New world re-order
The Zeitgeist Movement spreads to Ventura County
By Shane Cohn 05/12/2011
One state, two state, red state, blue state. Partisan divide. Republicans. Democrats. Tea Partiers. Dictators. War on terror, war on drugs. Spending cuts. Health care. Tax hikes. Birthers. Oil. Privatization. Credit rating. Scorched earth. Political intransigence. How do we save the world?
The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM) believes the solution lies in a resource-based economy in a modern global society. Peter Joseph — The Zeitgeist Movement founder whose controversial films have spawned a revolution — is calling for a top-to-bottom global makeover of society.
So is an enormous worldwide following that continues to multiply.
I met with Joseph at a coffee shop in Venice Beach, as arranged by a member of the Ventura County Chapter of The Zeitgeist Movement. A man dressed in black with a slightly unkempt goatee and eyes curious and clear, Joseph is startling yet approachable. And for a man whose confident revelations seem to spin as fast as Superman can fly, he is easy to speak with. So I asked him a question thousands of people have already asked him since he released a series of controversial, anti-establishment Zeitgeist films and founded The Zeitgeist Movement in 2009.
Can the world we live in really be re-imagined into something more sustainable, something mirroring near-Utopia?
And so he began presenting the idea that the economic system we live in is a sick paradigm for self-destruction, where the main problem is not the flaws in the system but the entirety of the system. He began throwing around a number of ways for the transition to occur, most hinging on the elimination of the monetary-based economy that makes the world go round and establishing an automated work force to replace menial labor.
Backed by credible examples and hard data, the essential message in Joseph’s three films and the movement’s charter can be summed up as this: Our greatest social problems are the direct results of our economic system. The monetary-based system on which the world operates is a broken and corrupt scheme that promotes obsolescence for the sake of profit. Sustainability and resourcefulness only hinder that idea in a monetary-based economy. If there is not a radical global shift toward a sustainable, tech-driven and, yes, a moneyless society, class division will dramatically increase as the world’s resources are depleted. Humans cannot escape nature’s dictatorship, and without a system that centers on resources as the vital principle, human quality of life will systematically deteriorate.
The goal of a resource-based economy is to create a unified systems approach to global management based on what the earth’s resources are needed for and then applied in the most strategic and scientific way.
Danette Wallace, founder and director of the TZM Ventura County chapter said when she first watched Zeitgeist: Addendum, she was struck by the concept of a resource-based economy. “It hit me like a ton of bricks. It was something I never heard of before. I had been researching the money system for years, and I knew it was a non-sustainable system. Nobody had ever offered a solution for it, just temporary fixes here and there. But when he was talking about this concept, I sat straight up and thought it was so amazing. I’ve never been an activist before. It never appealed to me. But this is something that can help everything.”
A filmmaker and musician, 31-year-old Joseph was raised in North Carolina, the son of a mail carrier and social worker. An avid percussionist, he attended a prestigious conservancy for college, but dropped out when he realized the debt he was accruing was leading him headfirst into the workforce where he would toil to clear his name from debt as another cog in the system. So he worked sporadically as a musician and film editor, but on account of his twisted fascination with the economic system, he began working as a day trader. As Joseph began studying and investigating the money-based system that fuels economies, he finally had enough. He drew from his creative background to craft Zeitgeist: The Movie, which he launched online to address his frustrations with the system.
His life was never the same.
Along came the viewers, then the need for a website, a DVD, a noncommercial release and eventually inclusion in film festivals. Though Joseph has since admitted that some of the radical claims made in that first movie are not associated with current Zeitgeist rhetoric since the movement itself was established after the second film, its appeal was global and it became obvious to him that the citizens of the world craved a radical systemic shift, and sought answers.
Joseph didn’t know it, but his ideas were directly in line with those of renowned 95-year-old futurist Jacque Fresco and his organization The Venus Project. Fresco’s Venus Project is a “comprehensive plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology, and nature will be able to coexist in a long-term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium,” according to the website.
