The Zeitgeist Movement
| The Zeitgeist Movement | |
Type of site | Social movement |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Earth |
| URL | http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com |
| Registration | membership |
The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM) is a grassroots movement and online community.[1] It describes itself as a sustainability advocacy organization, and is the official activist arm of The Venus Project founded by industrial designer and social engineer Jacque Fresco. The Zeitgeist Movement was inspired by the social response from Peter Joseph's films Zeitgeist: The Movie and Zeitgeist: Addendum. However, it was Zeitgeist Addendum which first introduced The Venus Project. A third film is currently in production and is called Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. Peter Joseph has stated that its topics will focus on human behavior, technology, and rationality.[2] The third film is scheduled to be released in select theatres on January 15, 2011, and online January 25, 2011. The Movement's website states that a distinction is made between the work of The Movement and the issues raised in Peter Joseph's films in that The Movement is not necessarily in advocacy of any issues raised in the films and exists on its own.[3]
Concepts advocated by the Zeitgeist Movement
- Management of the Earth's Natural Resources: Once surveyed, the Earth's natural resources will no longer be privately owned. They will be managed according to general sustainability principles of preservation, recycling and optimization.
- No Money, Barter, Trade or Property: The monetary value of commodities does not represent the actual physical supply of natural resources, or their utilitarian value, which is integral to the success of the type of sustainable global society that the Zeitgeist Movement advocates. Income is a requirement for individuals to sustain life in a monetary system, so this in turn creates the need for commodities to be continuously bought and sold and for goods to be continuously produced, in order to make sure that the operation of social functions is maintained. This, combined with competition over market share, creates an abundance of goods that usually exceeds the demand for them, which in turn depletes natural resources and may create excessive waste. Furthermore, the profit motive inherent in a monetary system, creates an incentive to increase profits regardless of the impact on human beings or the environment. When labor is displaced or outsourced, it either removes a laborer's source of sustenance, or takes advantage of inexpensive laborers. Certain manufacturers and corporations have been noted to contaminate the environment by dumping their by-products and waste materials, instead of disposing of them properly, in order to save money.[4][5] Other manufacturers have been known to take advantage of a process called planned obsolescence in order to increase sales of their products over time. With universal access to goods and services provided by a sustainable means of production based on resource availability, optimization and preservation, these problems of a monetary economy can be overcome.
- Automation: Machine automation is more productive than human labor and replaces the need for people to perform repetitive and tedious tasks.
- Technological Unification of the Earth: Globally networked technological infrastructure is required to monitor planetary resources in real time, and theoretically make the most efficient use of them in solving planetary problems.
- Scientific Methodology: Decision making regarding the methods of production, what goods and services are to be provided, city planning and resource optimization, preservation and recycling will be arrived at by analysing relevant trends and data, via use of the scientific method.
- Sustainable City Systems: Utilizing a systemic approach for a sustainable global society, city systems may act as microcosm to the global network of technological infrastructure. The city system can incorporate all manufacturing, goods and services that people will use on a daily basis within the city limits. The city system may also utilize a cybernetic central computer to monitor energy and resource supply, usage and other relevant data in real time, relaying this information to other city systems that make up the macrocosm of the technologically unified globe.
Phases of The Movement
Phase 1: Awareness Phase
As of 20 April 2010[update] the Zeitgeist Movement was in phase 1, consisting of collecting people, getting the movement's information out, and finding identification with other groups of individuals across all races, religions, and ethnicities. Phase 1 also consists of, but is not limited to, forming teams to create the infrastructure of the movement site, a communication team, and a development team. Another aspect of phase 1 is forming international chapters which are needed for creating the infrastructure for communication on a global level. The main objective of phase 1 is the need for more members, in order to make the existence of the movement relevant to the external world.
Phase 2: Project Phase
Phase 2 is the team action phase, which the movement is not in yet, where chapter projects are shared with the community. This collective understanding is needed for a synchronized approach for projects such as knowledgeable lecturers. This is also the phase for organized awareness projects which are anticipated to lead to the incubation of offshoot projects such as ending world hunger, disarmament (by choice, not force), and anti-militarism. This phase focuses on expansion of the teams which will lead to expansion of the group and the creation of a functional organization. The aim of phase 2 is the interconnection of these groups with interrelated and interdisciplinary focuses.
Phase 3: Action Phase
Phase 3 is where more assertive forms of activism will occur such as boycotts, fund raising, city construction and possibly instigating direct interaction with corporate and political organizations in the form of bio-social pressures.
