Stupidity (2003)

Take a closer look at the "dumbing down" of contemporary culture in an alternately enlightening and hilarious documentary from filmmaker Albert Nerenberg produced to explore the prospect that willful ignorance has increasingly become a strategy for success in the realms of politics and entertainment. From the Internet to television to popular film and virtually everything in between, stupidity's stronghold over society has reached an all-time high. Despite the vast potential that mass media holds as a tool of education and self-betterment in modern society, why is it that the masses are so determined to simply turn on the television and turn off their brains at the end of the day? In an era where even the mere mention that mass media may be detrimental to our mental development may prove offensive to the vast majority of consumers, director Nerenberg gathers some of the best-known cultural critics, authors, and academics of our generation for a thought-provoking exploration into the potentially damaging effects of film, television, and other forms of media on the modern mind. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 77 mins
Stupidity (2003)

Maybe a little harsh to rate this a one, but it was simply a leftist dogma propagandized film. It started out fairly normal but for a Canadian produced film, it decided to pick on George W. Bush. Of course Bush was not the brightest bulb in the box, but if that was their case study of stupidity then plenty of Libs have their share of stupid politicians.

Bias then shows through on who they choose to interview like Bill Maher and Noam Chomsky. The later blaming all the "stupidity" of society on "business". Their goals is to control the masses and "dumb them down" and create a feeling of futility of the masses. Of course not themselves according to Chumsky. He also says that humans did not "create" language but it was just a random event of evolution which is on the same level of growing arms and legs. I am not sure how someone so intelligent to think that. Humans could have not developed this skills and just treated it like a useless appendage or developed it in much different ways.

Of course by showing "stupidity" in all its glory, they are in fact promoting such stupidity. It is not really an intellectual endeavor to explore the issues but is gratuitous stupidity presented as pseudo intellectualism. It allows the elite intellectuals to consider the unwashed masses as stupid. They even seem to question the aspects of democracy. That is allowing the unwashed masses to make decisions over government.

The one interesting point that was pointed out was that many of the actors on screen do not have a good education and in fact many dropped out of high school. Makes us wonder why we as a culture would in fact consider them as someone worth listening to. The next time I have to listen to some actor telling me how to live my life, I truly will look up his/her education background. Not that it validates that he/she is an idiot, just that it shows that maybe he/she was easily swayed and manipulated in his knowledge.

Marx felt that the three forces of the development of society {"world historical determining forces"} as: 1. Capital, 2. Violence, 3. Stupidity.

Special Features:
1. Extended interviews of the commentators.
2. Directors comments soundtrack.
3. Interview of director on Documentary Channel.
4. Trailer.
5. Reading materials used in the documentary-research.

On second thought, the extended interviews makes this at least a 2.