It is no secret that in the 1960s many young people felt deceived and ensnared by technocratic powers that offered them a stifling world of work, dependency and war.  The largest youth population the planet had ever seen rose up in collective rebellion, refusing to contribute to the overwhelming problems of the day.  In the momentum of their fight for independence this movement rejected all the trappings of their parents’ age, including technology and all its affects.  Fascinated with finding new ways of distributing resources, many of them moved off-grid to exist apart from the political structure that upset them.  Finally, it was their outside perspective that helped move technology to a healthier place for all people, through such advents as the Whole Earth Catalog, the home computer, Internet chat rooms, and a self- published book titled How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, A Manual Of Step By Step Procedures For The Compleat Idiot, aka the Idiot’s Guide to the VW.

The Idiot’s Guide is the first how-to book to use Idiot in the title, now an over-replicated approach for introducing grown minds to completely new systems of thought.  Muir hits us with a unique ability to not only speak easily through the book, but to guide readers toward a loving acceptance of technology as a natural part of our human world, and a part that we can all have power over.

In the documentary film 'The Original Idiot', we travel across the American continent to meet the full range of characters associated with this best-selling book. These people are authors, illustrators, publishers, educators, professional mechanics, Volkswagen enthusiasts, and people hungry for liberation, broken down on the side of the road.