Living a Commercial

            After a long week of midterms, I am excited to start working on my blog again. I feel relieved knowing that my only work for the night is to watch and analyze a movie I enjoy; it's a pretty good gig. This week I am taking a look at Mike Judge's Idiocracy. The film tells the story of an average Joe, appropriately named Joe, who is frozen by the military and wakes up 500 years in the future. In this ultra-consumerist, dumbed-down, falling apart dystopia that has consumed the United States and the rest of the world within these 500 years, Joe is the smartest person on the planet. As he wanders around looking for a so-called "Time Machine" that will bring him back to the 21st century, he runs into countless struggles, many of which are directly related to the consumerism, fast food culture, and the absence of fresh food in this dystopia.

            After dinner, my six friends and I decide to watch the movie in the 1C lounge of Graham Hall (my dorm) at Santa Clara University. Since I had just gotten back from dinner, I choose to go snack-less, though one my friends grips a large box of Skittles while another munches from a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. In the time we impatiently wait for the movie to buffer, my friends curse at the internet speeds, jokingly saying, "we pay $43,000 to go here, and we don't even get a decent network connection." Americans are always wishing for faster and better; we all yearn for convenience. As I muse upon my friend's conversation and the movie finally starts, I can't help but think that the dystopia in this film, with the present American mindset, could actually become real.

            The first scene of the dystopia is quite unsettling, while at the same time disgustingly comedic. Trash fills the world in large piles, most of which consist of fast food hamburger packaging and super-sized soda cups. Basically, the population has become so stupid, it cannot solve the problems it has inherited. The narrator credits the problems to science shifting towards making products for individuals happiness rather than trying to fix worldwide epidemics like trash pileup and the environment. The shift in science together with the movie's premise that uneducated people have a lot more children than educated people (basically saying that smart individuals eventually died off) has led to this dystopia. The narrator informs the audience of "The Garbage Avalanche of 2555," which sent garbage hurling down towards cities . I love the way the director sets up the first camera angle, which zooms in on a colossal junk mountain with a tiny yellow dot. As the frame creeps towards the putrid peak, a lone dump truck, silhouetted in smoggy light, sends another days worth of a civilization's sins and excess rolling down into oblivion . This scene does a great job at initially painting the picture of the civilization in its current state.  

            The next scene that really hits home is the first depiction of the citizens. When Joe walks into someone's house to try and get information on a possible "Time Machine," he meets a man named Frito. Yes, you read that right, his name is Frito; the guy is named after a chip. Frito embodies the whole of society, as he lays in a chair, drinking a mountain dew-like substance from a giant tube while avidly watching a TV show titled, "Ow My Balls." The television program in question is literally a man getting hit in the crouch over and over again on half the screen, coupled with another half screen of bright flashing advertisements for various restaurants and products. I like how Frito is not even concerned that someone has walked into his house, he is too captivated by the television. Joe struggles to communicate with Frito, as well as every other citizen, without sounding overbearing. As the narrator describes it, "the English language has deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valleygirl, inner-city slang, and various grunts." The United States seems foreign; Joe feels out of place in his own country.

            The advertisements play a vital role in the world of Idiocracy. One that caught my eye, and put my friends and I into a fit of laughter, was a Billboard advertisement for cigarettes that reads, "If you don't smoke Tarrlytons...Fuck you!". First to point out, the cigarettes are basically named "tons of tar," which strikes me as hilarious, as no one in today's world would name a product after its unappealing qualities. It would be like naming a candy, "cornsyruplots" (I know you all expect something more catchy from me; I am a disappointment). Going along this same line, at one point a character dresses in a shirt that reads, "Nas-Tea, it's good."  I could not help but snicker at this miss-play on words; the oblivious, consumerist population has lost almost all understanding. Going back to the cigarette ad, it uses a much similar ad technique to those used in the present day United States. Ads are crafted to pull at a specific audience and work their brain to make them crave a product. In our day and age, this method requires science and research studies; it necessitates a long process to create a successful ad. In the world of Idiocracy, it's the same process, though a lot less work (or at least it seems like less work, those who create the ads may not think so) because everyone exemplifies stupidity; tossing an insult and some profanity on a board with a product takes companies a lot farther in Idiocracy than it would in today's world.              

