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==Criticism==
==Criticism==
Common criticism of the organization’s proposals have included objections to the practicality of such changes, accusations of utopianism,<ref name="NWT"/> the problem of transition to the proposed social system, the idea being against human nature<ref name="TNA"/> and fear of resulting totalitarianism if transition was accomplished<ref name="TNA"/>. More extreme critics have accused the organization as being “new world order” <ref>Chris White, [http://www.infowars.com/zeitgeist-2-theosophy-socialism-and-the-new-nwo/ "ZEITGEIST 2: THEOSOPHY, SOCIALISM, AND THE NEW NWO"], ''infowars.com'' October 15, 2008.</ref>, anti-Semitic<ref>Michelle Goldberg, [http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/57732/brave-new-world "BRAVE NEW WORLD"], ''tabletmag.com'' February 2, 2011.</ref> and a cult.<ref>[http://theothermccain.com/2011/01/14/how-to-talk-to-a-follower-of-the-zeitgeist-cult-if-you-must/ "How to Talk to a Follower of the Zeitgeist Cult (If You Must)"], ''theothermccain.com'' January 14, 2011.</ref>
An article in the ''[[Journal of Contemporary Religion]]'' describes the movement as an example of a "conspirituality," a synthesis of [[New Age]] spirituality and [[conspiracy theory]].<ref name=j10/>


Alex Newman of The New American concluded “The plan, in its entirety, overlooks the most obvious of all roadblocks to its implementation: human nature (and the lack of “thinking” robotic slaves). No matter the brainwashing done, self-interest will reduce any such plan to failure, as it has when implemented by the plan’s kissing cousins — socialism and communism — for generations. But also because of the nature of human nature, don’t expect this plan to go away soon.”<ref name="TNA"/>
[[Michelle Goldberg]] of ''[[Tablet Magazine]]'' called the movement "the world's first Internet-based apocalyptic cult, with members who parrot the party line with cheerful, rote fidelity." In her opinion, the movement is "devoted to a kind of sci-fi planetary communism", and the [[Zeitgeist (film series)#Zeitgeist: The Movie|2007 documentary]] that "sparked" the movement was "steeped in far-right, isolationist, and covertly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories."<ref name=t7 />


Alan Feuer of ''[[The New York Times]]'' said the movement was like "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."<ref name=n8/>
Alan Feuer of the New York Times referred to his experience at the ZDay event in 2009 as “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.”<ref name="NWT"/>


Peter Joseph has actively addressed such criticisms, saying with regard to the claim of utopianism, “They call it a Utopia and say it can’t happen…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.”<ref name="VC">
In Socialist Unity magazine and also Tablet Magazine the film’s relationship to anti-Semitic texts is claimed and it is claimed that those theories are made to look left-wing or liberal. A relationship between the film and a book called [[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]], along with the films use of other [[anti-Semitic]] tropes is claimed.<ref>http://socialistunity.com/zeitgeist-exposed Retrieved June-15-2016/</ref><ref>http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/57732/brave-new-world Retrieved June-15-2016</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 17:59, 25 June 2016

"TZM" redirects here. For the superalloy, see Molybdenum § Alloys.

The Zeitgeist Movement
AbbreviationTZM
Formation2008
TypeAdvocacy group
Region served
International
Key people
Peter Joseph
Websitewww.thezeitgeistmovement.com

The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in the state of California.[1] It is also a grassroots social movement organized by regional chapters.[2][3] It was founded by filmmaker Peter Joseph in 2008.[4] According to its mission statement it is “a sustainability advocacy organization, which conducts community based activism and awareness actions through a network of global/regional chapters, project teams, annual events, media and charity work.”[5] It advocates a transformation of society, specifically its economic system, promoting a post-scarcity type economic approach often termed a “resource-based economy”.[6]

History

The Zeitgeist Movement was originally created in 2008 in partnership with an organization called The Venus Project that was founded by engineer and futurist Jacque Fresco.[4] Fresco is said to have coined the term “resource-based economy”.[5] In 2011, the two groups separated over disagreements in goals and objectives.[7] While started as an all volunteer, informal group, without any legal status, in 2016 the movement formed its 501(c)(3) nonprofit under the same name, allowing for tax-exempt status and tax-deductible donation support. The name “zeitgeist”, meaning the “spirit of the age” was taken from founder Peter Joseph’s Zeitgeist Film Series, which was an inspiration for the organization.[5]

Structure

The movement’s main administration consists of a board of directors based in the United States, while also maintaining a volunteer international chapter structure with groups in numerous countries.[2][8] As predominantly an educational movement, it conducts annual events, produces video and literary media, and works through teams to conduct research and development projects.[8]

