An Idiocracy future?

[Nosi]

I just got finished watching the movie Idiocracy. It is a funny flick with a very frightening premise.

The theory that supports the plot of Idiocracy holds that 'stupid' or 'dumb' people are reproducing, breeding, or making more 'stupid' or 'dumb' people at a more rapid rate than the 'bright' or 'smart' people are self replicating.

After five centuries of this, the Earth is in a sad state, buried under mountains of rubbish while people water their crops with Gator Aid. Many old capitalistic icons are still around, although not in the form we remember. Star Bucks Coffee is now a happy Prostitution Palace. People munch butter for sustenance, or is that tubs of margarine? Probably the latter, as no one can look after a bovine.

Are we, in your opinion, headed toward an Idiocracy future?:boggled:

[Wolfman]

Nope. It does seem to be a general truism that those with lower incomes and lower educations tend to have more children. Won't go into the various possible reasons for that.

However, that does not mean that those who have high income and good educations don't have children...it means only that they tend to have fewer. Thus, one ends up with a smaller proportion of the world's population with both the money, and the knowledge of how to use it...and a larger proportion without either. Thus, the former tend to gain power, and be leaders.

A population that was, in general, getting stupider would be a boon to the elite...it would simply make it that much easier for them to gain and keep power.

[timhau]

I just got finished watching the movie Idiocracy. It is a funny flick with a very frightening premise.

I didn't think it was all that funny. The idea was promising, but the execution was poor.

[Darat]

Get hold of the best account of this idea, March of the Morons by C. M. Kornbluth - it's a classic tale. But it doesn't seem to have come to pass.... yet.

[a_unique_person]

I watched it, and it could have been better, but it was better than most of what is put out by Hollywood these days. I wish Peter Costello had watched it.

He was the Australian Treasurer. Australia was doing very well out of the boom of exports to China, and had more tax dollars than it knew what to do with. Rather than invest in infrastructure such as education, he created the 'baby bonus'. Yes, all you had to do was have a baby, (and most people know how to do that), and you got $5,000 cash in your hot little hands.

[Fishstick]

I didn't think it was all that funny. The idea was promising, but the execution was poor.

You talk like a fag, and your ****'s all retarded. - Dr. Lexus

[pounce]

he drinks toilet water.

[WildCat]

Aren't we already ruled by idiocracies?

[Kritikos]

I didn't think it was all that funny. The idea was promising, but the execution was poor.
You talk like a fag, and your ****'s all retarded.
Shut up, you guys. I'm trying to watch Ow, My Balls! (Greatest television show ever.)

[casebro]

I found "Harrison Bergeron" the scariest concept.

The plot is centered around PC to the nth degree. Laws are passed to level the playing field by handicapping the talented and intelligent. Strong people are forced to wear weights, the smart have ear implants that play loud noises to interrupt thought. Everybody's performance is dumbed down to only average.

I talked to an architect once who said that, due to current liability problems, architects try to only be creative to the 51st percentile. You don't want to be too mundane, but being too creative might be considered malpractice, negating you liability insurance. Seems "Harrison Bergeron" is here.

[quarky]

Kurt Vonnegut

[Cavemonster]

I found "Harrison Bergeron" the scariest concept.

The plot is centered around PC to the nth degree. Laws are passed to level the playing field by handicapping the talented and intelligent. Strong people are forced to wear weights, the smart have ear implants that play loud noises to interrupt thought. Everybody's performance is dumbed down to only average.

I talked to an architect once who said that, due to current liability problems, architects try to only be creative to the 51st percentile. You don't want to be too mundane, but being too creative might be considered malpractice, negating you liability insurance. Seems "Harrison Bergeron" is here.

I'm not sure what you mean by a percentile of creative, I suppose if a building was so different from past structures that it's difficult to prove it's safe, it would be hard to insure, but that's common sense.

To be honest, I see this sentiment more as anti-communist, near objectivist freak out. To leap from political correctness to handicapping the talented is like leaping from putting guard rails at the observation deck of the Grand Canyon, to strapping everyone to their beds. It only makes sense in the way that every time I drive east, I'm technically going toward driving into the ocean, ignoring that I have a very specific destination and there's no way I'm actually going all the way to the ocean.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Get hold of the best account of this idea, March of the Morons by C. M. Kornbluth - it's a classic tale. But it doesn't seem to have come to pass.... yet.

You beat me to it. :(

But I will add The Merchants of Venus by Fred Pohl.

