IDIOCRACY

Subtext: Idiocracy and the difference between the way the U.S. and England's collective brains work.


Watched another movie last night called "Starter for Ten." Cute movie, with a fantastic soundtrack (all mid-80s stuff, a huge reminiscence for me, as that was during my prime "party days" back in Milwaukee; it may all have been standard British radio "pop" songs to them, but to me, they were club tunes, music I danced to till all hours, music that helped pave the way to more interesting and obscure stuff forevermore).  Of course Ben's role was great. He was hilarious as the posh nerd with slicked down hair who fretted over coasters, and berated Brian for his "Essex" working class background, yet couldn't answer a single quiz question to save his life...even though he was captain of the quiz team).

So because it's what I do when I want to know more about something, I let my fingers do the walking to cull more information about it. The book/film is based on a long-running British quiz show called "University Challenge." What piqued my interest is that the questions they asked in the movie were SO difficult, SO meaningless, and SO obscure to my dull American ears and mind, that I had to know more. I found this link that featured some of their questions, and of all of them, I got maybe 3 or 4 correct, and half of them were mere guesses. Mostly I found myself thinking that I had NO idea what these questions are even asking about, as I had absolutely no reference point to start from.

Which led me to the conclusion: WE KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in this country.

Like Brian, the main character in the movie/book, I want to know EVERYTHING. Call me a know-it-all, but it seems the latter part of my life is desperately trying to make up for the former part of my life, when I hated school with a passion. Maybe I just wasn't being educated the way that my brain works, but is one of the biggest reasons I never continued onto to college.  So I'm like Brian, but my life is that of his friend Spencer. However at this time in my life I'm like a sponge, constantly wanting to know more about the arts, books, movies, history, etc. You know...everything.