The Zeitgeist Movement

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The Zeitgeist Movement

The Zeitgeist Movement describes itself as a worldwide grassroots movement advocating social change, most significantly that of society transitioning from a monetary-based economy to a Resource-Based Economy. This group is noted on their website as 'the activist arm of the The Venus Project', a non-profit venture by Industrial Designer and Social Engineer Jacque Fresco. As of November 23, 2009, the movement claimed to have approximately 365,000 members.

Resource-Based Economy

See also: Natural resource economics

A Resource-Based Economy is a system in which all goods and services are available without the use of money, credits, barter or any other system of debt or servitude. All resources become the common heritage of all of the world's inhabitants. The premise upon which this system is based is that the Earth is abundant with plentiful resources; the practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter productive to the survival of the human species.

Resource-based economics is based upon the use of electronic networks to monitor the consumption and production of goods and services. Rather than by the use of a medium of exchange, the electronic networks would ensure the continuous distribution of goods and services to meet the demand of consumers. Instead of regulating individual purchasing power, as monetary economies do, resource-based economic systems aim to meet the combined projected demand of all consumers within a city or region.

Opponents of resource-based economics tend to point to the possibility of uncontrollable increases in demand. Resource-based economists project that total access to goods and services will actually reduce per capita demand as universal economic security would reduce or eliminate the occurrence of conspicuous consumption and other sources of status-related consumption.

Jacque Fresco proposed the concept of a Resource-Based Economy replacing the need for monetary price system economies. His claim is that the present economy is "scarcity-oriented" or "scarcity-based". Fresco argues that the world is rich in natural resources and energy and that with modern technology, the needs of the global population can be met.

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Circular city

He gives this example to help explain the idea:

At the beginning of World War II the U.S. had a mere 600 or so first-class fighting aircraft. We rapidly overcame this short supply by turning out more than 90,000 planes a year. The question at the start of World War II was: Do we have enough funds to produce the required implements of war? The answer was No, we did not have enough money, nor did we have enough gold; but we did have more than enough resources. It was the available resources that enabled the US to achieve the high production and efficiency required to win the war. Unfortunately this is only considered in times of war.

— Jacque Fresco

Zeitgeist Day

The Zeitgeist Movement has labeled March 15 as Zeitgeist Day. On this day the movement has local gatherings to learn and share information with all interested individuals. In 2008 there were 1800 events held in 70 nations around the world. In 2009, among other events, Peter Joseph and Jacque Fresco spoke to a crowd of around 900 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College for over 2 hours.

Radio Address

Currently, Peter Joseph maintains a weekly radio address, which is broadcasted every Wednesday on BlogTalkRadio, a website which allows users to host live internet radio shows. These broadcasts typically will discuss the progress of The Movement, hold interviews with varying personalities, provide exposure for The Movement's Chapters, and answer questions sent in by listeners about the concept of a Resource-Based Economy. Peter Joseph also discusses issues with Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows on occasion.

There are two other known BlogTalkRadio shows dealing with The Zeitgeist Movement, Resource-Based Economies, and The Venus Project, all affiliated with The Movement. One, which is known as V-Radio, is hosted by former Libertarian Congressional candidate Neil Kiernan Stephenson, who in 2008 ran for Congress and was endorsed by former Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Gravel.

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 , 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.

Media Reviews

Automated construction

On April 30, 2009, Rhonda Swan of Palm Beach Post wrote:

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, the New York Times wrote:

"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.”

See also

• The Venus Project
• Natural resource economics

Further reading

• Edward Bellamy, Equality (D. Appleton & Co. 1897).
• Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era, (Tarcher/Penguin; Updated Edition 2004).

External links

• Official Website
• The Zeitgeist Movement Video Orientation
• Zeitgeist & Zeitgeist: Addendum (Google Video)