This is kinda funny. I watched this Mike Judge movie, Idiocracy, a few months ago. Prophetic? Perhaps. Funny? Absolutely.
Here's President Bush's State of the Union speech, translated Idiocracy-style. Lest you think this is a slam on Bush's speech, it is not. It is a slam on the dumbing-down of society.
It seems we get dumber every year.
State of the Union Address, Idiocracy Translation
Sunday, February 03, 2008
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Very funny. An apt "translation."
Thanks, Mike Judge, for making Idocracy, one superb, hilarious, PROPHETIC movie.
But not all cultures have devalued intelligence and competence as obviously and thoroughly as in the US.
Our tacit (and idiotic) acceptance of the concept of "education for profit" is inherently ridiculous (and corrupt), and the US's so-called "professional class" (those who happen to have inherited enough leisure time and WEALTH to afford the increasingly dubious luxury of becoming "certified" by PURCHASING "degrees") is being dummied-down along with almost everyone else...especially (but by no means exclusively) in the business/financial sector.
The US's "leadership class" (that artificially sheltered group of inter-generational spoiled brats in-complete-denial who happen to come from families/blood tribes that have accumulated the greatest wealth) are becoming astonishingly UNIFORMLY grunt-average and worse, riddled with a variety of actual, real-life congenital behavioral defects.
And all dysgenic factors aside, our environment (US society, corporate mass media resources) actively and aggressively desensitize most people (even people who seem to be at least somewhat intelligent) into haplessly confused, distracted, morally nonexistent shills...sheep and wolves...oafs and thugs. This duality of crude extremes is what "third-world" countries are all about. When most of a population becomes uniformly dummied-down, "niceties" (such as actual, civilized behavior) become obsolete, and brute survival is all that matters.
Especially in the US, not only have the "professions" that relate to business and finance been seriously dummied-down, but virtually all the creative "professions" (music, graphic art, and even literature) have been stolen/usurped by dummied-down people (emperors wearing no clothing ;-) who happen to have had enough money and leisure time to become "certified." Historically, this is unprecedented. One-hundred years ago, the creative professions were BY NO MEANS the nigh exclusive domain of wealthy spoiled brats with delusions of talent. ("Wealthy spoiled brats" IS an entirely legitimate and clinically descriptive term, by the way, no matter what the wealthy spoiled brats themselves would like everyone to believe.)
The creative "professions" have (as a result of many technological advances) become remarkably irrelevant...entirely unimportant...and actual market forces really do not apply to them. Actual, measurable ability and talent (yes, such things as ability and talent CAN be measured...it is not all simply "subjective" and therefore unfathomable) really DO NOT positively correlate with conventional success. Not any more. This is just another way of observing that the so-called positive correlation between natural aptitude and conventional success is more scant-to-nonexistent than ever before.
Our standards are literally and unavoidably crashing beneath the weight of our increasingly dummied-down citizenry.
The very fact that all IQ tests have to be regularly and carefully revised in order to assure that "the average IQ" will be (always and forever) "100" is a sad statement that, on the whole, we are extremely NAIVE and SIMPLISTIC. Such a system of "intelligence evaluation" is very deceptive and unrealistic, and makes it appear that there are no (and CAN be) no QUALITATIVE negative shifts/trends. But there is plenty of evidence (typical, common use of language/semantics...along with converging evidence from a variety of legitimate disciplines) that, in fact, statistically, our collective bell curve has an increasingly blunt leading edge (fewer and fewer intelligent people...REALLY intelligent people...people who really and genuinely stand out)...more and more uniformly grunt-average people than ever before...together with a rising FLOOD of people who can only be described as being truly mentally malfunctional. On the surface, statistically, it's easy enough to understand how this would be the case -- unintelligent people do indeed "outbreed" intelligent people by a LONGSHOT -- but there are many additional, more subtle reasons for the over-all trend to be a distinctively negative trend.
What this is is a coalescent phenomenon that takes place over the course of many generations and isn't necessarily easy to take a simplistic "snapshot" of in order to "prove" that it's happening (or not happening.)