Chapters

As of 2016, the organization reports around 160 chapters worldwide with 400,000 to 500,000 subscribed members worldwide as reported in 2011.[2][9][10] Chapters are focused on public awareness actions engaging their local regions. Annual event days such as Zeitgeist Day or the Zeitgeist Media Festival are shared global events which not only have a central event location, chapters usually participate in parallel by holding their own regional events during the same period.[10]

Chapter tiers are currently organized as:

  • International Chapters (i.e Germany, Australia, Ukraine)
  • Stave/Province Chapters (i.e. Toronto, Vancouver, California, North Carolina)
  • Local Town/City Chapters

Events

The group holds two annual events, Zeitgeist Day (or “ZDay”) and the Zeitgeist Media Festival. Zeitgeist Day is its flagship educational forum held in the spring of each year in.[5][11] There are single main events and there are parallel or sympathetic events. The first ZDay main event took place in Manhattan in 2009 with a sold out crowd of 900 and included a lecture from Peter Joseph and question and answer with Jacque Fresco, with reportedly 70 countries also participating in parallel.[12][5] Other keynote speakers through the years have included philosopher John McMurtry and independent journalist Abby Martin.

Zeitgeist Day (Main) Events to date:

Zeitgeist Media Festival is an annual artivist event that started in 2011, held in the fall of each year. Celebrity participation has included actor Rutger Hauer, author Marianne Williamson, TV writer Tim Kring, Billy Gibbons of the band ZZ Top and violin virtuoso Lili Haydn.[17] The first event took place at the Music box in Hollywood, CA. As with ZDay, some local chapters of the movement hold their own events in parallel during the same weekend.[18][19]

Advocacy

The Zeitgeist Movement advocates a kind of a post-scarcity economy and views a great majority of the world’s social and ecological problems as linked to market economics.[10] The movement links economic inequality, poverty, political corruption, pollution and environmental destruction to the structure of capitalism, seeing its removal as the only solution to true improvement. Its materials propose a new economic system based on a more direct technical approach to resource management and industrial production, absent the use of money and markets. It supports democratic principles through a kind of [participatory economics] and [open source] development, moving away from traditional politics which it views as outdated.[10]

In January 2014, the organization released a book called The Zeitgeist Movement Defined composed of eighteen essays on views of psychology, economics, and scientific theory.[20][21] It states in the introduction, “TZM's activism is explicitly based on non-violent methods of communication with the core focus on educating the public about the true root sources of many common personal, social and ecological problems today, coupled with the vast problem solving and humanity improving potential science and technology has now enabled, but yet goes unapplied due to barriers inherent in the current, established social system.”[21]

Referring to the nature of the promoted resource-based economy, Travis Donovan of the Huffington Post stated “... the world’s resources would be considered as the equal inheritance of all the world’s peoples, and would be managed as efficiently and carefully as possible through focusing on the technological potential of sustainable development.”[4]

Shane Cohn writing for the VC Reporter defined the movement by reporting: “…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.”[2]

According to Kenny Jakubas who reviewed the organization’s self-published book, The Zeitgeist Movement Defined, “In a nutshell, the goal behind the Zeitgeist Movement has to do with changing society’s influences and pressures in an attempt to reveal the best of the human condition. This type of change isn’t easy though. This is why, according to the authors, the book relies so heavily on research-based material, avoiding the more colorful and dramatic language expected from a book that tries to convince readers of something.[21]

Criticism

Common criticism of the organization’s proposals have included objections to the practicality of such changes, accusations of utopianism,[12] the problem of transition to the proposed social system, the idea being against human nature[10] and fear of resulting totalitarianism if transition was accomplished[10]. More extreme critics have accused the organization as being “new world order” [22], anti-Semitic[23] and a cult.[24]

Alex Newman of The New American concluded “The plan, in its entirety, overlooks the most obvious of all roadblocks to its implementation: human nature (and the lack of “thinking” robotic slaves). No matter the brainwashing done, self-interest will reduce any such plan to failure, as it has when implemented by the plan’s kissing cousins — socialism and communism — for generations. But also because of the nature of human nature, don’t expect this plan to go away soon.”[10]

Alan Feuer of the New York Times referred to his experience at the ZDay event in 2009 as “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.”[12]

Peter Joseph has actively addressed such criticisms, saying with regard to the claim of utopianism, “They call it a Utopia and say it can’t happen…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.”Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

[33]

[34]

[35]

[36]

