Democracy Darling

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Thinking of a topic for this month’s rant set me to thinking about thinking. What is the purpose of thought, as more and more aspects of our daily lives are managed for us by assorted technological gadgetry. Apart from your doctors and other such scientisticational people, what value do logic, reason, and common sense have in the digital, girls-gone-wild age? Are artistic and creative processes the only realm still solely defined by human thought?

We increasingly eschew maps to navigate our way around by GPS, while wee lemmings stare at in-car DVDs or gesticulate with their DSs, oblivious to the passing world out their window. Safely deposited at our destination, we smart card our way into the system, log on and press some buttons. (Numbers in spreadsheets for numbery people, words in spellchecked documents for wordy people.) By way of distraction, the odd moment may be stolen to ‘socialise’ with our network brethren, while we view news that is increasingly delivered with ever-greater lashings of entertainment and ‘wacky’ fluff pieces.
 
Unfortunately, our sedentary lifestyles are reflected in our diets. The ‘bronzed Aussie’ is but a distant memory, with us now officially the fattest nation on Earth; more a nation of tubbies watching telly than the dearly held, sun-kissed ideal. We may well be the first generation for quite some time to not outlive our parents – but hey, at least we won’t have to look after them in those difficult incontinent years, right?
 
 
So as we spiral down the rabbit-hole to a dimmer, fatter parallel universe, I can’t help but think I am watching a sort of sped-up real-time version of the magnificent movie parody Idiocracy. Abandoned by distributor 20th Century Fox prior to release (no doubt due to the fact Fox News gets unfavourably treated), and directed by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butthead fame, the film peers 500 years into the future, where humankind’s intelligence has massively regressed. Due to the prolific breeding patterns of the idle, moronic and dense versus the time-poor, relatively baby-less lifestyle of ‘intelligent’ folk, stupidity reigns supreme in this future. Massive crop shortages are a major problem because Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator, (think Gatorade) is not only what everyone drinks: it irrigates crops. (Water is found only in toilets). I will leave the synopsis there, although I urge all readers who haven’t seen it to do so.
 
So are we laying the groundwork for a future of idiot-majority rule? Recent outcries over school teachers – let alone students – being unable to master basic punctuation and grammar (Can I buy a verb?) demonstrate that perhaps the first sod is well-turned. Speaking of which, buried deep under the sod in Europe is perhaps the greatest demonstration of the fine balance Earthlings tread as they combine inquisitiveness with knowledge.
 
Obviously, I’m no scientisticologist, but despite the protestations of over 8,000 real scientististicians involved in this wacky game, I am having trouble swallowing the bait on this one. We have a Large Hadron Collider. Add light rays, and then smash them into each other in an effort to replicate the conditions experienced just after the Big Bang (you know, the one that supposedly started the formation of the universe?). Then see what happens.
 
Gulp.