The trouble with telling the truth is that there are rules about what is considered true, and what is considered false, distorted, or misleading. When writing academic papers you must cite your sources and be prepared to have your work reviewed and commented upon by many people. If you make a statement that you can’t sufficiently support you will lose credibility and face increased scrutiny.
It’s not to say that many works are published as ‘true’ that aren’t, and usually they get sorted out within a few years, but it can be difficult at times to defend what is accurate against opinions, misconceptions, and just flat out falsehoods interpreted as truths.
I’ve found that if you want to know the truth you can find it in a society’s satire. Satire is a form of comedy and is not held to the requirement of proving the statements made, so under these rules, performers are free to make the statements they want as long as it’s a joke.
When it comes to political satire there have been many, many books, stories, movies, etc. made. This tradition is as old as politics with political satire being found in Pompeiian and other ancient civilization’s texts and art.
I personally enjoy good satirical works, such as Monte Python and The Holy Grail, Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Mars Attacks, Borat, etc. But the one satirical movie that has been referenced a lot lately is the 2006, Mike Judge and Ethan Cohen classic, Idiocracy. According to Wikipedia, Idiocracy serves as a social satire that touches on issues including anti-intellectualism, commercialism, consumerism, dysgenics, voluntary childlessness, and overpopulation.
The story is based on an Army librarian (Joe) who volunteers for a suspended animation experiment along with a prostitute (Rita) hired by the military. Ultimately the experiment get’s forgotten and they are not revived until the two of them accidentally wake up 500 years later due to a garbage avalanche.
The world at that point has devolved into an over commercialized playground. Joe sees them watering their crops with sports drinks (because “electrolytes: It’s what plant’s crave”) and becomes a hero after convincing them to use water.
In the movie the various departments of the government have been either renamed or repurposed to serve the commercial donors. It’s shown that the FDA, Dept of Health and Human Services and the FCC are all owned by the sports drink company.
One of the more memorable scenes is when they go to Costco and the shoppers are all in carts being driven around the store.
During the last election cycle many people referenced Idiocracy and it’s eerily accurate predictions. Hopefully we can learn from the warnings and avoid the excessive commercialism from taking over common sense and decency.
SOURCES:
- My own opinions after seeing this movie multiple times!
The Art of Peaceful Protest 