To observe such gradually occurring phenomena, one must actually BE reasonably intelligent, and aware of a variety of historical/cultural trends. This is a daunting task at best, and a virtually impossible task for people who are not literally very bright or perceptive. But how could one's clarity of thought (or absence of clarity of thought)NOT make a deciding difference when it comes to evaluating such complex, dynamic phenomena.
Imagine staring at a glacier...something that is quite gigantic in scale, and steadily moving at a rate that may seem slow but is actually quite significant. It's difficult enough to perceive the glacier's movement even if one is staring intently and directly at it.
Now imagine being frozen WITHIN the glacier itself. This is exactly the kind of frozen/inadequate perception that people who are not very perceptive (or intelligent) are stuck with. So it's no wonder that such gradual qualitative shifts occur completely off of most people's radar scopes.
But, yes, by no means is it the same all over the world. Those cultures that do indeed promote and nurture individuals and families that produce healthy minds will, in time (probably and predictably) may be forced to do things in order to protect themselves from the cultures that have, by any reasonable definition/standards, lost their mental edge...and have, consequently, lost their ability to behave in a civilized manner.
Cultures that promote dummied-down citizenships do tend to be much more warlike, unpredictable, impossible to coexist with.
And here's another "truism" worth considering: Dummied-down people tend to be significantly more likely to have to rely upon any number of forms of corruption (nepotism, crony-ism...graft...you name it) IN ORDER to maintain whatever advantages (wealth, control of resources, "professional" access to opportunities) that they happen to have. It could be no other way, given that they really don't have anything else going for them besides...an assortment of corrupt, unfair advantages.
In short: People who are unintelligent find themselves with little choice but to CHEAT in order to "win." And cheat they do.
Do smart people like to "cheat," too, when they can get away with it? Sure, but not nearly to the same, pathetically predictable extent that not-so-smart people must cheat.
Western civilization ain't what it used to be. (Go figure!)
And the US in particular has been dummying-down its citizenry for so many generations that it can't help but be ahead of the "global curve."
Global academic standings don't lie. Nor do behaviors lie. (Most Americans only wish that those things lied.) And arguments that "(x-many/big percentage) of all the Nobel Prize winners come from the US..." are naive and overly simplistic arguments that never take into account the exact genetic heritage's of the people who are "awarded" those prizes (prizes for being "smart".)
I wish I were wrong about all this stuff, but it really isn't as difficult/impossible to figure out as people (who are not very bright) choose to comfortingly pretend.
And why should people lie about these issues? To protect the interests of...stupid, ignorant, dangerous individuals and families? To "spare their feelings"? To be "polite"? Sorry, but those are not very good reason to lie.
If there's any practical lesson that good people (people who actually contribute positively to society) can learn from all of this -- as depressing or negative as it may seem to be, and regardless of whether or not those people are "smart, not smart, or anywhere in between" -- that lesson may be that good people who work hard and positively and constructively contribute to their society have every legal and ethical right to PROTECT themselves and their loved ones from criminals and corruption...and that is whether or not those corrupt elements of society are in denial about precisely how awful they are. Intent (in this case: awareness of how awful one is) means nothing.
What we all deserve and must (if need be) fight for is simple enough: Greater openness, accountability, fairness...and honesty.
And if some people prove to be incapable of honesty (or absolutely and simply REFUSE to be honest), then it is up to the rest of us to be honest FOR THEM.
It is up to the rest of us to CRAM HONESTY DOWN THEIR STUPID, DISHONEST THROATS. And if they happen to choke on the honesty that is being crammed down their dishonest throats, then that will be their own (unintelligent) faults.
Hope you enjoyed all that.
And (eh hem) in conclusion, if you haven't already seen it, check out "Idiocracy." I've viewed it twice, and I must admit that it is so replete with remarkable, hilarious, artful, prophetic details that one will not likely catch them all the first time.
Once more (with feeling!): Thanks, Mike Judge. You are a modern Jonathan Swift, and a true American (Uhmerican) patriot! Keep up the great work.
Sincerely,
one anthropologist and a violinist
(www.myspace.com/thejoshuabelleffect)
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