Idiocracy Has Come True

In 2006, 20th Century Fox released the movie, Idiocracy. The movie's satirical approach to depicting the state of society has become uncanny to what we see today. Before its release, there was a bit of hesitancy to promote the movie, as the comedic approach to corporations, politics and society as a whole could have made it financially unviable; however, the movie has done surprisingly well since its release. If you haven't seen the movie, let me tell you about it and let's look at the ways our society has sunk into Idiocracy.

The movie is initially set in the year 2005, with two average individuals selected for a government hibernation experiment that was only to last for a year; however, things go wrong and they stayed in stasis for 500 years. You would expect after half of a millennium, the technological advancements to mankind would be great, and in the movie, this was the case, but, the shocking truth was, the average intelligence of the time decreased so much so, that the two average individuals became the smartest people in the world. Anti-intellectualism, then, was the major premise of the movie. Human beings got dumber, not smarter, as they could not think critically, or think at all. 

The notion of anti-intellectualism was exaggerated with the movie's immediate challenge. Food was getting scarce, as all the crops were dying without any knowledge as to why– after all, they had been feeding the plants Gatorade because plants love electrolytes! Failing to understand basic science, that plants need water.

If I were to say our society is no different from that in Idiocracy, I might get mixed reactions, but how farfetched of a statement is it?

Look at all the technological advancements we have today – 3D printing which is making remarkable advancements in medicine, the emergence of artificial intelligence, such as the chatbot - chatGPT, or the art generating AI, mid-journey, or the advanced computing systems that allow us to have self-driving cars are wonders we would not have thought possible only a few decades ago. Yet, with such amazing improvements in technology, we find society unable to think critically about topics such as sex and gender – or to determine which sex you are at birth. According to the New York Times.

"Defining gender as a condition determined strictly by a person's genitals is based on a notion that doctors and scientists abandoned long ago as oversimplified and often medically meaningless… ‘The idea that a person's sex is determined by their anatomy at birth is not true, and we've known that it's not true for decades.'"  (Anatomy Does Not Determine Gender, Experts Say, New York Times)

How can we not tell the plain difference between a man and a woman? The terms sex and gender have been segregated as if they were different, although scientific research proves men are naturally drawn to more masculine roles and women to feminine roles, especially when the society is more egalitarian. We discussed this in our previous viewpoint, sex, gender and the patriarchy paradox, which you can find the link to in the description below, along with the links to a few research papers on the matter.

Sex and gender are not the only areas. We see the same illogic carrying over to concerns for the environment and the push to have alternative energy in place as soon as possible, without contemplating the negative consequences that may arise. In addition, veganism is now being encouraged with many different goals in mind. Everything from promoting a supposedly healthier lifestyle to saving the environment from the perceived global catastrophe emanating from cow flatulence, sounds a lot like Idiocracy, no? Impossible burgers and Beyond meat are also marketed in a way that is reminiscent of fueling agriculture with Gatorade. If too much meat is bad for your health, and vegetables are good, why not make our meat from vegetables? It's a healthier alternative! However, according to the National Post:

"The Beyond Meat burger is technically a processed food. We know that diets higher in processed foods are linked to the development of disease," Lapidus said.

When people eat more processed foods, they are likely to consume more calories and gain weight, a study by the National Institutes of Health found. With added weight gain can come such complications as kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease.

Just because a product is plant-based doesn't mean it's automatically healthy. "French fries are plant-based," Langer pointed out." (Vegan Beyond Meat burgers are just ultra-processed patties that can be bad for our health, National Post)

A study has also been conducted to show that rats, who were fed soy leghemoglobin (SLH), the key ingredient of these burgers developed severe side effects. 

"it is remarkable that the SLH-fed rats did show a large number of statistically significant potentially adverse effects, compared with the control group – for example:

• unexplained transient decrease in body weight gain
• increase in food consumption without weight gain
• changes in blood chemistry
• decreased reticulocyte (immature red blood cell) count (this can be a sign of anemia and/or damage to the bone marrow where red blood cells are produced)
• decreased blood clotting ability
• decreased blood levels of alkaline phosphatase (can indicate malnutrition and/or celiac disease)
• increased blood albumin (can indicate acute infection or damage to tissues) and potassium values (can indicate kidney disease)
• decreased blood glucose (low blood sugar) and chloride (can indicate kidney problems)
• increased blood globulin values (common in inflammatory disease and cancer)." (Rat feeding study suggests the impossible burger may not be safe to eat, gmoscience.org)

While our world has developed on the technological front in many ways, it seems we are no different from the movie Idiocracy. Our society is losing itself to anti-intellectualism. While the confusion of sex and gender, and the blind faith in eating highly processed foods are just a few examples, we need to develop critical thinking. Do not be fooled by the social movements today.