Idiocracy

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Movie review: idiocracy starring Luke Wilson, directed by Mike Judge Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Filled with purposeful profanity (it actually drives the storyline) and brilliant parody, idiocracy manages to cough up nearly 90 minutes of hilarious commentary on just how stupid modern society has become today. The storyline is simple: A career military desk jockey of average intelligence is cocooned in an experimental hibernation machine for 500 years. (By accident, of course. It's the military we're talking about here.

Water is no longer consumed at all in the idiocracy world -- consumers have been taught that water is only for toilets -- and sports drink liquid is used to water the crops (which are mysteriously dying). This is much like modern medicine today, where doctors, sunscreen manufacturers and even the American Cancer Society insists that sunlight is bad for your health, and that what you really need are expensive prescription medications to solve your health problems.

But the best part about idiocracy is the creative use of language. It's loaded with profanity, but it's not gratuitous profanity. It actually has a purpose: it describes the linguistic framework into which all communication and thought processes have devolved. The most popular TV show, for example, is on the "Violence Channel" and called, "Ow! My Balls!" (Think YouTube.com with five hundred years of juvenile videos.) Fast food products are named, "Big Ass Fries!

In fact, I think idiocracy is overly optimistic about the future of western culture: I think it will only take a hundred years, not five hundred, to reach the level of widespread stupidity depicted in the film. Sometimes I think we're half-way there already. Consider this: In the movie, words used in signage or advertising are spelled using precisely the same spelling found on the internet today in chat rooms, bulletin boards and gaming sites.

And the zombie-like consumerism depicted in idiocracy is only a slight exaggeration of the behavior of consumers today who actually guzzle down gallons of Gatorade, thinking it's good for them because it contains "electrolytes." (Gatorade is mostly just salt water with artificial coloring additives). Sports drink? Guess again.

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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.