In the series, corporations get a bailout when things get bad, collude to make it worse with profits over people and then basically buy off world governments in a reverse bail out to take control of the system. With a “Corporate Congress” and all people having a “life debt”.
Oh, and the time travel aspect of it is pretty cool too.
The eugenics component of the movie is gross, no wonder I fail to remember it.
IIRC, the movie had no eugenics component. You appear to be conflating the concept of “darwinism” (natural selection) with the concept of “eugenics”.
The concept of “reproductive rights” allows for individuals to make their own selections for themselves and their offspirng; those choices do not constitute “eugenics” until they are imposed in another.
If the state is not applying selective pressure, it is not eugenics.
The apocalyptic scenario depicted in the movie is suggested to be brought about by failing to encourage the correct couples to reproduce. Implying that certain people for certain reasons are unworthy because their progeny are not suitable stewards of the planet.
No, it wasn’t. The implication was that the smart people didn’t procreate as much as the stupid people, and that generation after generation saw the intelligence of the species go down.
Worth had nothing to do with it.
Works have meanings beyond their surface-level detail and literal meaning. They also have themes and clear implications. And Idiocracy certainly has those. It has clear undertones of eugenics.
The first is the clear implication that population demographics require active management. In the movie, there was no mass government program to encourage births among those of low intelligence and discourage births among the intelligent. This situation developed entirely naturally through culture acting on its own. A viewer could only conclude that if this horrible future is to be avoided, that we need to start worrying a lot more about who is reproducing in what numbers. We either need government mandates or major cultural initiatives to encourage reproduction among the deserving. Idiocracy never outright endorses eugenics, but the implication is obvious. Writers aren’t idiots. They know the clear implications of their work. You don’t end up with a political movie that clearly implies the solution is genocide without realizing that’s the obvious implication.
The second is the theme that intelligence is something that can be bred or selected for at all through the social stratification we have now. Are those with PhDs really more intelligent, by writ of birth, than those that never graduate high school? Or it mostly about circumstances of birth, opportunities, personal choices, or even neonatal environmental pollutant exposure? Do we have any real evidence that intelligence differences within the species are something that can truly be selected for? Hell, what kind of intelligence are we talking about? Scholastic ability, emotional intelligence, executive reasoning, etc? There are many types of intelligence. And the very idea that the poor and those of lower educational attainment are of genetically lower intelligence is a key eugenics theme.
Yes, Idiocracy never comes right out and explicitly endorses eugenics. But the implications and themes are undeniably pro-eugenics.
I’m going to have to go watch the movie again, but I don’t recall any message that the state created (or failed to stop) the “idiotization” of the populace.
The overarching message seemed to blame rampant consumerism, not evolutionary pressure.
Don’t do drugs, it’s bad for you. You remembered the wrong movie.
There is though, there’s a whole scene about poor=dumb and horny vs rich=smart and chaste. It’s very easy to forget since it doesn’t solidly tie in as much as the producers may have hoped
There’s an implied statement in that scene: “if their parents and grandparents were different people, this world would not be in ruins.” Mercifully a lot of viewers interpreted the film as a satirical view of the progression of society in general or humanity overall. But the scene as it is laid out says the wealthy smart people died out and left only the dumb poors to inherit the earth.
No, the scene is about how the wealthy people wait for the best financial opportunity to afford their kid the best while the dumb people just have kids. The wealthy folks wait too long and have no kids.
The movie is about how “dumb” people outbred “smart” people and it ruined the planet/humanity. Replace those traits with the races of your choice or any other genetic trait and tell me if you’re still OK with that narrative.
Race isn’t the result of choices but being less educated certainly is to some degree a function of choice. Your suggestion of replacing a trait that involves choices with one that is not chosen at any level is a false equivalence.
How exactly is it treated as a choice in the movie?
The “smart” people keep waiting and waiting. It’s not being forced on them…
Choice to have a baby ≠ choice to “be dumb”
You know how you can choose to pay attention in class and do the work and ask for help when needed? If you don’t do any if that you’ll end up dumb and that is a result if your choices
Setting aside the ableism of your reply, it still in no way relates to how intelligence is treated in the movie that is being discussed.