When people watch Idiocracy, I imagine most of them are focused on the world it creates, not the main character Joe Bauers. He’s just supposed to be a vessel for reacting to all the craziness around him. But when I watch that film, I’m entirely focused on Joe and how he changes over the course of the story. It’s a perfect setup to force him to grow.

Not Sure and a Lack of Self-Confidence

Idiocracy begins in the year 2005. An Army man and a prostitute are frozen in capsules for 500 years and awaken in a place where society has degenerated to the point that everyone is functionally retarded.

Joe is appropriately called Not Sure by every foolish person in the future because of a simple error on his part. They’re not sure how to solve their own problems, and Joe is not sure that he’ll be able to solve them either, even though he’s the smartest man in the world. He lacks confidence in himself. In fact, his first instinct in any situation is to seek an escape from the problem he faces. He does that at prison and when he’s named the Secretary of the Interior by the President of America.

His whole goal is to get back to the past in a time machine so that he can continue to live a boring life doing nothing. However, he figures out that some problems are not as difficult as they seem once he takes the time to actually work on them.

Amazingly, Joe even learns how to become persuasive to people and speak their language. It helps that they’re a bunch of fools who can’t reason themselves out of a paper bag, so he’s able to spout any nonsense he likes and sound compelling. Of course, he can’t solve every problem, but he can do something. And that’s inspiring for all of us who want to make the world a better place.

Getting Stretched and Forced to Grow

I feel a kinship with Joe because I, too, fear being too visible. Like Joe, I liked my previous job because it was comfortable and familiar. I didn’t have to be in the spotlight, but I could quietly make a living. However, all that came to an end a few months ago, and I’m being forced to look for a more prominent role.

This experience is good for me, even though it’s uncomfortable. I’m being stretched to be more of a leader than I’ve been in the past. It’s scary because I don’t know all that I’m capable of. The first time I watched Idiocracy, it worried me when the President of America made all kinds of grandiose claims about what Joe would do for the country. He said Joe would solve all their problems, and if he didn’t then he would be severely punished.

I was relieved when their biggest problem (starvation) had an easy solution: stop spraying fields with electrolyte-laden sports drink and start spraying them with simple water. But their mountains of garbage, leaky nuclear reactors, and social ills are not so easily solved. Fixing big problems requires creativity and a willingness to take risks. Despite his misgivings, Joe proves himself to be up to the task. I’m happy that he decides to stay in the future before he realizes that there is no time machine. That way, he doesn’t feel trapped.

We can learn a lot from Joe. None of us can go back in time and change the past. All we can do is try to make the future better for ourselves and our progeny. Let’s be grateful for what we have and make the most of it.

A Metaphor for Joe’s Growth

There’s a wonderful metaphor embedded in Idiocracy that explains Joe’s character growth. He has been a seed planted in barren field his whole life, sprayed by a chemical that prevents growth. That could be apathy or fear or shamelessness. Whatever it is, he’s unable to do anything with his life because of it.

And he’s happy to remain in the dirt because it’s comfortable there away from the harsh sun, angry wind, and unrelenting storms of life. But when that chemical is taken away from him and he sprouts above the surface, he discovers that he’s capable of doing so much more with his life than he ever thought possible. He becomes the President of America, marries the only intelligent woman in the world, and raises three children. Not bad for an average Joe.

Thankfully, we all live in the past compared to Joe. We’re not stuck in a dystopian future where everyone is obsessed with sex and violence, Hollywood is so dumb that a movie without any dialogue can win Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards, and language has been so corrupted that normal speech sounds pompous, faggy, and effeminate. There is still time to change for the better.

I hope we will all be like Joe. Instead of living in fear and being content to be average, let’s do something difficult, be different, and see if we can rise above our lowly station. Joe may have accidentally become the smartest man in the world, but it was his deliberate choices that helped him solve problems and get the world back on track. Let’s put our intelligence to use in building our lives and not racing to the bottom.

When we’re challenged to lead, follow, or get out of the way, I hope we’ll do our best to take charge of our lives like Joe did.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

All images are the copyright of their owner.

Want to Support the Deja Reviewer?

If you’d like to support the Deja Reviewer, please consider donating a few dollars to keep this site going strong. I’ll even send you an original joke if you do! Try it, and prepare to enjoy a good chuckle.

$5.00