            Going along with advertisements and corporations, companies present in today's world are quite differently portrayed in Idiocracy. Carl's Jr. acts as the main piece of symbolism for "hamburger and fries" type fast food in Idiocracy. Throughout the film, Carl's Jr. shows up in the background, on T-shirts, and even in the White House, where everything the members of the government utter is "sponsored by Carl's Jr." In today's world, fast food rules through cheap, quick, great tasting food. In Idiocracy, fast food has political power and is a driving force in everything happening. A comedic, but no less frightening scene, consists of a mother slamming into a Carl's Jr. vending machine to feed her starving children. The machine goes onto say, after spraying the mother with a tranquilizer, "You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl's Jr." My friends were quite confused with how to react to this scene; should we laugh at this?

            A world where Carl's Jr. has the authority to take children seems so "out-there," but thinking about it, haven't they already started taking control over children's lives in our present day? The amount of ads that are aimed at kids today is disgusting; fast food companies use highly researched methods to "catch" children. Kids are easy to manipulate, so they focus resources at associating happiness and bliss with a hamburger and fries. It seems that the director is drawing a connection to the control that fast food companies have over the American population and children's health and well-being. As a final comment on Carl's Jr., the slogan, "Carl's Jr....Fuck you, I'm eating" offers commentary on the overeating American population . In America, we eat too much fast food; it has become a nationwide addiction. The shrill tone of the slogan insults as well as gluttonizes a whole population of hamburger-stuffing morons that Carl's Jr. has crafted and created.         

            A final point in the movie considers the effects of the world shifting towards man-made food: the whole world has forgotten how to farm. The company Brawndo, a Gatorade-like company, bought the FDA and FCC, proceeding to replace the whole water supply with Brawndo. When Joe is called upon to help fix the crops (and the dustbowl that destroyed the land as a result), he tells them to stop watering the plants with Brawndo. Everyone disagrees because "Brawndo got electrolytes! It's got what plants crave!" Whenever I watch this portion of the movie, I am sickened. Farmers crafted the United States of America.; my grandparents and great grandparents were farmers. I would not be where I am today without farming. I attribute farming as one of the most important and vital  pieces of a society, no matter how old or young said society might be. In Idiocracy, the director scrutinizes the science of creating man-made food, much like the director of Soylent Green, of which you can find out more by reading my first blog post. The director of Idiocracy calls for a return to the basics; a return to the natural path that connects man with the earth. I believe that everyone should grow up learning and practicing the process of building a simple garden. Where it may become special tradition and hopefully kindle a greater appreciation of food, it can also prove quite useful in light of a disaster. If a civilization collapses and needs to be rebuilt, it must have a steady supply of food. If no one can supply that food, civilization will crumble.

            In the end, Joe solves the plant issue and stays in the future to help get the United States back on track . The credits roll and my friends are left uneasy, leading to a post movie discussion: is this prediction of the future plausible? In summary, we think yes. Although labeled a comedy, when looked at with a critical eye and attention to detail and symbolism, Idiocracy is horror. I then proceeded to bring up the complaining my friends were doing before the film and we all laughed. The United States is becoming impatient, even we were unconsciously taking part in this shift. With a society and market in need of something, companies come to the rescue with a silver platter of science and research -- a  platter that will make something that took 10 minutes take 9. Next year, this 9 will go down to 8, then 7, and so on. For each minute of  "extra time we get," we are letting these companies grow larger and larger. At some point, as seen in Idiocracy, a company will make something that used to take 10 minutes, take 0 minutes. We are on the silver platter now; we are being rushed and weaved through advertisements and interests at the convenience of the company; we are literally controlled by them.  It does not matter what we think, so we choose to not think at all. This is the low point, and this is where we are headed; this is Idiocracy.  

            Idiocracy offers a satiric, yet troubling look into the 26th century. The world portrayed in the movie is a world where companies rule and everyone has become so stupid, that they have no choice but to submit. Not many will view this movie with a watchful eye for symbolism, as it is disguised as a vulgar comedy. Nevertheless, Idiocracy is a rational prediction of the world in 500 years.

            And with that, I would like to implore you, my readers, to always be aware of the repercussions of convenience. Just because something can be done quicker doesn't mean it should. Remember that tradition is lost if not practiced, and most tradition has been past down because of its proven success.

            So go plant a garden.      

                                                                           Works Cited

Idiocracy. Dir. Mike Judge. By Mike Judge and Ethan Coen. Perf. Luke Wilson. Cienemax. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2015.

Solylent Green. Dir. Richard Fleischer. Screenplay by Stanley R. Greenberg. Perf. Charlton Heston and Leigh Taylor-Young. Amazon. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.