[Piscivore]

Nope. It does seem to be a general truism that those with lower incomes and lower educations tend to have more children. Won't go into the various possible reasons for that.

However, that does not mean that those who have high income and good educations don't have children...it means only that they tend to have fewer. Thus, one ends up with a smaller proportion of the world's population with both the money, and the knowledge of how to use it...and a larger proportion without either. Thus, the former tend to gain power, and be leaders.

A population that was, in general, getting stupider would be a boon to the elite...it would simply make it that much easier for them to gain and keep power.

Also, since intelligence seems to have a lot more to do with experience than genetics, the basic premise is flawed. "Smart" kids are born to "stupid" people, and vice versa.

But the movie is still funny as hell.

[dudalb]

I didn't think it was all that funny. The idea was promising, but the execution was poor.


Agreed. Judge did much better dealing with idioicy in "Beavis and Butthead".

[timhau]

You talk like a fag, and your ****'s all retarded.

Huh huh. He said 'fag'. Huh huh.

[daenku32]

...Many old capitalistic icons are still around, although not in the form we remember. Star Bucks Coffee is now a happy Prostitution Palace...

Are we, in your opinion, headed toward an Idiocracy future?:boggled:

If it means replacing Star Bucks with "Prostitution Palace", I'd say bring it on. It's not like Star Bucks is any sort of indication of high capitalist wisdom.

[Kritikos]

I don't know whether Mike Judge was serious about the "Marching Morons" premise of the movie -- the idea that the stupid are bound to outbreed the intelligent, and in the long run to make the human race increasingly stupid overall. Although the idea has an intuitive plausibility, it does not seem to be supported by the facts. As I understand, the scoring of IQ tests has to be "renormalized" from time to time by lowering the scores, because otherwise the average IQ rises over time and ceases to be 100. (Here is a source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect) for that statement.) So, so far at least, it does not look as though human beings are getting dumber.

I took the dysgenic premise of the movie (that would be the opposite of "eugenic") to be just as artificial a plot device as the old suspended-animation trick. The future that it represents is just an exaggerated version of the present. The forces driving humanity into stupidity are cultural, not genetic. I have never watched an episode of the television show Jackass, but from the bits of it that I have seen, I gather that Ow, My Balls! would have little advantage over it in stupidity. For a more sober (but still sometimes amusing) treatment of this subject in a video, I recommend the documentary Stupidity (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Stupidity/70052680).

Actually, I think that Ow, My Balls! is one of the most ingenious conceits of Idiocracy, because the fact is that it really does make us laugh -- at least, it made me laugh, and I shake with laughter even now when I just think about it. We all have something of the idiot in us, and our reaction to that show within the show proves it. We laugh, or at least I laugh, not only at the television show within the movie, but at the people who find it funny, and at ourselves for finding it funny in the same primitive way that they do. As Homer Simpson says of the movie of a man getting hit in the groin by a football: "It works at so many levels!"

[cwalner]

Actually, I think that Ow, My Balls! is one of the most ingenious conceits of Idiocracy, because the fact is that it really does make us laugh -- at least, it made me laugh, and I shake with laughter even now when I just think about it. We all have something of the idiot in us, and our reaction to that show within the show proves it. We laugh, or at least I laugh, not only at the television show within the movie, but at the people who find it funny, and at ourselves for finding it funny in the same primitive way that they do. As Homer Simpson says of the movie of a man getting hit in the groin by a football: "It works at so many levels!"

Although in many ways it has already been around for some time. As you mention 'Jackass', I also remember about 10 years ago when it was popular to air some of the extreme Japanese game shows in the US. I recall one contest that basically consisted of which guy could remain standing the longest while they endured weighted pendulums (designed to look like wrecking balls) repeatedly striking them in the scrotum.

On one level I was horrified, yet somehow I could not stop watching and even laughing a bit.

[billydkid]

I didn't think it was all that funny. The idea was promising, but the execution was poor.
Yes, it could have been much better than it was. It could have been brilliant, but was not. But it did have electrolytes.

[Fishstick]

On one level I was horrified, yet somehow I could not stop watching and even laughing a bit.

This is pretty much par for the course for any japanese gameshow.

[fuelair]

Get hold of the best account of this idea, March of the Morons by C. M. Kornbluth - it's a classic tale. But it doesn't seem to have come to pass.... yet.