}}

  1. ^ "THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT (Incorporation details)", businessfilings.sos.ca.gov,.
  2. ^ a b c d Shane Cohn, "The Zeitgeist Movement spreads to Ventura County", vcreporter.com December 5, 2011,.
  3. ^ "The Zeitgeist Movement Chapters Portal", tzmchapters.net.
  4. ^ a b c d Travis Donovan, "The Zeitgeist Movement: Envisioning A Sustainable Future", huffingtonpost.com May 25, 2011,.
  5. ^ a b c d e "The Zeitgeist Movement: practical advices to build a better future", heralddeparis.com March 19, 2009.
  6. ^ "TEDxO'Porto - Peter Joseph - Arriving at a Resource-Based Economy", tedxtalks.ted.com.
  7. ^ "Zeitgeist: The Venus Project Break Up - Peter Joseph - London Real", youtube.com,.
  8. ^ a b TIFFY THOMPSON, "First Tool Libraries, now Timebanks: Toronto's Zeitgeist movement is expanding", yongestreetmedia.ca June 5, 2013.
  9. ^ "Local Zeitgeist chapter celebrates global ZDay", dailyheraldtribune.com March 15, 2010.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Alex Newman, "Zeitgeist and the Venus Project", thenewamerican.com March 10, 2011.
  11. ^ Jane Dunlap Norris, "First local Zeitgeist Day part of global pause to focus on improvements, big ideas", dailyprogress.com March 15, 2013.
  12. ^ a b c d e f ALAN FEUER, "They’ve Seen the Future and Dislike the Present", nytimes.com March 16, 2009. Cite error: The named reference "NWT" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  13. ^ "London Z Day 2011 Main Event", eventbrite.co.uk.
  14. ^ "ZEITGEIST DAY 2014 - Main Event", zmca.org March 15, 2014.
  15. ^ "The Zeitgeist Movement Z-DAY 2015 Main Event - Berlin", tickettailor.com.
  16. ^ "Ή τώρα ή ποτέ", zougla.gr.
  17. ^ Simone Snaith, "Zeitgeist Media Festival at The Music Box", thelosangelesbeat.com August 8, 2011.
  18. ^ Alex Simon, "Awaiting Interreflections: Peter Joseph’s Highly Anticipated New Film Series Inches Towards its 2016 Release", huffingtonpost.com June 20, 2015.
  19. ^ "Zeitgeist Media Festival", zeitgeistmediafestival.com.
  20. ^ "The Zeitgeist Movement Defined", forewordreviews.com .
  21. ^ a b c "The Zeitgeist Movement Defined", forewordreviews.com.
  22. ^ Chris White, "ZEITGEIST 2: THEOSOPHY, SOCIALISM, AND THE NEW NWO", infowars.com October 15, 2008.
  23. ^ Michelle Goldberg, "BRAVE NEW WORLD", tabletmag.com February 2, 2011.
  24. ^ "How to Talk to a Follower of the Zeitgeist Cult (If You Must)", theothermccain.com January 14, 2011.
  25. ^ "Zeitgeist Media Festival 2012: A celebration to be shared with the entire Earth". Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  26. ^ "The Zeitgeist Movement: Envisioning A Sustainable Future". Huffington Post. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  27. ^ Ward, Charlotte; Voas, David (2011). "The Emergence of Conspirituality". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 26 (1): 109. doi:10.1080/13537903.2011.539846. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
  28. ^ Alan Feuer (March 17, 2009). "They've Seen the Future and Dislike the Present". The New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2009.
  29. ^ Goldberg, Michelle (February 2, 2011). "Brave New World". Tablet. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
  30. ^ McElroy, Danien. June 17, 2012. Forest boy 'inspired by Zeitgeist movement'. The Telegraph. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  31. ^ Cohn, Shane. "New world re-order". VCReporter. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  32. ^ Swan, Rhonda (April 30, 2009). "A dream worth having". The Palm Beach Post. Archived from the original on August 30, 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  33. ^ Resnick, Jan (February 25, 2009). "The Zeitgeist Movement". Psychotherapy in Australia. 15 (2). ISSN 1323-0921. Retrieved May 31, 2015.
  34. ^ Quotations and citations in this Wikipedia article are based on the translation from Hebrew to English of The Filmmaker Who Helped Recruit Millions for the Global Protests of the Bottom 99%, original Hebrew article by Asher Schechter, TheMarker (Israel), January 19, 2012.
  35. ^ Newman, Alex (March 10, 2011). "Zeitgeist and the Venus Project". The New American. Retrieved May 31, 2015.
  36. ^ "Jacque Fresco - Social Engineer - Legendado Português". dotsub. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
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