How ‘Idiocracy’ predicted the future
We usually equate the prescient quality of the science fiction genre with predictions of the utmost seriousness, such as the personalised advertising in The Minority Report, the endless reality television in The Running Man, or even just the scarcity of resources in Soylent Green. However, there have been a handful of occasions where comedy has also played its hand in future prophecy and forecast.
Alongside The Truman Show, which managed to reveal all too much about our entertainment habits, Mike Judge’s science fiction comedy film Idiocracy also looks starkly cognizant of what would come in the decades following its release. What’s interesting is that it manages to do so without the emotional nuances and intellectual resonances of Peter Weir’s 1998 psychological comedy drama.
Idiocracy tells the story of Joe and Rita, a United States Army librarian and a sex worker who both take part in a government hibernation experiment. When the pair wakes up 500 years later, they discover that humanity has devolved into an anti-intellectual society, where the least intelligent are those who reproduce the most and where culture is defined by lowbrow vulgarity.
All the negative aspects of our culture and society seem to be championed in the future world of Idiocracy, like advertising and entertainment of the most superficial kind, while education and the ability to think for oneself have been put well and truly down the hierarchy of human needs. As a result, the average man, Joe Bauer, is suddenly the most intelligent man on the planet.
Firstly, when did Idiocracy come out?
Mike Judge had first thought of the concept of Idiocracy back in 1996 and began writing a script for a film called 3001. This was finished around 2001, and Judge rewrote the movie around a year later, with the final title being Idiocracy. After shooting in Texas throughout 2004, Idiocracy was eventually released on September 1st, 2006.
Interestingly, though, 20th Century Fox did not allow for a wide release of Judge’s project to take place, and they also refused to market it appropriately. Some believe this was because of the movie’s criticism of entertainment corporations, although Judge thought it might have come down to poor test screenings. Still, the film was eventually well-received by some critics and gained a cult following despite an awful box office.
So, what was the Idiocracy cast?
Luke Wilson, known for his many collaborations with Wes Anderson, took the lead role of Army librarian turned unlikely genius/US President Joe Bauers, while Maya Rudolph, a former cast member of Saturday Night Live, played Rita, a prostitute turned First Lady.
Elsewhere the cast was rounded off by Dax Shepard, who would later become known for hosting the Armchair Expert podcast, playing the role of the US Vice President Frito Pendejo. In addition, ex-football player Terry Crews featured as the former US President/ex-porn star Dwayne Camacho, alongside Andrew Wilson, Brad Jordan, David Herman, Justin Long, Stephen Root and Thomas Haden Church.
Did Idiocracy predict the future?
A civilisation defined by its anti-intellectualism, always-declining culture, and acceptance of lowest-common-denominator reasoning is certainly not wholly alike to our society. However, some facets of the film seem remarkably familiar. While intelligence is certainly plentiful amongst human beings of the 21st century, there is equally an ongoing sense of societal degradation.
Most notable is the onslaught and never-ending nature of entertainment and consumerism as opposed to the pursuit of intellectual and cultural interests. The TV shows and adverts in Idiocracy are crass and sensationalist, reflecting perhaps the ten-second offerings of Instagram and TikTok – mostly showcasing fashion, sexuality, irony and often little more. This quick, viral mode of media is pretty much par for the course in Idiocracy, where attention is limited, and intellect is way down the list of priorities.
In the realm of politics, Idiocracy also does a fair job of depicting our contemporary landscape with a vision of the future in which leaders well out of their means rule with absolute power. Terry’s Crews’ President Camacho is a man who amasses political favour with his charisma and shock factor, undoubtedly mirroring the sad four years that Donald Trump spent as the President of the United States. Crews’ character and his utter lack of expertise forecast the rise of populist media personalities with political ambitions and their occasional, actual success.
Climate change and the dissolution of the natural environment have also taken their toll on the world in Idiocracy, a habitat with rampant waste and pollution, one in which its inhabitants do little to resolve the issue, consumed by the endless stream of media run by unchecked corporations. This preference for instant gratification over actual marked sustainability finds its analogue in today’s political and corporate institutions, which claim to have desires for changes while watching as overpopulation, overconsumption, and an ever-increasing wealth disparity run riot.
Perhaps there’s an acknowledgement of the change in language in Judge’s film, too, from the simplistic lexicon of humanity as education levels decrease and an overreliance on technology as interpersonal communication loses relevance. These facets undoubtedly lead to online echo chambers in our world, in which alternate views are cast out of hand as malicious, and understanding different kinds of people is no longer necessary.
Satire is certainly the flavour of Idiocracy, and it would be idiotic to suggest that Judge’s film is a prediction of the future. However, as stated, at least a handful of facets seem to mirror the declining parts of our society that are undoubtedly taking place as people become more isolated from one another and power slips further from the fingers of the wider public.
Thankfully, though, critical thought still seems to be championed in our society, even in online discourse, so while Idiocracy might not predict the future precisely, it serves as a warning as to what might happen if we reject our human gift of intellect and critical reasoning.
Check out the trailer below.
