The Revolution Is Now... Zeitgeist: Addendum A brave look to a better future

[adriantc 0]

Before reading any of the following I urge you to watch this movie... It may very much depend on your view of the world, but I am sure it will impress you as much as it did me. If you have seen the first one, don't judge now. I didn't like the first either. So without further discussing I give you Zeitgeist: Addendum

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Now that you have seen the movie I would like to start a discussion on it's ideas. I am completely impressed by it's reasoning and although I have to admit that even before watching it I was open to a "moneyless" society I am now convinced that it is actually a viable solution to the sickness of money and capitalism.

 

I find the first part (and specially the second) of the documentary rather dim compared to the rest of it. I was already convinced that money is the root of all evil, but what this documentary clearly shows is why! The most compelling thing of this documentary is the way is shows a society based on materialism is not really going forward. The apparent benefit of competition is, on the long run, a dead end. Cooperation is the key to a brighter future and cooperation cannot be in a society based on profit. In fact money as an object is not evil, but what it encourages is. It encourages profit, which is an expression of greed. A materialistic society is a society of greed, a society which cannot evolve to the next level. Competition is good, but cooperation is far better!

As for the "conspiracy" of world banks and corporations it's a thing well known. We all know there are far better alternatives to fossil flues, but the industry blocks any real advances. We all know cancer and HIV can be cured with enough research, but the medicine industry gets a lot more profit from treating an already ill patient. One thing they hate is a cure, what they love is a medicine you have to take every single day! As they say in the documentary that is the evil side of profit! It puts something as useless as money in front of human life and human welfare. There is no way to ignore this conclusion even if you are an enthusiastic capitalist.

 

Fortunate or not this documentary has the advantage of landing right in the middle of one of the (if not the) biggest economic crisis of the world. I know a lot of people will suffer but I can't stop enjoying every point DOW goes down. I know people will suffer, but the ones that will suffer the most are the ones most rich. And maybe, just maybe, after the collapse of the monetary system the world will look forward to a new society.... which brings us to parts 3 and 4 of Zeitgeist: Addendum. [i have put all the hate that I have for this system in one post in this topic]

 

Most of you have seen Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future. Star Trek shows an economy without money, an economy driven by self-improvement. It seems utopic that everybody would live in peace, without war and little crime. Most capitalistic laugh when hearing about Star Trek. But what makes the universe of Star Trek possible and the main idea of Zeitgeist: Addendum is technology. What drives the current world is scarcity. Barter and later money was invented because of scarcity of food, oil... resources in general. Star Trek has the replicator, the real world has wind, solar, wave, geothermal power. Enormous quantities of never depleting energy. And with our other technologies, basic things like food, shelter and clothing will never be a problem for anyone on this planet. Technology ends the age of scarcity and with it the need for money and materialism. Still - a society without money - how will it work? what about rewards? and most of all where will the incentive be? Just imagine a world where everything you need is for free because it is massed produced by machines. Work, or at least 95% of it, will be done by automatic machines. There would be no crime... why to steal when everything is at your disposal. What is to do in such a society where there the future is secure from every point of view? Would you spend 70 or 80 years lying in the sun o would you try to give something to the community, to bring glory to yourself. There is no need for incentive for once tomorrow is secure there is nothing else to do.

 

After watching this documentary a society without money seems a lot more plausible, maybe not in our lifetime or in the next generation, but our grandchildren or their children will look back at our times and study the Dark Ages of civilization.

 

Any way you take it - we are living interesting times; we see history in the making. And maybe it's just the right time for this change... If the materialistic world is to fall, I am going to be one of the those trying to build a better one.

The Zeitgeist Movement just gone one more member. Hope others will follow.

 

I hope this will be an interesting discussion! Feel free to criticizes any of it, but keep it decent!

 

 

PS: The site of the Zeitgeist Movement will be launched on the 10th of Oct!

Edited October 4, 2008 by adriantc (see edit history)

[Voodoo3 0]

The movie is a must watch, you cant argue against the ideas it represents. I'm going to do my best to change the establishment and will pass on the info.

[travstatesmen 0]

I haven't seen this movie yet, not even the first one, but I am intrigued by the concept that you have outlined in this thread, adriantc. The current turbulent times in the American financial market no doubt make postulating on such a theory to be very opportune.

