After watching a ridiculous take on a future human society of dumb asses in the film Idiocracy, I realized that although it’s 500 years into the future, it must be a satire. The movie is an exaggeration on our current society and how people are losing a sense of critical thinking and their reaction to all natural organisms or beings on earth.

Today, everyone seems to be concentrating on the wrong things, such as their technological devices. Sure, there is communication everywhere, but there’s less importance and meaning in it. With cell phones, everyone is always texting, and although you are communicating to another person, it usually has less of a meaning than if you spoke to them in person or if you were on the phone. Email and Facebook chatting or writing on someone’s wall has the same meaningless quality.

Interaction with people in today’s society is much different than it was twenty years ago. Texting has become a cultural phenomenon where people would rather type a bunch of letters instead of talking to them on the phone or avoid from knocking on someone’s door. Although, some may think this is a step forward, I believe it’s a step back. It seems that all of this information is hindering us from seeing the important valid facts that is meant to inform or turn us into better people.

Political debates were once an important aspect of people’s lives. According to media scholar Neil Postman, people would attend and watch the political Lincoln-Douglas debates for hours and sometimes days. When the United States was writing and reading society, people read large scriptures in order to be informed, to stay educated and to assemble critical thinking or form an analytical response. Today, in the broadcasting society, people lack the ability to concentrate or attend things because modern media is fast and so fragmented. Instead of opening up the encyclopedia, people will turn on their television, sit on their sofa, and surf through a thousand channels.

In Idiocracy, the world has been overrun by a media culture of entertainment, sex and violence. The president of the United States is a former pro-wrestler. All of his cabinet members wear large bling. Getting a latte at Starbucks is a form of prostitution and the most watched TV show is some guy getting hit in the nuts. The movie demonstrates a society of cultural garbage, symbolized by how garbage literally covers the landscape. Brawndo, a kind of Gatorade, has replaced all of the clean water. Water is only associated with the toilets. Brawndo has brainwashed everything by the advertising phrase, “It contains electrolytes.”

In Todd Gitlin’s essay, “Styles of Navigation and Political Sideshows,” a “fan”, is described as someone completely focused on the media and technology. The dystopian society in Idiocracy is a society of fans.

Both Idiocracy and Postman suggest that as the years go by, people get dumber and lazier and instead of evolving, our culture is devolving. The news needs to be more informative, books need to be read and appreciated more; people need to avoid their cell phones and take their head phones off and start to interact with each other in a more natural way.

If no one pays attention to important issues or nature, we could all wind up like monkeys. Modern media brings out irrelevance, incoherence and incompetence which are present in the society of Idiocracy. If a realization isn’t made, the dumb asses of Idiocracy will triumph.

Unfortunately, we currently have a dumb ass that holds the most powerful seat in the U.S. Government with a cabinet of people who reject the truth, compulsively lie, lack basic human decency, attack anyone who disagrees with them (the press), and who most likely are guilty of colluding with a foreign enemy and guilty of purging the freedom’s from our Democracy in an attempt to replace them with a Fascist dictatorship. The last few years have been proving that Idiocracy is more a documentary than a satire. We’ve already have stubbed to levels lower than in Idiocracy. When will this political madness end?

If you enjoyed this and would like to read more from Anthony, check out his novel ‘Stay Awhile’ on Amazon amazon.com/Stay-Awhile.