but it makes one think. Interestingly, after making the whole movie, the producers decided not to have the film release on a big scale to fear upsetting the multinational companies supporting Hollywood. Quite openly, the movie had condemned 2505 Starbucks and McDonald for stooping so low as to pander its crass customer desires.

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