 

Tonight on television here in New Zealand we saw an article about the major supermarkets of Australasia, including Coles and Woolworths, and how they are freezing out competition, even to the detriment of their own suppliers, by demanding ever higher profits. I remember how this worked when I was still working in the computer industry: as a retailer myself, I could buy, for instance, an HP inkjet printer cartridge cheaper by going to a large retailer than I could by going to a wholesaler. It is all about the economies of scale. If a large retailer, such as *BLEEP* Smith Electronics here in Australasia, or, for instance, Circuit City in the USA, buys up 1,000 units or whatever, they get a better price per unit than I would if I am only buying 100 units. Therefore I can take advantage of the better margin that the wholesale gives to Circuit City by buying from them rather than buying direct from the wholesaler. And it is all money in the back pocket of big business. Eventually supply lines get so tied up that the large retailers demand such a lot of stock that the wholesaler cannot supply anybody else other than the large retailers and there is no stock left over for the smaller competitors. This is what the television show tonight was talking about, how the primary producers, fresh fruit and vegetables, are getting so tied up with the large food chains that they cannot extract themselves. Eventually the large retailers are re-branding the manufacturer's goods with their own brand names and selling and selling the same goods cheaper (at retail rates) than the wholesalers are prepared to sell to anyone else. And yet it is apparently not anti-competitive!

 

I think in light of such problems with capitalism there must be a better solution. I will be interested to see this documentary and see what they have to say.

[youanden 0]

Yes, it is a beautiful movie. I was astonished at the fact that this was right in front of me the whole time, this kind of society.. was.. possible! After seeing this, I now want to dedicate a part of my life to make this concept reality, by informing and slowly driving technology to do the useless jobs that can be replaces, that actually hurt people, by that, I mean backbreaking jobs, extremely boring jobs, such as sticker placing, etc. I believe this is possible. And all of this will be driven by the concept that humans behave differently when they don't require anything else for themselves, or anyone they directly care about. To the future!

[adriantc 0]

I have heard some negative voices stating that Addendum gains publicity by using the financial crisis as a backdrop. I have to admit they do it, but why shouldn't they? It is the failure of the current economic system.

 

I don't see Addendum as a "bible" for a revolution as some did. It has problems... the Venus Project sells stuff on their website. And despite the fact that I share their vision I can't agree with their methods. The needed revolution has to take place in our mind, in our values. It's not like tomorrow the world will burn money and we will like happily ever after. Only fools could think that. What we have is an abundance of technology (that does not result in profit) ready to help us if we embrace it... What we have to do is to invest heavily into research. Only by doing so we can create viable technology to fulfill the worlds needs. Food, energy all could be plentiful if only it wouldn't be held back by the "no-profit" idea. That is where the change must take place. Once we are on that road money will begin to have less and less value as scarcity will be no more.

It's hard for us to imagine a world without money for we are bound by this faulty economic system. Everyone I tell thinks I'm nuts because I wish the current system would fail. But wasn't Galileo seen the very same way? The system protects itself. A friend of mine was horrified that I enjoyed seeing the world economy going to hell. I am immediately labeled as an anarchist. But I am just the opposite. I won't eat as many candies, or drink as much Coke, or buy a PSP as I just did. But I will live. If at the end of the tunnel there is a better world I think the sacrifice of a generation or two is acceptable. A few days ago I tried to talk with my teacher and my colleges at school about why a gold standard would be a great idea in the context of this troubled economy. While it doesn't bring such an explosion in production it sure brings stability. And most important it brings an end to the credit based economy. What we need is called STABILITY. But they kept saying... no it's not good; it stops production and progress. But what is the use of a currency that has no actual backing. The only value of that paper is the fact that the government acknowledges it and forces everybody to use it. My teacher seems to take for granted the idea that more money=more stuff in the market to buy with the extra money=more prosperity for everybody. But that's not I think. More useless things doesn't mean progress. Forced production in the interest of profit doesn't mean progress!

 

And why do we need such a boom in production for it only brings unwanted self indulgence. I won't say "eat just enough to live", but we have to realize that the production explosion cannot run forever as consumption can't increase forever. Even this artificial consumption based on brainwashing people into buying things they don't need cannot grow forever. A sustainable future requires not explosions and downfalls rather a constant very low increase. That's why change doesn't have to happen in a generation or two but in 10. Because humanity has to grow accustomed to a world based on another value other then money. My best friend - a convinced capitalist asked me what this value would be. Glory, some kind of immortality (not in the physical form, but in the spiritual one). Maybe the people of the future will not value the money brought by an invention, but the invention itself. The inventor won't be known because he got billions and billions of useless paper money or strings of 1 and 0 in a computer, but because he invented something that helped millions of his fellow people. When he will be on his death bed he can truly say he left something behind. Galileo for example will be known hundreds or thousands of years from now on. Maybe as long as humanity exists. He is in a sense immortal. But not because he got rich, but because he had an idea that brought progress. No amount of money can bring you that. The reward of immortality (in the general mind or in the invention itself) is far greater then any amount of money. We just have to make the world understand it.

 

In the hopes I haven't bored you to death I await your comments!

Edited October 31, 2008 by adriantc (see edit history)

[EchoTang 0]

ive seen zeitgeist before. Pretty interesting ideas and i truly believe in most its points, theories and arguments.

[networker 0]

The problem is for most people is that there is no utopia without profit.The whole way of the western world, and with the eastern world catching up,is based on competition. It's nice to believe in Startrek,but I'm a little cynical of that.I'll beliebe it when everybody donates they're shares in the dowjones to charity.