After Fresco viewed the Zeitgeist film online, he reached out to Joseph and turned him on to some of his books that center on the idea of a resource-based economy, which Fresco is widely credited for developing. Within that idea alone, Joseph felt he had the ability to answer the questions his film posited. He soon thereafter released Zeitgeist: Addendum, featuring Fresco and his Venus Project, at which point the project grew into a full scale movement.
When Joseph released the movement’s third and most recent film, Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, earlier this year, people throughout the world tuned into the premiere: 340 theaters, 60 countries, 295 cities and 30 different languages.
Having amassed an estimated 500,000 members worldwide since its inception in 2009, TZM may be the largest, most rapidly expanding global grassroots movement in the continuum of social change.
“Basically, we’re just trying to point out that what society is doing is not sustainable,” said Joseph. “We’re talking about a complete physical reconstruction of society so it can be sustainable. So, public awareness is the first step, and we’re still not even remotely close to that.”
“The idea is basing all decisions initially on resources and learning to maximize their efficiency,” Joseph elaborated.
“You begin to realize you can create a world where people have access to things they would never have access to in their lives. Instead of ownership, which in most contexts is very wasteful, you create a system of sharing for certain things…. It’s a totally different comprehension of society where we need maturity to understand a world where people actually share the world and respect each other’s activities instead of it all being about property.”
For as much momentum and awareness as TZM has generated, its startling proclamations have obviously attracted the naysayers who decry TZM as an arm of communism, conspiracy theorists, anarchy, or just wide-eyed dissidents dreaming of an unattainable Utopia.
But Joseph welcomes such dialogue and calmly dismisses such claims made against him and TZM, using such opportunities to further expand the ideas of values, resource economics and sustainability in a global system.
“They call it a Utopia and say it can’t happen,” said Joseph. “They can’t fathom it because they are so used to the deprived, neurotic, twisted world where people are trying to screw each other over as fast as possible for their own self-interest, which is essentially what this system is based on.
“It’s not about getting mad and breaking windows. That doesn’t do anything but reinforce power and lead to more police, more military, and that can lead to a police-state. Ultimately, we want concentrated nonviolent action, not against the U.S. but against the entire global manifold, saying ‘you can’t do anything if we don’t participate.’ The fabric of the system is based on participation in it.”
Joseph isn’t exempt from the system in any way, nor does he claim to be. As he consistently reiterates, society is far from being aware and capable of such a dramatic shift and it will takes years of outreach to slow-burn into the reality he and many have imagined.
Formed in June 2010, the Ventura County Chapter of TZM boasts a membership of about 50, with approximately a dozen regulars attending biweekly meetings. Members discuss ways to canvass for mass awareness, distribute TZM films and discuss ideas and technology that support a resource-based economy.
“This is something that literally includes every human on the planet,” said Wallace, who also co-hosts a weekly Zeigeist Internet radio address. “I feel really fulfilled, and the people I come into contact with have the same feelings and goals.”
TZM chapters continue popping up in far reaches of the world, surpassing any expectation Joseph ever had. It’s undeniable that the ideas presented by TZM have a global appeal, helping quench a thirst for an alternative operating system of reality and satisfy the desire for a sustainable future. TZM is not a threat of any kind, though Joseph admits to having received plenty of death threats for challenging the status quo. Instead, it aims at being more of a wake-up call to the reality that if collective human thought and behavior continue to function solely as a self-serving financial mechanism, a social breakdown is imminent.
Joseph, Wallace and fellow TZM members across the world know there will never be a religion or ideology that unites humanity. But critically thinking and sharing ideas about a sustainable future, as presented by TZM, has them believing that this may be the best shot the world has.
To watch the Zeitgeist films, go to www.zeitgeistmovie.com. Or to read more about TZM, visit www.thezeitgeistmovement.com. For more information about the Ventura County chapter, visit www.zmvc.org.
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Comments
I do agree. What society has been doing for a long time is not sustainable.
It's sad that the world religions cannot unite humanity. Seems so contradictory that they don't... I think educating the people, and calling humanity to a place of compassion and reality is paramount. The Zeitgeist film is an eye-opener for certain.
