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JackRiddler wrote:My problem with Idiocracy was in the pseudo-documentary narrative explaining how the future dystopia arose: the smart yuppies are too busy being careerist to make babies, while the white trash breed. (Who was that voice supposed to be, God?)
But the popular culture's ongoing descent into trivial, sexed-up stupidity* is not due to too many stupid people breeding, and I doubt Mike Judge thinks so, because everything else about the movie extrapolates or exaggerates trends in capitalism and consumerism that operate independently of inherited intelligence.
Since most of any U.S. audience is going to identify as middle class (even if they live in a trailer), the history given in the film distances them from their own complicity. I won't belabor the racialization of class categories as so odious, because the only practical upshot of the idea is to render the film harmless as a critique of present conditions.
And the sappy admonition to read more books really falls flat as a moral. The film itself is not a product of Idiocracy, to be sure, but of Middlebrow.
* NOTE:
They keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
But you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be!
Which reminds me - Idiocracy also avoided the reality that organized religions are among the biggest stupidity generators in the culture. This helps in crafting a film that all Americans can enjoy, even though it's about how stupid they are.
JackRiddler wrote:Prior thread
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewt ... 9f78f96bd3
I maybe overdid the following comment, since I laughed a lot at the clever sketch comedy. Brawndo's got electrolytes and all that.JackRiddler wrote:My problem with Idiocracy was in the pseudo-documentary narrative explaining how the future dystopia arose: the smart yuppies are too busy being careerist to make babies, while the white trash breed. (Who was that voice supposed to be, God?)
But the popular culture's ongoing descent into trivial, sexed-up stupidity* is not due to too many stupid people breeding, and I doubt Mike Judge thinks so, because everything else about the movie extrapolates or exaggerates trends in capitalism and consumerism that operate independently of inherited intelligence.
Since most of any U.S. audience is going to identify as middle class (even if they live in a trailer), the history given in the film distances them from their own complicity. I won't belabor the racialization of class categories as so odious, because the only practical upshot of the idea is to render the film harmless as a critique of present conditions.
And the sappy admonition to read more books really falls flat as a moral. The film itself is not a product of Idiocracy, to be sure, but of Middlebrow.
Which reminds me - Idiocracy also avoided the reality that organized religions are among the biggest stupidity generators in the culture. This helps in crafting a film that all Americans can enjoy, even though it's about how stupid they are.
Luther Blissett wrote:It does seem to me that Judge tried to work into the subtexts of this film a hidden intelligent elite, behind the media and corporate control. Do they show any execs in the film? I can't remember.
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