Actually, The Marching Morons...... http://www.hycyber.com/SF/marching_morons.html

[Nosi]

I don't know whether Mike Judge was serious about the "Marching Morons" premise of the movie -- the idea that the stupid are bound to outbreed the intelligent, and in the long run to make the human race increasingly stupid overall. Although the idea has an intuitive plausibility, it does not seem to be supported by the facts. As I understand, the scoring of IQ tests has to be "renormalized" from time to time by lowering the scores, because otherwise the average IQ rises over time and ceases to be 100. (Here is a source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect) for that statement.) So, so far at least, it does not look as though human beings are getting dumber.

I took the dysgenic premise of the movie (that would be the opposite of "eugenic") to be just as artificial a plot device as the old suspended-animation trick. The future that it represents is just an exaggerated version of the present. The forces driving humanity into stupidity are cultural, not genetic. I have never watched an episode of the television show Jackass, but from the bits of it that I have seen, I gather that Ow, My Balls! would have little advantage over it in stupidity. For a more sober (but still sometimes amusing) treatment of this subject in a video, I recommend the documentary Stupidity (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Stupidity/70052680).

Actually, I think that Ow, My Balls! is one of the most ingenious conceits of Idiocracy, because the fact is that it really does make us laugh -- at least, it made me laugh, and I shake with laughter even now when I just think about it. We all have something of the idiot in us, and our reaction to that show within the show proves it. We laugh, or at least I laugh, not only at the television show within the movie, but at the people who find it funny, and at ourselves for finding it funny in the same primitive way that they do. As Homer Simpson says of the movie of a man getting hit in the groin by a football: "It works at so many levels!"

As someone who has had to blame a dog (or cat or any other handy animal) more times than I can count for my GERD's little indiscretions, the theater de farts had me laughing in my T'Shirt despite it's utter....wait for it...stupidity!:scared:

[MysteryMammal]

I water my plants with Brawndo because it has what plants crave. :rolleyes:

[cornsail]

Big ass fries, hookers, quality television, gatorade in the drinking fountains... Doesn't sound so bad.

Nothing original about the ideas behind the movie, maybe it was intended as a distopian compliment to Sir Francis Galton's Kantsaywhere.

[Skeptic Ginger]

....

Are we, in your opinion, headed toward an Idiocracy future?:boggled:While it can appear that way, if you factor in mass casualties from ignorance, for example when it comes to a major pandemic, or, a world ecological crisis such as global warming where it takes intelligence to survive, a different outcome emerges from the predictive models.

[Nosi]

While it can appear that way, if you factor in mass casualties from ignorance, for example when it comes to a major pandemic, or, a world ecological crisis such as global warming where it takes intelligence to survive, a different outcome emerges from the predictive models.

I'm not so sure that Man is fully responsible for global climate change, so I think we need more adaptation. (Getting cars off the road is not going to alter the behavior of volcanoes! But it will help local environments.) But you are right in that we need intelligence to overcome this challenge. Ow My Balls isn't the answer to either...:mgduh

[Darat]

Actually, The Marching Morons...... http://www.hycyber.com/SF/marching_morons.html

You are right - what an embarrassing mistake - no idea how I did that. Do you want a ride in my new rocket car?

[Fishstick]

While it can appear that way, if you factor in mass casualties from ignorance, for example when it comes to a major pandemic, or, a world ecological crisis such as global warming where it takes intelligence to survive, a different outcome emerges from the predictive models.

A more relevant/current example would probably be the antivax crowd, causing measles and other easily-preventable disease cases to skyrocket in places like the UK.

[noblecaboose]

I just gotta say, about the "Ow My Balls" thing: In drama school, I studied some classical theatre and the satyr plays were pretty much as low as humour gets. Scatological and sexual humour, men running around with giant leather phalluses and people getting hit in the balls. Low humour is human and universal. If it makes you laugh until you pee, it's just as much a catharsis as watching Oedipus gouge out his eyes.

About the entire thing? That movie is one reason I decided to reproduce. The morning after I watched it, I was pondering its relevance while waiting for the bus and I saw two idiot bogans with mullets drinking cans of Bundeberg and cola in a nearby car park. Just as I was thinking, "Rum? At this hour?" a station wagon full of filthy children pulled up and the woman behind the wheel screeched at one of the men, who got in the passenger side. I shuddered as they drove off, three grimy moppets squabbling in the back seat. Sigh...at least the public schools here are decent.