Thanks for this informative and well-written article Shane.
~Carla
There is a great yearning for survival by people now, and every possible concept is being endlessly talked about and processed. We can see that the system is a system of slavery, even if it uses symbols and concepts to do it, and that the reason people are starving in a world of plenty is just to keep the threat alive which sustains the illusion that the existing system is the only possible solution. So the ideas, which pre-date Peter and even Jacque Fresco, have taken a long time to become part of the discussion, but represent the only possible viable alternative to the destruction of the ecosystem, and human species extinction.
But as most in the Zeitgeist Movement realize, it must be completely peaceful and use no coercion or it will not happen. So there are no shortcuts, no way to speed it up, and the task at hand is simply to educate and expose the world's people to the problems and the solutions until the majority decide to accomplish the changes. Only a good means can create a good result... cause/effect. So it comes down to how we think, what we talk about, and what we choose to put value into... long term life of freedom in an ecologically sound world... or eventual extinction by clinging to what does not work.
I look this up, it looks shady. I suggest people take a look at the multitude of criticisms about this group. Peter Joseph is actually a admitted occultist and was fired or cancelled by the venus project over donation money. There are videos all over youtube about this guy and his followers. Stay away, scary stuff!!
Peter had the issues with the Venus project because Peter did NOT want to raise donation money, among other reasons. Don't be confused. Nobody has run off with anyone's money. It's a very small group of people with no further agenda than trolling that like to draw wild conclusions and cite quotations way out of context to try to "debunk" the ideas spelled put very eloquently in the article above.
Wow. What a great article. Pass it around! #rbe
Poor Peter, he knows that something's wrong, but he doesn't know what it is.
"How do we save the world?"
What makes him think that "the world" needs saving? The world did fine for billions of years without our destructive species, and it will do fine for billions of years after we are gone.
By "the world," however, I suspect that Peter is referring to the fate of our species, and I am forced to admit that that is a lot more problematic. He is absolutely correct that human society as it is presently constituted is not sustainable.
"The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM) believes the solution lies in a resource-based economy in a modern global society."
This is a truism. There is no such thing as a non-resourced based economy. All wealth springs from the soil (and the air, water, sunlight, minerals, and the rest of the bounties that nature has bestowed upon us). (See John Michael Greer's splendid essay, "After Money," http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2... which tells you how the economy really works.
"Backed by credible examples and hard data, the essential message in Joseph’s three films and the movement’s charter can be summed up as this: Our greatest social problems are the direct results of our economic system."
Credibility is not a valid test of an hypothesis. Lots of people thought that the "flat world" theory was
valid. My own theory is that our greatest social problems are because that human fecundity, coupled with our ingenuity, has led to the excessive drawdown of the resources upon which complex life forms depend. See Overshoot. http://tinyurl.com/dtveq
Anyone who does not understand human ecology does not have a clue about the human predicament. You may or may not disagree, but if you have not read Overshoot you have no basis for challenging my thesis.
I support The Zeitgeist Movement. I refuse to accept that the unsustainable path humanity is on cannot be changed. Collectively humanity is too smart to let ourselves be the creators of our own demise.
We have the understanding, the technologies, and the resources to provide for the needs of everyone on the planet and do so in a way that sustainably manages the Earth's resource for all future generations. The only reason why we don't is the collective maturity of our species.
We must change our ways. Our future depends on it.
Real change is not made with elections and changing leaders. The leaders of the world's countries will not embrace the idea of a Resource Based Economy. It is too radical and supporting such an idea would likely lead to losing their jobs.
Instead, the movement to switch to a Resource Based Economy must come from the grassroots. There are more of us than there are of them. If the people want it, then it can happen.
Right now, it's all about spreading the word of the possibilities we can achieve and the better world we can all live, now and for our future generations.
