NationStates Jolt Archive

I recently watched the 2006 Mike Judge film Idiocracy.

Here is a link for those of you who haven't seen it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy

After watching this film, I was shocked and appalled, but I wasn't appalled by the film: I was appalled at society. In the year 2007, in a Western world that is supposedly advancing everyday, becoming more intelligent, and is apparently "free", are we actually confined by consumerism, advertising and laziness? Are we actually becoming less intelligent?

Are we becoming an Idiocracy?

Also, here is an interesting excerpt from Wiki:
"According to the Austin American-Statesman[7], 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, did nothing to promote the movie — while posters were released to theatres, no movie trailers, television ads, or press kits for media outlets were provided. The film was not screened for critics.[8] Lack of concrete information from 20th Century Fox led to speculation that Fox may have actively tried to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release prior to a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of AP.[9] In the New York Times Dan Mitchell argued that Fox might be shying away from a cautionary tale about low-intelligence dysgenics.[10] John Patterson of The Guardian suggests it is a result of the film's anti-corporate message, noting that in the film Starbucks now delivers handjobs, and the motto of Carl's Jr. has devolved from "Don't Bother Me. I'm Eating." to "Fuck You! I'm Eating!"[11] Also in the film, a Carl's Jr. vending machine cheats a customer, Fuddruckers' name gradually morphs into "Buttfuckers", the fictional Brawndo corporation buys the F.D.A. and the F.C.C, and the Fox News Channel is depicted in unflattering newscasts (20th Century Fox, which distributed the film, and the Fox News Channel are both owned by the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corporation)."

Ow! My Balls! Whoa, deja vu!

"There was a time when reading wasn't just for fags. And neither was writing. People wrote books and movies. Movies with stories, that made you care about whose ass it was and why it was farting. And I believe that time can come again!"

I had no idea how inaccurate history books on WW2 were until I saw this movie. Who knew that it was really Charlie Chaplin's evil Nazi regime that enslaved Europe and tried to take over the world or the the "UN" un-Nazied the world with dinosaurs?

I had no idea how inaccurate history books on WW2 were until I saw this movie. Who knew that it was really Charlie Chaplin's evil Nazi regime that enslaved Europe and tried to take over the world or the the "UN" un-Nazied the world with dinosaurs?

Sounds like teh libruhlz got to you too. *sobs*

Educated people tend to breed less then less educated people; so if there is any correlation between 'innate intelligence' and education, then yes, chances are that as a society we're becoming moronic.

Are we actually becoming less intelligent?

Most of us live in societies that glorify lying, deceiving, one sided reports and look down upon critical thinking and educating oneself broadly. One is taught that every opinion is equally valuable, that kids should be taught "the controversy", that Fox is "fair and balanced" and that dismissing claims without proof is the same as "hating".

What do you expect will happen ?

Educated people tend to breed less then less educated people; so if there is any correlation between 'innate intelligence' and education, then yes, chances are that as a society we're becoming moronic.If the default state of a human being was "highly educated" and not "utterly fucking ignorant", your conclusion wouldn't be a non sequitur. Alas, that's not the case.

Given out increasing need to specialize, and intelligence required for doing so successfully, it strikes me as completely absurd to suggest humanity as a whole are getting less intelligent.

That the emphasis on greater intelligence varies by income group and geographic location is of course true, and perhaps even unfortunate for us, assuming we don't achieve the ability to manipulate intelligence within the next couple of thousand years, and that our societies don't change significantly within the same period. In that insanely unlikely scenario, we might end up with some ethnic groups being significantly less intelligent than others - though it still won't mean they aren't all more intelligent than is currently the case.

Idiocracy is based around the idea that apathy and the ability of the few to manipulate the many on subjects they're obviously and understandably ignorant of, is the same thing as stupidity. I'm not sure there's a reason to explain at length why that's even more idiotic than the movie itself.

Idiocracy is based around the idea that apathy and the ability of the few to manipulate the many on subjects they're obviously and understandably ignorant of, is the same thing as stupidity. I'm not sure there's a reason to explain at length why that's even more idiotic than the movie itself.

Technically it doesn 't say that - it says that such apathy and manipulative abilities will lead to "a society of stoopids".

Which I personally believe is quite correct. Having lots of knowledge is not the same as knowing how to think critically nor to analyse.

If the default state of a human being was "highly educated" and not "utterly fucking ignorant", your conclusion wouldn't be a non sequitur. Alas, that's not the case.It's not a non sequitur. Whether people are highly educated by default or not is irrelevant.
You might argue whether the explicit and implicit premises hold, but the reasoning itself is valid enough. Hence, not a non sequitur, thank you very much.

If there is a genetic basis for intelligence, and intelligent people breed less, then there is selective pressure against the genes for intelligence. Period.
Whether people are actually intelligent is harder to assess than whether people are well educated; but a correlation between the two seems an acceptable premise (albeit the first one I'd argue against); hence I posited as such. Furthermore educated people are shown to have fewer children in my country then less educated ones (and as I understand it the same is true in much of the world).
So in conclusion if the premises hold, then the earlier conclusion also holds.

Given our increasing need to specialize, and intelligence required for doing so successfully, it strikes me as completely absurd to suggest humanity as a whole are getting less intelligent.I'm not sure anyone is suggesting that; if there's any suggestion it's that on average humanity is getting less intelligent, not that the whole group is shifting downwards (nor the sum total). While the range of intelligence might stay the same, the proportion of 'low intelligence' might still grow relative to 'high intelligence'; that may even be the case if the top percentile gets more intelligent.
I'm not entirely sure how much, in general, increased intelligence is needed for specialization. One reason to specialize is, after all, that we concentrate that little talent we have on just one subject. So it depends on how complex the subject is whether it requires a lot of intelligence. And in conjunction with that, does an increasing proportion of humanity concentrate on those complex specializations?
Aside from that, we should discount the contributions computers make; while the combination of computer+human is certainly getting more 'intelligent', I'm not so sure the human of that pair has generally kept up his/her end as much.

Which I personally believe is quite correct. Having lots of knowledge is not the same as knowing how to think critically nor to analyse.It does not follow that being knowledgeable (or ignorant for that matter) results in a lack of ability to think critically or analyze, nor does it follow that lack of engagement in society leads to lower intelligence.

Social and political apathy may have other explanations, even ones that don't fly in the face of things like military IQ tests that show increased intelligence in societies around the world over the past many decades.

But then, intelligence and stupidity are gracious points of argument. They can mean almost anything you want.

Educated people tend to breed less then less educated people; so if there is any correlation between 'innate intelligence' and education, then yes, chances are that as a society we're becoming moronic.

You wrote 'then' instead of 'than'.