[Wolfman]

About the entire thing? That movie is one reason I decided to reproduce. The morning after I watched it, I was pondering its relevance while waiting for the bus and I saw two idiot bogans with mullets drinking cans of Bundeberg and cola in a nearby car park. Just as I was thinking, "Rum? At this hour?" a station wagon full of filthy children pulled up and the woman behind the wheel screeched at one of the men, who got in the passenger side. I shuddered as they drove off, three grimy moppets squabbling in the back seat. Sigh...at least the public schools here are decent.You decided to reproduce because you didn't like the appearance of the typical Aussie family? ;)

[JWideman]

While I enjoyed "Idiocracy", it is a pretty flawed premise. Simply put, Intelligence and evolution don't really work that way.

[Cavemonster]

While I enjoyed "Idiocracy", it is a pretty flawed premise. Simply put, Intelligence and evolution don't really work that way.

Like Kritikos said, it isn't a movie about the future, it's a movie about our cultural present with the lens of sci fi for hyperbole.

It's also unlikely that a military researcher would present a slideshow of his getting to know a pimp, it's a comedy, the premise is ridiculous, it's an excuse to take everything crude and stupid in our society and look at it through a magnifying glass.

We already watch "Ow my balls" we drink brawndo and we elected George W to the presidency because he was the guy people would want to have a beer with.

[billydkid]

While I enjoyed "Idiocracy", it is a pretty flawed premise. Simply put, Intelligence and evolution don't really work that way.
When stupid people breed with other stupid people you don't get more stupid people??? Just joshing you.

[Kritikos]

We already watch "Ow my balls" we drink brawndo and we elected George W to the presidency because he was the guy people would want to have a beer with.

Neatly put.

[BeAChooser]

I just got finished watching the movie Idiocracy. It is a funny flick with a very frightening premise.

Here's a book that's even more prophetic ... although I doubt things will work out as well in the end as they did in the book because that took some sci-fi magic.

"Beggars And Choosers" by Nancy Kress

The book shows the natural consequence of one person, one vote when more than half the population would rather depend on government and live off the dole, and politicians find they can get elected by pandering to that.

[Praktik]

A population that was, in general, getting stupider would be a boon to the elite...it would simply make it that much easier for them to gain and keep power.

I have it on good authority from renowned researcher David Icke that this has already happened.

[Beerina]

Nope. It does seem to be a general truism that those with lower incomes and lower educations tend to have more children. Won't go into the various possible reasons for that.

However, that does not mean that those who have high income and good educations don't have children...it means only that they tend to have fewer. Thus, one ends up with a smaller proportion of the world's population with both the money, and the knowledge of how to use it...and a larger proportion without either. Thus, the former tend to gain power, and be leaders.

A population that was, in general, getting stupider would be a boon to the elite...it would simply make it that much easier for them to gain and keep power.

People have already predicted a forking of humanity between masses who no longer die because some were born stupider by chance, and this elite, who will continue to mate amongst themselves.

Note that simple majority vote is thus a tool used by said elite to fight for control amongst themselves. You will end up with a government guided by platitudes, with what "sounds good" to the masses being what defines what happens, rather than any actual value, and certainly without respect to the concept of freedom itself.

Boy, I'm glad I won't live to see that day.

[GreyICE]

I talked to an architect once who said that, due to current liability problems, architects try to only be creative to the 51st percentile. You don't want to be too mundane, but being too creative might be considered malpractice, negating you liability insurance. Seems "Harrison Bergeron" is here.
Oh yeah, this is true. Architects can only be creative in a limited box. There's a reason for this. People have to live in that box.

Architects are the ever loving MASTERS of making something that looks beautiful, but is absolutely impractical to live, work, or spend any amount of time in.

Consequently, there's a large subset of them that is convinced they are misunderstood geniuses, facing an audience of plebes too stupid to understand that rooms are best shaped like pretzels, and bizarre angles that don't properly support the load they're under (oh, did I mention? Their structures have to bear loads. They wouldn't know a load equation from string theory) are actually genius, despite collapsing (obviously they should have been built with different supports. Unobtanium is good).

They then whine about this. Architects are some of the greatest examples of highly educated useless people in this world.

There are some truly revolutionary architects. Then there's the ones who build dancing houses with offset supports. Sadly, most of the mediocre ones are convinced that they are revolutionaries (ignorance is usually mistaken for brilliance, in the ignorant). What makes you think the person you were talking to fell into the top 1% of architects?