I love ZGM for correctly identifying the cause for the social pathology that plagues the human race. ZGM just lacks in the department of solutions. It's not really their fault. It is just not the job of a single movement to give all the answers and direction. Let me tell you why I think so:
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." A centralized system of world governance touted by the ZGM is exactly what we all should fear the most. (Isn't that where NWO is allegedly going, too?) Instead of ZGM's idea of an elite interpreting the computer data or an elite programming the computer to react to data let's use social media for a direct democracy. Let's trust that people can vote for the people. That once freed from the monetary system people will have the leisure to educate themselves and find energy independence, sustainable methods and optimum self-governance in harmony with nature. The interesting part will be to find the good questions to solve in the vast pool of skill and intellect of the human community. The real question, and I'm sure Peter Joseph has run into that too with shallow reactions to his work, is: How do we harness and channel the immense potential of the collective human skill and ingenuity? Representative democracies such as we have now in all western civilizations will always lead to an oligarchy (Iron Law of Oligarchy) because of the bureaucracy needed for governance. Direct Democracy (online voting) does not have that flaw. It has the benefit of empowering and engaging stakeholders, creating a social dynamic of critique, communication and curiosity rather than a hotbed of advertisers, propagandists and media manipulators that insult our intelligence daily by avoiding the real questions.
Combine that with the idea of a republic (Rule By Law) the founding fathers had agreed upon. A society governed by simple laws of human conduct but in addition with the amazing capacity to analyze the circumstance and cause of a trespass against another at a much deeper level than known today to help eliminate a similar instance in the future by another instead of criminalization and a jungle of laws proliferated by the drive for monetary profit. (the business model of a judicial system.)
If the UN successfully closed the ozone hole, and against the odds of a monetary system achieved the Kyoto protocoll to be widely accepted, why couldn't it manage a global resource management and quotas? A sustainability audit branch could be introduced as the fourth column in the separation of powers, replacing commerce.
Power to the people for the people.
What do you think?
Why do I find it hard to believe that Danette Wallace researched the the 'money system' for years before she heard about the ZGM...now she thinks she is a 'money system' expert...funny.
Peter Joseph took the same (Wall Street) approach to power, money and popularity that the Venus Project did ... using the same Bankster-coddling approach that Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela adopted ... promoting the same agenda as the UN, the G20, and the 'GoreLords' of last year's Copenhagen 'Climate' Summit ... seeking accelerated ravaging of our Divinity, the Mother Earth: our (former) Numinous Biosphere of Rivers, Wetlands, Forests, Rainforests, Mycosphere, living 'Aquasphere', and living Atmosphere which today retains between 1 percent and 5 percent of its former 'life' or existence as we knew it (for example 1 percent of whale and dolphin population still alive, about five percent of the global rivers and wetlands, etc. etc.) ... this Genetic Biocide to be enshrined in Laboratory Glass and Corporate Concrete by law forever by these Corporate Bankster/Lawyers and their sick promoters -- none of whom are advocating a RETURN of the Rivers, Forests, Rainforests, Ocean life -- all of whom are promoting INCREASED industry, increased technology, increased Bankster indebtedness, servitude, and the genocide and ecocide resulting therefrom ...
yes, 9/11 was a Wall Street and Beltway Job, and Every Government, Every Mega-Religion and Every Mega-Corporation exists to forward their Genocide and Ecocide game (name a one who is speaking out against it!) -- but the Al Gores, Ron Pauls, Peter Josephs, Jacque Frescos ad nauseum all exist to further it, pursueing money and power by riding on it's bloody coatsleeves, not an one worldwide to call for replacing the current entropic war-based money/resource game with a hundred times greater GROWTH ECONOMY based on life, culture, spirituality ...
por todas las cosas (as the Chumash say 'All Our Sacred Relations'), returning ...
Millennium Twain
father of the (fraudulent) US Space Station Program,
designer of the X49 Scramjet Spaceplane and publisher of the SpacePlane Equation,
publisher of the (Electromagnetic Wave Resonance) Structure of the Atomic Nucleus
@lucinda: Yeah, those videos are pure trolling. Same dupe accounts uploading out-of-context videos critisizing Peter. Everything he says it's critisized, being put out of context. Do your research and you'll understand, don't be another moron who buys all that anti-Zeitgeist propaganda, by probably Alex Jones listeners and other luminaries.
