[lbo-talk] "Idiocracy"

[Carl Remick]

I used part of the LBO list's downtime productively by watching Mike Judge's 
"Idiocracy," a film that was long held prisoner by 20th Century Fox and has 
now escaped to DVD.  This is the greatest dystopian movie since Terry 
Gilliam's "Brazil."  It makes "Mad Max" look like "Brigadoon."

Fox refused to release the movie for a year after its completion and then 
showed it in only a handful of theaters nationally (125).  It is not hard to 
see why:  The film savagely indicts contemporary capitalism as the key force 
destroying civilization.  I believe some reviews have suggested the movie is 
an exercise in eugenic sneering -- a mere lament that the world's dolts are 
far out-reproducing Mensa candidates.  Not so.  Judge's real target is 
corpocracy, with its relentless need to dominate and debase humanity.

"Idiocracy" is the story of a very average 21st-century guy who awakens 500 
years in the future to find society buried in both literal and cultural 
garbage -- a place populated entirely by Beavises and Butt-Heads, where he 
is quickly recognized as the most brilliant person in the world.  It is a 
society of high-tech decay where the only reliable operations involve 
surveillance and payment systems.  The ubiquitous branding, commodified 
services and cultivation of vulgarity that already characterize the business 
world have reached their apotheosis in the society of "Idiocracy."  E.g. in 
the year 2505:

* Restaurant chain Fuddruckers has become Buttfuckers.

* The slogan of the fast-food chain Carl's Jr. has evolved from "Don't 
Bother Me...I'm Eating" to "Fuck You! I'm Eating!"

* Starbucks now serves handjobs instead of coffee.

* Everyone, including professionals (one of the key characters is a lawyer 
who is a graduate of the Costco School of Law), considers grammatical 
language pompous and "faggy."

Worst of all, the world faces starvation because of widespread crop 
failures.  It turns out that years before some mega-beverage manufacturer 
had bought the US Food and Drug Administration and mandated that the firm's 
proprietary sports drink be substituted for all uses previously requiring 
water, including agriculture; ultimately, salts in the beverage caused 
accumulations that ruined soil productivity.  However, when the visitor from 
the 21st century suggests watering crops with actual water again, the 
initial agricultural success is more than offset by the mass unemployment 
and share-price collapse that he causes at the sports drink manufacturer, 
and he gets tried for treason.

Enough spoilers.  There are many brilliant touches in "Idiocracy."  I highly 
recommend seeing it.

Carl

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