Another Step Closer to Idiocracy

If you've never seen the movie Idiocracy, you should watch it. It's a bit difficult to get beyond the foul language, but it is so relevant to our times that I think it should be required viewing. Idiocracy is based on the premise that people gradually dumbed themselves down, lowered their standards so much, and grew so lazy that at a time somewhere in the future they're all virtually idiots. From the garbage collector (who doesn't do his job) to the President (who doesn't do his job), two words can't be spoken without the "f" word being one of them. They do nothing all day but play video games and watch porn. They don't know the first thing about growing crops. It's supposed to be a funny satire, but it's much too true to be funny.

A federal court has just moved us one more step toward an idiocracy. They removed the authority of the FCC to fine broadcasters for allowing curse words on the air. The court said, "By prohibiting all 'patently offensive' references to sex, sexual organs and excretion without giving adequate guidance as to what 'patently offensive' means, the FCC effectively chills speech, because broadcasters have no way of knowing what the FCC will find offensive."

Seems pretty simple to me. The "f" word is offensive -- always. So's the "s" word. There are a whole bunch of others, but I don't want to put such language on this blog because IT'S OFFENSIVE! But when we allow it to be broadcast over and over and over again, guess what happens. We become desensitized to it, and it no longer offends. Kind of like some of those filthy people you see on the TV show Hoarders. Their houses are literally cesspools, but they've lived in the filth so long, they don't find it offensive at all.

And for all of you over 40, think back to your childhood. How often did you hear the "f" word? Not often, I'll bet. Now you can't walk out your front door without being assaulted by it. Yes, my friends, we are not far from Idiocracy.

"Court tosses fines for TV expletives." The Dallas Morning News; July 14, 2010; p. 1A.