Zeitgeist Day (Z-Day)
The Zeitgeist Movement holds its annual "Z-Day" in March, each year. The first Z-Day was on March 15, 2009 and the second on March 13, 2010. On this day, the Zeitgeist Movement has local gatherings to learn and share information with all interested individuals. In 2009 there were more than 450 events held in 70 countries around the world.[6] In 2009, among other events, Peter Joseph and Jacque Fresco spoke to a sold out crowd of around 900 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College for over 2 hours.[7]
Chapters
The Zeitgeist Movement members are organized into country/regional, state and city "sub"-chapters.[8] Each chapter/sub-chapter is hosted and maintained independently on its own domain, or in sub-domains from The Zeitgeist Movement's main site. The chapters are coordinated by individuals or groups of individuals who are well-versed in the movement's tenets and direction and have chosen to donate their time to help further its current goals. According to The Zeitgeist Movement July 2010 Newsletter, The Zeitgeist Movement currently has 46 official country chapters over 200 regional sub-chapters internationally.[9] This includes all 50 official U.S. state chapters.[10] A virtual chapter was also created to represent the movement in the virtual world Second Life.[11]
Radio Address
Peter Joseph maintains a weekly radio address, that is currently on hiatus, which is broadcast every Wednesday on BlogTalkRadio. These broadcasts discuss the progress of the Zeitgeist Movement, hold interviews with various relevant personalities, provide information for the Zeitgeist Movement's Chapters, and answer questions sent in by listeners.
There are two other popular BlogTalkRadio shows dealing with the Zeitgeist Movement, a Resource-Based Economy and The Venus Project. One is Z Radio, a weekly broadcast co-hosted by Zeitgeist Movement veterans, Thunder and Franklee (as they are known in the movement) and produced by Shawn Hodgins. The other, known as V-Radio,[12] is hosted by Neil Kiernan Stephenson (aka, VTV).
Media Project
According to a press release circulated to members on May 12, 2010, the Zeitgeist Media Project (ZMP) Beta was released. According to the press release the Media Project is an extension of the Communications Team.
Reception and influence
Musician Natacha Atlas cites the movement as her inspiration for her 2010 concept album Mounqaliba.[13]
Media reviews
On April 30, 2009, Rhonda Swan of the Palm Beach Post wrote:[14]
Who can argue with such a movement? What we have never has worked for the benefit of society as a whole. How much longer can we really expect it to last? Isn't keeping our current system and expecting something different from what it's always given us insanity?
— Palm Beach Post
On March 17, 2009, Alan Feuer of the New York Times wrote:[15]
"The mission of the movement is the application of the scientific method for social change,” Mr. Joseph announced by way of introduction. The evening, which began at 7 with a two-hour critique of monetary economics, became by midnight a utopian presentation of a money-free and computer-driven vision of the future, a wholesale reimagination of civilization, as if Karl Marx and Carl Sagan had hired John Lennon from his “Imagine” days to do no less than redesign the underlying structures of planetary life.
— New York Times
From the same article:
"If this sounds vaguely like a disaster scenario out of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Mr. Fresco did not seem worried in the least. Machines are unemotional and unaggressive, unlike human beings, he told the crowd during the question-and-answer phase. “If you took your laptop and smashed it in front of 50 other laptops, trust me, none of them would care.”
Ban from StudiVZ
In June 2009, the German networking site StudiVZ shut down The Zeitgeist Movement's group, which reportedly had around ten thousand members,[16] and sent a letter to the group's administrator stating that the reason for the ban was Anti-Semitic tendencies expressed by the group's members. The group has vehemently denied this accusation, particularly on the forum of The Venus Project's website. Members stated that the accusation made an unfair association to groups which supported Jewish world domination conspiracy theories.
See also
References
- ^ "The Zeitgeist Movement Website". The Zeitgeist Movement. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
- ^ The Zeitgeist Movement Public Forum, Radio Address, Full Q & As (from Peter), available at http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=1905&func=showcat&catid=232. Retrieved on 2009-05-31
- ^ http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kb&task=article&article=3&Itemid=100091
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/mar/28/environment.uknews
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54914-2002Feb22?language=printer
- ^ "What is Zday".
- ^ Alan Feuer (March 16, 2009). "They've Seen the Future and Dislike the Present". New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
- ^ http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=492&Itemid=1908
- ^ http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/July2010NL.pdf
- ^ "The Zeitgeist Movement Website". The Zeitgeist Movement. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
- ^ http://chapters.thezeitgeistmovement.com/virtual/
- ^ "V-Radio".
- ^ Hochman, Steve (3 August 2010). "Natacha Atlas Illuminates the Shifting Global Zeitgeist". Spinner News. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
- ^ Rhonda Swan (April 30, 2009). "COLUMN: A dream worth having". The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/nyregion/17zeitgeist.html?_r=1
- ^ http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=1905&func=view&catid=229&id=137493
Further reading
- Activist Orientation Guide (Peter Joseph | Roxanne Meadows | Jacque Fresco, February 2009)
- Jacque Fresco, The Best that Money can't Buy (Global Cybervisions February 2002)