@MindAtEase: I think you completely missed the point. Those centralized, updated-in-real-time systems, can be viewed and accessed by anyone, in a kind of wikipedia style enviorement. If we get to a state of human conscience where people is ready for an RBE, it would work. We need to educate the morons that would f*ck sh*t up on purpose first, thats why we can't simply build an RBE city and drop people on there.
@Millennium Twain: I will simply not reply to a spamming troll.
GET RID OF THE MONETARY MARKET! After the primitive application of competition becomes obsolete, the sustainable abundance of the core human needs on earth becomes the goal of technology. All decisions will be arrived at using the scientific method to evaluate various hypothesis (posed by anyone!). Computer algorithms with sensory data for resources will consider the feasibility of any hypothetical project for an improved society. Projects may include programs to prevent the cause of what little crime remains. People will be free to learn, experiment and enjoy life without the cumbersome repetition of today's pointless grinding workweek. The burden of ownership will become only a concept for historians to reflect on while jealousy is virtually irrelevant in this culture of shared experiences. This will be our future. Let us embrace it!
I want to challenge every troll, and other people with apparently a lot of time on their hands:
1st: Make yourself as vulnerable a Peter Joseph by trolling with your real name and some background as well.
2nd: As you trolls have everything against an RBE, come up with a better idea, okay?
3rd: If you are all about wasting energy by trying to put the brakes on real development, do us all a favour and disappear, allright?
4th: Trolls and other misfits cannot stop the world from taking the next logical step, but in the process of deliberatly trying to stop any progress from happening, consider the deaths on YOUR hands for over 30.000 innocent people every day, as long as we do not start a RBE, many, many lives will be lost. Think about that for a minute instead of your own twisted minds, but that's just me, I guess.
Thanks to Mindatease for the solution department opinion and brainstorm... Yes earth isn't flat... Propaganda or not! Please spend more time in the wild before you judge, do your own research (yes i know that requires efforts). Here is an example out of millions on how to waste your time... Ernest Duchesne documented it in an 1897 paper, which was not accepted by the Institut Pasteur because of his youth. In March 2000, doctors at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in San José, Costa Rica, published the manuscripts of the Costa Rican scientist and medical doctor Clodomiro (Clorito) Picado Twight (1887–1944). They reported Picado's observations on the inhibitory actions of fungi of the genus Penicillium between 1915 and 1927. Picado reported his discovery to the Paris Academy of Sciences, yet did not patent it, even though his investigations started years before Fleming's. Joseph Lister was experimenting with Penicillum in 1871 for his aseptic surgery. He found that it weakened the microbes, but then he dismissed the fungi... we can enumerate many case including Christopher Columbus that went trough the same process of propaganda (belief/disbelief)... the difference between you and him is that he did it! So who cares about Peter or the other old guy handing you one of the million solutions... What you need to care about is what YOU can do! 4th: 30000 innocent everyday... well the compassion business is Big Business! Lets look at the church, please make rational choices before you post... According to government statistics, there were 15 million excess deaths in this period.Unofficial estimates vary, but scholars have estimated the number of famine victims to be between 20 and 43 million. Yang Jisheng, a former Xinhua News Agency reporter who spent over ten years gathering information available to no other scholars, estimates excess deaths of 36 million.Historian Frank Dikötter, having been granted special access to Chinese archival materials, estimates that there were at least 45 million premature deaths from 1958 to 1962... I leave you to waste your time and debate on the math... but then the only non-violent solution you will find no matter what (and yes i am your god LOL)! Being the simples solution... What if they didn't give birth in the first place? the one constant in that debate is us, we always want more, we always procreate and we never take ourselves out of the equation... population control is easy to achieve... middle ages used wars to do that and prevent famine... did we evolve? contraception ouch that is too difficult! Rational? Why procreate when you cant sustain? even owels learned that!
I apologize for my poor English, it is not my first language.
May you find your way out of the grid
Claude