Idiocracy is a film about an average guy played by Luke Wilson who is genetically frozen in a military experiment. The program is forgotten about and he wakes up 500 years in the future to find that he is the smartest man in the world.The premise of the film is that society has been dumbed down by the onslaught of commercialism, trashy media and the fact that human evolution no longer favors the survival of the fittest but rather those who can reproduce a lot. Picture a world 500 years into the future in which everything is broken, there is trash everywhere and the dominant cultural aesthetic is a cross between NASCAR and World Wrestling Entertainment.
You either love the film (like me) or hate it (like my wife) but I think the message is that with each generation, our society is dumbing down as smart people fail to reproduce and dumb people breed like rabbits. After seeing the film I see the signs of Idiocracy everywhere.
For instance in the opening montage, the narrator explains that the
brightest scientists of the present day are not engaged in solving the current problems of the world but rather they focus their time and attention on solving male baldness and erectile dysfunction. The scene shows a group of white coated scientists gathered in room measuring the erection of a very long haired baboon. It seems like this prophecy is coming true. I just read that scientists are researching stem cell techniques to stimulate and regenerate hair follicles on the skin of mice. This could eventually lead to baldness cures for men.
Stems cell research has the promise of curing lot of diseases and injuries. It also has the promise of curing baldness and our brightest minds are working on the problem. Welcome to the future!
Picture of Sy Sperling President of Hair Club for men from Worth 1000
