LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Student Future-Visions Presentation 2007

Thursday, 7 June: Future-vision presenter: Jenna Zucha

The Dumbed-Down Version Of Man

In the film Idiocracy (2006)

Primary Objectives:

1. To identify, describe, and criticize stories humans tell about the future

            ♦Evolutionary concept

2. To identify typical visions of the future as seen from 2007

            ♦Low tech; actual reality – rough, messy, hot, real, powerless?

Show Clip

            Things to Think About:

·        Respond to the satirical warning presented to present day man in the film.

·        Recognize and discuss the events leading to the de-evolution of man in this version of the future.

Summary of film:

            A de-motivated “Average Joe” (Bowers) is chosen by the U.S. Army to participate in a experiment that will freeze him for one year; he is placed in a hibernation unit along with a local prostitute (Rita). The army base that the experiment is taking place in is closed down due to a lack of funds. Bowers and Rita finally wake up 500 years later in the year 2505. They are completely shocked to discover that the whole world has been dumbed down due to the lack of education and the powering hold big brother corporations have over humanity. The president of the United States is a pro wrestler, and all water has been replaced by an energy drink, even the crops and livestock are being watered by this product. Bower is now the smartest person on the whole planet. His efforts to return to the present are constantly interrupted by the police and government. He must convince this stupid society of the future to believe him, and change the watering of crops back to water before there is a mass starvation. Intelligence has taken a landslide and the future of man is doomed to fail.

Questions to Consider:

1.      With the present emphasis and obsession with Hollywood and the entertainment industry, along with the up rise in technological conveniences, do you think this view of the future is plausible?

2.      If this decline in human intelligence is possible, then do you think that it will come sooner then predicted by the movie?

3.      In the first clip the movie explains how intelligent people hold off from reproducing because they are concerned that the environment is an inadequate atmosphere to raise a child. In Parable of the Sower this opinion is also shared by Lauren at first, but then she seems to reconsider the idea. Lauren sees the importance in extending generations and persevering knowledge. From what we have learned in Parable of the Sower along with what is presented in this film; do you think literate humans will give up and actually let the human race fall to the less competent of the species or will humans recognize the need for the continuation of intelligent, moral beings?