[GreyICE]

We already watch "Ow my balls" we drink brawndo and we elected George W to the presidency because he was the guy people would want to have a beer with.

You know, I've said this before about Gore, and I'll say it again here: It's not a flawed premise to elect to a position involving much international relations someone who is likeable. While I disliked Bush, and voted Gore, and to this day I feel people overemphaised it in the campaign, being dislikeable is not an asset to a position that is in any way diplomatic. And Gore was intensely dislikeable.

In terms of the idiocracy, I find it overblown. Somehow we've managed to invent, oh, I dunno, a huge frikkin ton of stuff, improve everyone's quality of life to the point where a poor person in a ghetto lives in a nicer place than kings used to, and change the entire nature of our world.

Yes, there's tons of trash. People forget this is because we can produce EVEN MORE TONS of stuff.

[thrombus29]

To add my own bit of Science Fiction pedantary, The whole idea of "The Marching Morons" came from a plot device Kornbluth had used in "The Little Black Bag"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Black_Bag

Although not set in the same universe, "The Space Merchants" had some of the same themes.

[lightfire22000]

Uhh...Poverty and intelligence aren't necessarily connected. Even if they were, who's to say that advancements in genetic engineering and cybernetics wouldn't increase one's operational intelligence.

[HarryHenderson]

...Architects are the ever loving MASTERS of making something that looks beautiful, but is absolutely impractical to live, work, or spend any amount of time in...Architects are some of the greatest examples of highly educated useless people in this world...
Said like a typical 'creativity deficient' engineer, or even worse, a whiny "they made fun of me in school cause I was a vertically or gravitationally challenged wussy so I'll make them pay when I'm an an adult" contractor? I'll not take any actual 'offense' at what you say for several reasons: You don't know me; have not a clue what I've done; some of what you say is actually true. ;)

As for Idiocracy™, it's not really about the future, that's just the premise. It's satire of the present day. And yes it could have been a lot better. I don't think I laughed (more like chuckled) at the movie's gags/jokes near as much as the sometimes clever insight.

[mumblethrax]

As for Idiocracy™, it's not really about the future, that's just the premise. It's satire of the present day.
I don't think it's as simple as that, given that the attitudes being satirized are not merely those disfavored by cultural tastemakers, but those of professionals and liberals who have few children. Do you remember the coda from the film? It reads as a call to arms. "Do something about it," rather than "Man, there's some dumb stuff on TV."--the voice of the author rings through. My problem here is not so much with the filmmakers as it is with the fans (a recent xkcd (http://xkcd.com/603/) sums it up), but they should have anticipated this response and warned against it. Compare Idiocracy to The Marching Morons, which has the decency to take the protagonist to task.

All of this would have been forgivable, if it had been funny or cohered as a story. But it's just kind of an ugly mess.

[HarryHenderson]

...All of this would have been forgivable, if it had been funny...
IMO, EVERYTHING is forgivable if it's funny. ;)

[Segnosaur]

Uhh...Poverty and intelligence aren't necessarily connected. Even if they were, who's to say that advancements in genetic engineering and cybernetics wouldn't increase one's operational intelligence.
It might happen, as long as scientists don't end up spending all their time researching ways to increase hair growth and prolong erections.

[gnome]

The book shows the natural consequence of one person, one vote when more than half the population would rather depend on government and live off the dole, and politicians find they can get elected by pandering to that.

There's the rub--can we have a society where the majority are NOT satisfied to just get by?

[gnome]

Regarding architects and insurance--as I see it, if you're going to hire someone to assume risk for you, they will expect you to surrender some control.

If you have the resources to guarantee your own work and prove its safety, then you can ask for full creative control.

[BeAChooser]

There's the rub--can we have a society where the majority are NOT satisfied to just get by?

Yes, you can. But you start by not rewarding people for not working by punishing those who do work. And you don't reward politicians for pandering to people that don't work by taking away from people that do work. We will probably need to tweek our election system and laws to build this better society. I guess I can hope that the excesses of Obama become the stimulus to such a change. :D

[gnome]

Yes, you can. But you start by not rewarding people for not working by punishing those who do work.

You know, I can actually agree with this principle but I worry that those espousing it intend to apply it far more broadly that I would find acceptable.

[BeAChooser]

You know, I can actually agree with this principle but I worry that those espousing it intend to apply it far more broadly that I would find acceptable.

