When the Mean Means Vice
According to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, a vice is either an excess or deficiency of what would otherwise be a virtuous mean. In other words, the best way is the middle, not too far left or too far right.
Mike Judge regularly uses Aristotelian ethics as his grounding for satirizing contemporary American vice. For example, Office Space exposes the vice of laziness. Beavis and Butthead criticizes laziness and foolishness. But Idiocracy is a step above Judge’s other works, because it not only satirizes laziness and foolishness, but also the mean itself.
Aristotle would say that to pursue the mean is to pursue happiness. If humans are not excessive, they are more likely to be virtuous. But Idiocracy takes an even more pessimistic approach. The protagonist, Joe, is the most average human being in the country. Intellectually, physically and emotionally, he is the mean. However, it is for this very reason he is an object of vice. In a sense, he is too average. This is a paradox to be sure, but one that tells a story of utter hopelessness for the future of humanity.
Even in Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle admits, “to be happy takes a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring.” It is a perseverance that continues unto death, this attempt to be a virtuous human. In a sense, the system which satire is based on is also doomed to hypocrisy. A satirist’s job is to criticize vice or folly, and he must always be very careful to remind himself of this lest he become a preacher. Perfection is impossible.
Hence the case of Joe in Idiocracy. As a personification of the mean, he is proof that it doesn’t matter if we follow the old ethical guidelines. If we are average, we will make no attempts at progress. Idiocracy prophesies of the de-evolution that inevitably results from living the average life.
The scene in the movie which proves this is during the first few minutes, when a higher ranking officer relieves Joe of his duties in the Army library. Joe bitches about this change, because he liked his job. The job involved “sitting on his ass,” and not much else. Our hero does not want to excel. He wants to remain where he is, totally average and content.
And who wouldn’t? If we are happy with our average lives, why would we try to change them?
In and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with living this sort of life. However, when we project what will happen if everybody just settles for whatever they have at the moment, how and why would anyone push the boundaries of science, art or politics? So not only does Judge use Nicomachean Ethics as groundwork for much of his satire, in this case, he jumps ahead in the philosophical history of ethics and employs Kant’s categorical imperative to an old Aristotelian idea. The result? Certainly not positive.
Idiocracy is not Judge’s best directorial effort, but it may be his most brilliant idea overall. It’s so much more than just an hour and a half of poking fun at stupid people. It’s an incredibly dark look into the future that could be, regardless of whether or not we pursue lives of vice or virtue.
Is there any hope for our country? For our species? If there is, it’s going to take much more than simply living a virtuous life. Mike Judge doesn’t outright give us the answer, but he shouldn’t—he’s not a preacher. We, as a collective group, must decide for ourselves what will best progress our species forward into a better world. After all, ethics is nothing but a social construction. Good and evil do not exist in heaven or hell (when we die), but only as we live in human societies. The satirists will remind us of that, even if it hurts to hear it.
Thankfully, the good ones know how to sneak some sugar into the medicine cabinet. And Mike Judge is certainly the sneakiest. Idiocracy is dark, but impeccably funny too.
