EFFIE BATEMAN | Lifestyle | CONTACT
IT’S GOT ELECTROLYTES: A woman who recently rewatched Idiocracy has been left feeling deeply unsettled by just how accurate the 2005 cult comedy’s vision of the future now seems.
Set in the year 2505, Idiocracy follows Joe and Rita, who accidentally wake up hundreds of years in the future after a military experiment goes awry.
Though both are of average intelligence, Joe and Rita quickly discover they’re now the two smartest people in America – with Joe promptly being accused of homosexuality simply because he can speak in full sentences.
It’s revealed that, over time, educated people stopped having children, while the less educated reproduced indiscriminately. Meanwhile, all scientific advancement was redirected toward solving hair loss and erectile dysfunction.
Still, as much as local woman Lauren Donaldson enjoys comparing modern-day America to Idiocracy, there’s one key detail she’s overlooked: President Camacho was actually a good leader.
A former wrestler, Camacho had the self-awareness to realise he was no longer the smartest man in the country and willingly handed power to Joe, believing he’d do a better job.
This alone, actually makes him a better leader than most – because he knew the best thing he could do for the future of this country, was to step down and hand the reins over the someone more qualified.
Which, unfortunately, feels like a much positive take on the future than the one Lauren is predicting, who feels like we are edging closer and closer to some version of Idiocracy – only this one doesn’t have a President Camacho.
“Rewatching that, it doesn’t seem so ridiculous now”, admits Lauren, “that, and the entire plot of Wall-E.”
“We spend hours a day getting constant dopamine hits from our phones, and offloading all mental tasks to AI.”
“There’s no critical thinking anymore – it’s all just consumption. Information is handed to us in bite sized pieces. Tweets, short videos, instagram carousels with large text.”
“I’m definitely not bringing kids into this world, that’s for sure.”
More to come.