Well there's probably a compromise that both of us can accept. Who knows, I might even be thinking in less broad terms than you. :D

[gnome]

Well there's probably a compromise that both of us can accept. Who knows, I might even be thinking in less broad terms than you. :D

Probably best saved for another thread.

[GreyICE]

Said like a typical 'creativity deficient' engineer, or even worse, a whiny "they made fun of me in school cause I was a vertically or gravitationally challenged wussy so I'll make them pay when I'm an an adult" contractor? I'll not take any actual 'offense' at what you say for several reasons: You don't know me; have not a clue what I've done; some of what you say is actually true. ;)

Creatively deficient engineer here. I like my square corners square, I place windows based on maximizing solar coverage with minimal heat envelope impact, and I like at least a foot and a half in a ceiling for my ductwork.

And don't get me STARTED on contractors. What do you mean that toilet exhaust shouldn't connect to the main supply duct?

[Xulld]

Creatively deficient engineer here. I like my square corners square, I place windows based on maximizing solar coverage with minimal heat envelope impact, and I like at least a foot and a half in a ceiling for my ductwork.

And don't get me STARTED on contractors. What do you mean that toilet exhaust shouldn't connect to the main supply duct?
There are idiots in every field, at 19 I was working for a remolding company, they fired my boss (superintendent of a rather large project) for incompetency and made me the acting super where I had to go in a fix idiotic mess ups such as you describe. Where the favorite line for when something was WAY out was, "cant see it from my house", and hiding f-ups was his strong suite. He actually told me one day when I asked for more straps to finish the beams that the inspector was drunk and probably wouldn't notice anyway so to go home early . . . . The project manager was also not firing on all cylinders, after all he made a 19 year old kid the boss of a multi million dollar project, but It did get done if a bit late and no law suits lol.

I am endlessly amazed at how truly challenged individuals find there way into upper management in every field.

I work with software these days and its on average less often the case that idiots find there way into that role, but it still happens.

[JWideman]

Like Kritikos said, it isn't a movie about the future, it's a movie about our cultural present with the lens of sci fi for hyperbole.

It's also unlikely that a military researcher would present a slideshow of his getting to know a pimp, it's a comedy, the premise is ridiculous, it's an excuse to take everything crude and stupid in our society and look at it through a magnifying glass.

We already watch "Ow my balls" we drink brawndo and we elected George W to the presidency because he was the guy people would want to have a beer with.

I did preface my comment with the statement that I enjoyed it. I get that it's comedy, and it was indeed funny. And it was obvious it was about our present - their "average man" was pretty stupid.
But the OP didn't ask if it was a good movie, he asked if it was prophetic.

[Towlie]

I think the most salient truism that Idiocracy brought to light was that when a stupid person interacts with an intelligent person, the stupid person will invariably laugh contemptuously at the intelligent person and call him derogatory names like "dumbass". In fact, that was the device most often used in the movie to drive home how stupid the characters were.

You can often observe that same phenomenon on the Internet, including discussion forums like this one. When someone responds to you with that sort of attitude, you can usually assume he's less intelligent than you are.

[Kritikos]

I think the most salient truism that Idiocracy brought to light was that when a stupid person interacts with an intelligent person, the stupid person will invariably laugh contemptuously at the intelligent person and call him derogatory names like "dumbass". In fact, that was the device most often used in the movie to drive home how stupid the characters were.

I would not call that observation a truism, since it takes some experience to discover it, but true it certainly is. One finds it frequently illustrated in Plato's dialogues (brash young men think Socrates obtuse because he expresses puzzlement about things that they take for granted), as well as in Beavis and Butthead. My favorite instance in Idiocracy is the dialogue about Brawndo, in which the members of President Not Sure's cabinet think that the circularity of their reasoning shows that they "get it" and he doesn't.

[Travis]

Thankfully genetics actually has little to do with intelligence. An idiot man might knock-up five idiot women and all their kids actually turn out to be smart because they pay attention in school and read.


I would be interested in finding out if someone has done a study to see if there is an inverse correlation between intelligence and # of sex partners. Because I highly suspect that there is one, particularly for men.*

*No I have not, recently, had a girl pass me over for an idiot. This is residual bitterness from my high school/college days....which probably makes me look more petty.

[bpesta22]

Biting my tongue here, but not sure even I could stomach another IQ thread.

This does, though, fit nicely with r/K theory!

