When Mike Judge's movie "Idiocracy" was released in 2006, almost no one saw it. The film grossed less than $500,000 at the box office. Now, in pandemic-infused 2020 everyone should see it.
In the movie, Luke Wilson plays an average Joe who is placed in suspended animation and reawakens 500 years later to find himself the smartest person in America because everyone else has gotten so dumb. The number one television show features contestants being hit in their private parts (A similar show airs today on MTV); crops are watered with a sports energy drink, causing a famine; and the president is a former wrestler and porn star who curses freely and fires automatic weapons on television.
Is there a better prophecy of our current times? The only thing "idiocracy" really got wrong was its timeline. It has taken just 15 years, not 500, for America to become an idiocracy. You do not believe it? Look at our response to the Coronavirus pandemic as an example.
In other wealthy democracies, Coronavirus cases have been plummeting. In the United States, they have risen 80 percent over the past few weeks since we reopened our states, causing more ordinances, declarations and closures. The number of new cases is many times higher than in the European Union - which has more people - and the number of confirmed deaths is more than twice that of any other country.
It is easy - and correct - to blame this epic failure on abysmal leadership. We have an irrational, incompetent president who spent months denying the reality of the disease (remember when he claimed it would "miraculously" go away by April in time for churches to reopen for Easter?), while suggesting cures including a risky malaria drug and bleach injections.
Then, President Trump held rallies in places such as Tulsa, where the disease was surging; campaign aides even removed signs from the arena urging rally goers to practice social distancing, while his own aides were carrying the virus. Then, he planned a Republican convention in Florida, which had become the new epicenter. How idiotic was that?
The president's idiocy is matched by that of his party's governors in states such as Florida (where virus cases increased by 277 percent in two weeks); Texas (an increase of 184 percent in cases); and Arizona (an increase of 145 percent of virus cases). These states were slow to declare lockdowns and quick to end them. They also refused to impose statewide mask mandates - and, in the case of Texas and Arizona, tried to prevent municipalities from imposing their own rules - even though studies show that wearing masks can reduce transmission by as much as 85 percent. Add Georgia to that list, as students went to Spring Break on the beach and congregants went to church, thus spreading the disease by leaps and bounds.
Now, Trump wants to slow down testing because it indicates high numbers, which is something he wants to avoid come November, when he hopes to regain the confidence of voters by showing his response to the epidemic. But his response almost defies meaningful rebuke. He has attempted, in recent days, to pull attention away from the virus, citing Covid-19 fatigue and lining up scapegoats. Unfortunately, the outrage now feels too general to be of much use anymore. The virus remains - in many ways - invisible to us.
All of this toxic imbecility is getting people killed from coast to coast. But, recall the adage that "every nation gets the government it deserves," as Joseph de Maistre said on August 27, 1811 in response to Russia's new constitutional laws. Trump and his government supporters in these states did not seize power by force. They were elected by constituents who, in some cases, see masks as the spawn of the devil and a violation of our Constitutional rights.
One legislator in Ohio was quoted as saying, "I don't want to cover people's faces because we are created in the image and likeness of God." A woman in Palm Beach, Florida complained that masks "throw God's wonderful breathing system out the door," while another Palm Beach resident advocates against "practicing the Devil's Law." A North Carolina woman burned a mask, complaining that it represented "nanny state overreach." Even here in Colorado, many question the governor's order, saying it is too much like China, where everyone wears a mask in public. Many of those who refuse to wear one here have arrived from the aforementioned states.
Just wait until these freedom-lovers find out about seat-belt laws, speeding laws and drunken-driving laws, which restrict their rights to get wasted and careen down the highway at 95 mph without a seat belt.
Granted, few Americans are as maniacal in their opposition to the basic dictates of public health. But, far greater numbers seem recklessly indifferent to them. A 30-year-old Scottsdale, Arizona man went drinking with his buddies and even shared drinks with them in a "super packed" bar. A few days later, he woke up with a 103-degree temperature. Not having taken it seriously, he ended up with the virus, as did some of his buddies.
There are a lot of people like the barhopping, drink-sharing Jimmy. While two-thirds of Americans say they wear masks in stores, fewer than half say people around them do not. And fewer Republicans or Republican-leaning citizens (72 percent) than Democrats or Democratic-leaning citizens (88 percent) say they wear masks all or some of the time in those settings, according to information released from Pew Research Center.
Trump won 62.9 million votes in 2016. If only a third of his supporters refuse to wear masks, that is about 19 million Americans who are potential super spreaders. Add roughly 8 million similarly irresponsible Democrats - most of them presumably young and clueless - and you have the makings of an out-of-control pandemic, which is exactly what we are facing over the next few weeks, as schools plan to reopen in the fall.
We can - and should - hold our leaders responsible, but, ultimately, we have no one but ourselves to blame. Nobody forced so many Americans to act so recklessly - first by placing their faith in a president who does not deserve it, and now in ignoring widely-publicized scientific findings. We are living - and dying - in an idiocracy of our own creation.
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