THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Albert Einstein

If you've never seen the movie, "Idiocracy", you really should. In fact, this movie should be required viewing for any person aspiring to any public office, or leadership role of any kind. It's kind of a handbook for building civilization, a sad commentary on our current society, and a crystal ball, all rolled into one.

Idiocracy takes us on an imaginary journey, where Luke Wilson portrays an average Joe, an enlisted man in today's army, who is selected for a deep freeze experiment, where he and a civilian (a prostitute played brilliantly by Maya Rudolph) are frozen in stasis, to be thawed out one year later. Of course circumstances occur that cause their stasis chambers to be overlooked, for 500 years. They awake to a world, where evolution has weeded out the intelligent among us, in favor of the dull, and slow witted. The movie opens by showing us just how this came to be. While the more intelligent members of society limited and even restricted their procreation activities, the more common, less intelligent members of society,( represented by tank top clad, toothless brutes and their dull witted haggardly spouses), were busy cranking out "young-uns" by the dozens. This phenomenon spread throughout the land, as the government, and the media, catered to this "lowest common denominator" by feeding them an endless supply of hillbilly entertainment, flavored energy drinks and fatty, low nutrition foods. Life was good for the masses, as long as they allowed themselves to be lulled into a national mindless stupor, where intelligence was mocked, and "macho" was considered the standard to be adopted by all.

Eventually, natural selection weeded out intelligence as a factor for survival, and the nation fell into a semi-chaotic circus, where the police shoot first, and ask questions later, and where buildings, machines, etc, all fall into a perpetual state of disrepair (the image of the leaning Washington Monument was as disturbing as it was hilarious), surrounded by ever growing piles of garbage and waste, as the people are just too stupid, to know what to do with it.

As I watched this movie, in between rib splitting belly laughs, I also found myself shuddering, as the eerie similarities to life here in the states today, was reflected again and again on the screen in front of me. The police and medical personnel were simply mindless automatons, repeating droll, unsympathetic mantra's often heard today in similar circles. Store clerk personnel and service workers, ignored the customers in front of them as they babble incessantly at a phone, or another employee. Citizens sat in their homes, sucking sweetened juices through a hose, and scooping up a sweetened paste from a tub with their fingers, licking them as they ate, and watching mindless dribble on the television. One show, a favorite, was clearly designed to mimic the popular movie series, "Jack Ass".

And then there was the sex. The foul, endless supply of mindless, loveless sex. Starbucks coffee had become a place for the male population to get a "hand job", and H and R Block featured tawdry hookers to help prepare ones taxes.

It was a seedy, corrupt, mindless, lifeless, foul and ignorant society, where the lowest common denominator had become the standard for all.

And the real poignancy of this film, lies in the reality that this grim, unseemly picture of our nation, is not a fantasy at all, but a glimpse into what we are rapidly becoming as a people, evident each time we step out of our doors in the morning.

Compassion, logic and reason, have been replaced by national antipathy, non-scientific theory and hubris on a national level disguised under the banner of patriotism. Dullness and apathy dominate our retail environment, as store clerks, mostly multi-pierced teenagers, crassly ignore the customer in front of them, for the cell phone permanently affixed to their ears. Even driving an automobile has become an experiment in needless hazard, as people, many merely children, not capable of balancing a checkbook, race down the highways in cars too fast for their driving skills, and too expensive for their incomes. And of course Hollywood has not failed to capitalize on our ever-growing national obsession with violence and cruelty, as they churn out movies where innocent victims are mercilessly tortured and mutilated in slow frame, grisly detail, while audiences of mindless drones sit with their 3 D glasses, shoveling over buttered popcorn into their mouths, in-between mob like cheers. Even the age old sport of Boxing, has been replaced by appalling, gladiator like style combat between chemically morph'd characters whose bloodflow to their brains has long since been slowed by the perpetual hemotoma's inflicted by being repeatedly pounded to the cheers of salivating, profanely jeering mobs, rabidly screaming for more damage to be inflicted on the loser of a bout that would make emperor Trajan himself proud of the bloody spectacle before him.

And of course, who can forget Jackass, the TV show that went on to become a box office hit, where undereducated street cretins beat each other over the head senselessly with metal folding chairs, baseball bats, and dead fish, all to entertain the lowest and most limited members of society, who crave such Neanderthal offerings like a pig craves slop. Does anyone actually comprehend the significance that "Jackass" the movie, was the top selling movie in the United States on its opening weekend? Does anyone think that we are not facing a national crisis?

This is America. This is not the America of our fathers, but it certainly is ours.

This is what we've become, by allowing the bar to be lowered to reach the lowest, and most mundane of our fellow countrymen. The "greatest generation" has been replaced by the "lamest generation", and we continue to drive ourselves further towards the edge of the cliff, dismissing as weak willed, unpatriotic or even "gay", anyone who dares to point out our national push towards stupidity on this universal scale. And the author is not exempt from this intellectual plague. In fact, I am a product of it.

The immediate damage from this national stupidity is evident in our daily lives, and the long term consequences are being revealed on a daily basis. Stupid people with advanced technology and weaponry is a recipe for disaster in anyone's cookbook.

We did not elect George W Bush because we are smart, or because he is smart. We elected him because he looked like a "good ole boy".

We did not start the war in Iraq for national security reasons, but because Arabs flew planes into our buildings, so we wanted to fly bombs into theirs.

And just because enough of the people were able to out vote the Diebold voting machines this time around, does not mean we are on our way to a national elevation of higher thought, or wisdom.

I am not sure what the answer is to this national crisis, but one things for sure, a crisis it is. We see it in the invasion of religion into the science classroom, where tight fisted bible thumping zealots demand that "their" interpretation of the creation of the earth be included in any scientific discussion on the topic. We see it in our state governments, as religious leaders are elected to state office, and proceed to mingle their religous beliefs with state issued law. We see it on television, with a constant assault on our senses of sex, unbelievable violence and cruelty, displayed in grizzly detail in between commercials for drugs designed to do everything but think for us. (stay tuned)

If this picture sounds grim, cold or callous, thats because it is, and was intended to. This post is not meant to be "politically correct", nor is it meant to pacify the dull masses. It is meant as a wake up call to anyone who would start a family, write a book, or put anything back into society that represents a peice of themselves, or their lives work. Because they are in the minority. A ever increasing miniority. If we continue on our current path, then it is quite possible, whether you "believe" in it or not, that natural selection will "weed out" the smartest amongst us in favor of the dull witted, who fit more comfortably into society.

Evolution may in fact, ultimately weed out the only people with enough intelligence to teach the rest of us about it.

I am not sure what answers there are, if any, but as I watch our society applaud ignorance, and reward hate, and stupidity on a grand scale, one thing is certain. America is not in danger of becoming a Theocracy. America is in danger of becoming an "Idiocracy".

In fact, we might already be there.

WORFEUS



Watch the trailer for the movie, "Idiocracy" here