[Horatius]

Actually, I think that Ow, My Balls! is one of the most ingenious conceits of Idiocracy, because the fact is that it really does make us laugh -- at least, it made me laugh, and I shake with laughter even now when I just think about it. We all have something of the idiot in us, and our reaction to that show within the show proves it. We laugh, or at least I laugh, not only at the television show within the movie, but at the people who find it funny, and at ourselves for finding it funny in the same primitive way that they do. As Homer Simpson says of the movie of a man getting hit in the groin by a football: "It works at so many levels!"



Forget "Jackass", we already have a much closer analogue to "Ow! My Balls!" This could have been titled, "Ow! Your balls!"

SEtk_WENKZA

[Nosi]

Thankfully genetics actually has little to do with intelligence. An idiot man might knock-up five idiot women and all their kids actually turn out to be smart because they pay attention in school and read.


I would be interested in finding out if someone has done a study to see if there is an inverse correlation between intelligence and # of sex partners. Because I highly suspect that there is one, particularly for men.*

*No I have not, recently, had a girl pass me over for an idiot. This is residual bitterness from my high school/college days....which probably makes me look more petty.

Then there are Woos.

[Whiplash]

EDIT: I've decided to self-edit this post to avoid the likely sanctions it would have received.

[Kritikos]

Forget "Jackass", we already have a much closer analogue to "Ow! My Balls!" This could have been titled, "Ow! Your balls!"


I watched the first 30 seconds of that. What the hell is it? They must have gotten the idea from Idiocracy. Anyway, it's not as funny as Ow! My Balls!

[Travis]

Then there are Woos.

Huh:confused:

[Last of the Fraggles]

Watched this movie previously and didn't think it was that great. Might have to rewatch it and see if I missed something first time around.

It does seem to hit upon a key issue that it is generally more beneficial in our society to pander to the lowest common denominator and that people are rewarded for being freaking idiots.

I'm not sure if the premise that 'dumb' passes from generation is correct but it certainly seems to be a hypothesis that is being shown to have some validity in my part of the world.

[Nosi]

Huh:confused:

Some Woos maintain their beliefs in the face of overwhelming evidence. They are the kind that make you go what the :rule10 in the "Conspiracy Theories" section.

[a_unique_person]

I watched the first 30 seconds of that. What the hell is it? They must have gotten the idea from Idiocracy. Anyway, it's not as funny as Ow! My Balls!

It can't be real. Guys don't suddenly laugh and shake hands after that, especially if they have a tennis racket in their hand and it's supposed to be a joke.

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm not so sure that Man is fully responsible for global climate change, so I think we need more adaptation. (Getting cars off the road is not going to alter the behavior of volcanoes! But it will help local environments.) But you are right in that we need intelligence to overcome this challenge. Ow My Balls isn't the answer to either...:mgduhI wasn't talking about intelligent people saving the planet. I was talking about the intelligent people saving themselves and their offspring while the ignorant masses die from floods, drought and disease.

[Skeptic Ginger]

You know, I've said this before about Gore, and I'll say it again here: It's not a flawed premise to elect to a position involving much international relations someone who is likeable. While I disliked Bush, and voted Gore, and to this day I feel people overemphaised it in the campaign, being dislikeable is not an asset to a position that is in any way diplomatic. And Gore was intensely dislikeable......Not to side track the thread but one can't help but notice a flaw in this logic that needs to be pointed out. For a Pres whose skill was being likable, how did it turn out in a short period of time much of the world disliked Bush?

[Nosi]

Not to side track the thread but one can't help but notice a flaw in this logic that needs to be pointed out. For a Pres whose skill was being likable, how did it turn out in a short period of time much of the world disliked Bush?

Bush was personally likable, sure. He didn't have a braincell when it came to understanding anything outside his small personal world view, though. That can get you disliked in a right hurry by those outside your personal world view. Not everyone is rich, Christian, and Caucasian.:mgduh

[Towlie]

It's really baffling to me to hear someone refer to Bush as "likeable".

[Skeptic Ginger]

Bush was personally likable, sure. He didn't have a braincell when it came to understanding anything outside his small personal world view, though. That can get you disliked in a right hurry by those outside your personal world view. Not everyone is rich, Christian, and Caucasian.:mgduh

But GreyIce said:It's not a flawed premise to elect to a position involving much international relations someone who is likeable.

He's claiming likability as a Presidential quality is a benefit for US foreign relations. Bush's likability didn't include a skill beneficial to foreign relations. It was in fact, the opposite.

