The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM)
Hi, my name is Peter Joseph. I'm the founder of a
social sustainability organization called The Zeitgeist Movement,
which, in form, has about a thousand chapters across 70 countries.
Basically, we're all working together to try to bridge some differences
about economic problems that are working [their] way across the world-
social destabilization, unemployment, debt crisis,
environmental destabilization-
and this community is attempting to bring new sustainable ideas
to the forefront to revolutionize economy as we know it,
hence revolutionize human values as we know it,
so we can try to create a new way of life.
It's a grass-roots movement with that basic premise.
(Ben McLeish) This movement is essentially a social movement.
It's not-... It's easier to describe what it isn't, really.
It's not a political movement; we don't really recognize politics
as a viable option in addressing the issues we talk about.
It's a voluntary social movement really, a grass-roots social movement,
that centers on actual sustainability.
We need a society that functions on a physical level,
that actually has advanced, intelligent, automated
(to the most degree that you can) systems,
to enable efficient transport, efficient energy usage, efficient land usage.
Part of our understandings are that we need sustainable city systems,
very much like those spoken about in The Venus Project,
or by Buckminster Fuller, or many other futuristic city planners.
So that's sort of the first level, is, we understand that
Earth is a finite resource. Earth is actually entirely a resource.
We think about wave and wind and tide; it's in fact one thing.
This is the resource we're on;
this is the rock that we're on, that's hurtling through space,
and we need to live on it.
We need to continue to live on it, and as well as possible.
(Doug Malette) Why do I like The Zeitgeist Movement?
Why do I ass-kick for The Zeitgeist Movement?
It's very simple:
I love this.
(TZM advocate) What we currently refer to as capitalism under various guises around the world,
suggested in various doses and concoctions in the prescriptive manuals
of political philosophy and economic texts,
the monetary-based price system as a means of coordinating and organizing
so-called economic activity of consumers,
producers, and owners of resources, is ultimately unsustainable.
The reason for this, is that it's essentially predicated upon linear consumption,
and you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet.
Join The Zeitgeist Movement! It is exciting,
the people that you meet are fantastic; they think like you,
and we're out to make a difference on something that really matters.
Because whatever you needed to do to get money-...
and what's happened now with the value-system disorder,
is that since that's the pursuit, that's the divine drive of the system,
that's what status is defined by, that's what your success is defined by,
that everyone can blindly look the other way
with how much destruction is occurring in the world.
(TZM Advocate #2) And when I look at our species, I just see one that's divided.
We're so in our infancy.
We're having to learn the most basic lessons
in the 21st Century, and The Zeitgeist Movement
and a Resource-Based Economy (RBE) doesn't go like that.
They take the stance that, the Earth
is the common heritage of everyone to share.
It's not for us all just to dive in and take what we want,
but for us to intelligently manage the planet.
The monetary system has come to an end. It was very useful for a while.
I've not been anti-money in all of history;
it's changed its usage in history. You can't be blanket anti-money
and still understand the history of money.
But we've obviously come to the end of that paradigm now,
because now it isn't serving 'us' anymore, and that was the goal to begin with:
It was to ensure that there was enough labor
so that there were enough resources,
so that we have the system, so that people are OK.
The Zeitgeist Movement, from my perspective,
is all about quality. It's all about preserving our planet;
it's all about thriving on human creativity and innovation.
In fact the truth is, this entire system of cyclical consumption
that we have in this country, is the cause of all of our problems.
"Zeitgeist Addendum" was mind-boggling! Dots began to connect.
Now, is that time, to move to that next level.
I advocate The Zeitgeist Movement, The Venus Project, and a Resource-Based Economy,
because they represent the only viable alternatives
to the corrupt and unsustainable system that we have today.
People aren't following this because Jacque Fresco is their version of Jesus,
or because Peter Joseph is a good public speaker.
They have looked at it, and decided that it makes sense to them.
...basically trying to get people from around the world
to discuss why, in a very concise manner,
they advocate The Zeitgeist Movement, The Venus Project (TVP),
and of course a Resource-Based Economy...
[Medley of various voices advocating TZM, TVP, and a Resource-Based Economy]
Today around the world,
many people often say "I wish we could live like Americans!"
I know you've heard this before.
Well... No.
Conspicuous consumption patterns of the American culture
should be despised, by all other countries on this planet!
We have 5% of the population, and we consume 30% of the world's resources.
It's insane!
In a Resource-Based Economy, where we base our production and distribution
on physical references, starting with the carrying capacity of the Earth,
where we streamline our labor expression towards things
that have a long-term social return, when we get rid of the cancer
known as the financial system and start to share our resources
in a diligent way, working together, avoiding the false values
of materialism and consumption pushed upon our culture,
we find that we can provide a high quality of life
for everyone on this planet, while eliminating all of the central reasons
for war, poverty, destitution, violence, criminal behavior, neuroses.
It would be the dawn of a world we could actually label a civilization,
and if that isn't a goal worth working towards, I don't know what is.
The future rests in our hands, yours and mine.
It rests in the capacity which we totally have as a species,
to make radical shifts when our survival is necessary.
And maybe we are the people who will emerge
to create an alternative that enables our species to survive
in peace on the planet; otherwise, we will not survive!