[Tebtenri]

The fact remains according to Bell Curve the not so smart outnumber the smart, and in a poll inducing the not so smart has to be the 1st option.
or facing them in opposition.

Then we have the progression of Empire set up by the zealous and clever, and after a time of plenty, the masses become indolent and not so Zealous, we saw this on the Easter Island whereby the statue builders formed a society and after depleting the resources, the populace turned inwards, so much so, that when the Westerners arrived to could not believe that the people there had anything to do with the statues, setting up speculation for the UFO brigade.
We see it all over, the ancient world.

[Towlie]

The fact remains according to Bell Curve the not so smart outnumber the smart...How can you justify a statement like that? If it means anything at all, it represents little more than a subjective definition of "smart" that shows us where you personally place the dividing line between "smart" and "not so smart". What you've just told us is not "according to the bell curve", it's according to you.

[EGarrett]

I think the most salient truism that Idiocracy brought to light was that when a stupid person interacts with an intelligent person, the stupid person will invariably laugh contemptuously at the intelligent person and call him derogatory names like "dumbass". In fact, that was the device most often used in the movie to drive home how stupid the characters were.

You can often observe that same phenomenon on the Internet, including discussion forums like this one. When someone responds to you with that sort of attitude, you can usually assume he's less intelligent than you are.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

[GreyICE]

Not to side track the thread but one can't help but notice a flaw in this logic that needs to be pointed out. For a Pres whose skill was being likable, how did it turn out in a short period of time much of the world disliked Bush?
Finding one a likeable person in personal discussions and political negotiations, and finding one's political policies likeable are about as far apart as it is possible to get.

I can't even understand how you could hit 'Post Reply' with a straight face on that one, unless it's meant as an ironic counterpoint to the OP.

[Whiplash]

It's really baffling to me to hear someone refer to Bush as "likeable".


This is quite telling.

[JoeyDonuts]

I'm just waiting for the first reported instance of someone naming their child "Beef Supreme."

[Ziggurat]

Oh yeah, this is true. Architects can only be creative in a limited box. There's a reason for this. People have to live in that box.

Architects are the ever loving MASTERS of making something that looks beautiful, but is absolutely impractical to live, work, or spend any amount of time in.

I agree. I went looking for a house to buy a while ago, and so ended up visiting a whole bunch of candidate houses in my city. Only one of them was advertised as being designed by some well-known local architect. And it was crap. It's hard to put my finger on what was wrong with it, but the layout was unfriendly, and made me uncomfortable even thinking about living in it. It had an odd layout that just made it feel wrong. In contrast, my favorite house of all the ones I visited was a traditional colonial design of unknown authorship (could have just been the contractor who built it, for all I know), with a simple but inviting layout.

Another little historical tidbit I picked up during the whole process was that the opening up of the kitchen area to the rest of the house (which had traditionally been a separate room you had to open doors to get to) was driven by housewives, not architects.

[JWideman]

BTW The "Kicked in the Nuts" video linked above was satire.

[Ziggurat]

BTW The "Kicked in the Nuts" video linked above was satire.

I could swear I've seen it on TV before, but I can't place where.

[casebro]

I had another thought. It is a liability driven thing, sending us to idiocracy.

So many of the things I do, or have done, were self taught. Nowadays, it seems I can't do nothing without running into "to be done by trained professional only", "For professional use only", don't try this at home", "no user serviceable parts inside" . It seems that us with natural talents and skills are going to be outlawed, in favor of superficially trained idiots. "They" are stripping me of my talents.

[Piscivore]

I agree. I went looking for a house to buy a while ago, and so ended up visiting a whole bunch of candidate houses in my city. Only one of them was advertised as being designed by some well-known local architect. And it was crap. It's hard to put my finger on what was wrong with it, but the layout was unfriendly, and made me uncomfortable even thinking about living in it. It had an odd layout that just made it feel wrong.

It didn't have cold-riveted girders with cores of pure selenium, did it?

[JWideman]

I could swear I've seen it on TV before, but I can't place where.

Well, the target of its satire was "hidden camera" shows, and followed the formula of "1) humiliate unsuspecting victim 2) point out the hidden camera 3) laugh the whole matter off"
It "aired" on Channel 101, where it was a big hit until the joke got old.

[Ziggurat]

It didn't have cold-riveted girders with cores of pure selenium, did it?

I wish. But they said architect, not doctor turned cultist (http://ghostbusters.wikia.com/wiki/Ivo_Shandor).