[music]
Hey guys, and welcome to the 4th episode of Take The Venus Project Challenge.
If you're new to The Venus Project or to my Challenge, please watch my introduction video.
For the people who are becoming more informed on how The Venus Project is actually technologically
and economically possible, the most common objection I've found is what I call The Bad
Egg theory. This is probably the most frustrating objection, because these are actually people
who agree with the idea of a Resource Based Economy, but they're so bruised by our societal
flaws that they're afraid to even give humanity a chance...
Let me give you an example with this comment.
QUOTE: Personally, I think the Venus Project is a great but an ultimately unachievable goal.
Humanity itself would have to be revamped in order for this to happen.
(Hence, TVP is redesign of our culture and not just a redesign of our cities.)
QUOTE: So, I wouldn't worry too much about it one way or the other. Whether you're for it or against it...
I don't think that it's possible for anything like it to even come close to happening.
It's a great idea... but humanity's greed and selfishness gets in the way of it working out well for everyone
and turns it into a dictatorship, where just one bad egg takes control of everyone else's
kindness and generosity. All you need is one human who doesn't agree with what the
Venus Project says and bam, you're screwed because you've got no army to fight back against
them with... and you've got no laws to keep him at bay with. It's a faulty idea that's
too idealistic, and not realistic enough for me to agree with. END QUOTE
BRANDY: Okay, now let's think about this for a minute. If a Resource-Based Economy is too idealistic
because everyone might not agree then what do you call a 'monetary system'
that's primarily 'based' on competition but then proclaims 'on paper' that everyone
should behave and obey the law? I'd call 'that' idealistic. If a Resource-Based Economy...
a technologically advanced system of abundance in which everyone on the planet has access
to what they need is a faulty idea... then what do you call the current system that trumpets
equal opportunity for everyone "if you work real hard," while knowing in advance that
there's not enough money to go around... and knowing that if there were enough to go around
the system itself would collapse. I'd call 'that' faulty. It's a game that's rigged
before you even get a chance to play. Here we are in a defective chicken coop
raising "bad egg" all over the place, and now that there's even a glimmer of hope that we can
get passed our "greed" by finally living in abundance, we quit on the idea because supposedly
"one bad egg takes control of everyone else's kindness and generosity." As if "one bad egg"
in an evolving social system that's finally doing something about all this, is somehow
worse than 63,531,202 bad eggs in a society that 'can't' do anything about it.
Because the old-fashioned idea that if someone gets outta line we can "fight back" with our current "army"
and that "written laws" keep people at bay, is ridiculous at this point.
Where were the written laws when those 63 million crimes were committed?
Somewhere in a file cabinet I guess.
So what it comes down to is that people are somehow, for some crazy reason...
more confident and 'comfortable' in our current so-called security systems, than they are
in implementing a new value system that dramatically reduces and eventually eliminates
the need for security. Let's put it this way... I'm pretty sure that if all the victims of war crimes,
and hate crimes, desperate crimes, or any other kind of violence or suffering
had their chance to do it over, they'd realize that 'genuine security' comes from addressing
the root causes of social problems... because obviously the patchwork didn't work out too
well for them... We're still here, so we have the chance to redesign our society...
instead of worrying that somehow if we all work together to implement a sustainable system
that's designed specifically based on our symbiotic nature, to meet every single human
beings biological and social needs... and to evolve to continue to meet everybody's needs
on a global scale... that we'll somehow end up worse off... because somehow, someday,
somewhere down the line... "someone might not agree."
Might not agree with what? That we need food, clean air, clean water, shelter, and a relevant
education to sustain those resources on our planet? Might not agree that we found ways
to harness energy and manage our resources properly, so that there's plenty to go around?
Might not agree that we're developing the technology to ensure the survival and healthy
development for everyone, so that they, themselves, can be completely independent, and learn to
pursue their life's true goals without financial constraint? And they might not agree
with people offering, not forcing, but offering, the technology to them, and to the rest of the world,
so they can take care of themselves. Call me crazy, but I say it's worth a try,
even if someone "might not agree" or someone "might be too greedy."
The bottom line is, "people are already greedy" and the only way we can change that,
is if we move forward, and if we stop just assuming what other people will do. You know, the funny
thing is, I've never actually heard anyone say "If I got everything I wanted in The Venus Project,
'I' would become greedy!" or "If I got everything I needed from the Venus Project,
'I' would become lazy!" So far, every single person has said, 'People' might be greedy
and 'People' will be lazy, which is just a faceless accusation. So if we all just stop
pointing the finger at other people, and be responsible for ourselves, that's one less
we all have to worry about! You'd be surprised how many "bad eggs" we can get rid of if people
stop adding imaginary ones to the bunch.
THERAMINTREES: We can be self-defeating in our conformity. Say we have a group of people
holding opinion X. Unbeknownst to the group, half of them secretly disagree. But due to
the social penalties they've seen dished out to a few individuals who 'have' disagreed,
they keep quiet. By conforming, we add to the statistics of groups we don't actually
belong to, and perpetuate the idea of majorities who may not actually exist. Imagine if none
of us conformed in that way, how that would change the social landscape. Question the
group, and let's risk being more fully ourselves.
BRANDY: Everyone's so worried, "but what about that ONE person, there's always that one person?"
What about 'em?! Why should we let "them," a hypothetical person, or group of people,
stop "us" from finally uniting to pursue a better future? If just the 'thought' of tyranny
has you too afraid to improve the world you're living in, then the tyrants have already won.
We need to stop being afraid of the potential chaos that, frankly, ALREADY EXISTS, and focus
on becoming more widely aware of the corruption, and the environmental abuse that's going on
in the world, so we can move on and do the one and only thing we CAN DO, which is work
together to build a better foundation and start preventing it. Period. That's the only way.
What we're doing now isn't working! In case you haven't noticed!
We can't just live in fear and never change anything.
And changing presidents does as much good for the country as changing your clothes.
We have to change our system. We have to change our environment. We have to change ourselves.
DR. SAPOLSKY: It completely transformed the atmosphere of the troop, and when new adolescent
males would join the troop, they'd come in just as jerky as any adolescent males elsewhere
on this planet, and it would take 'em about 6 months to learn "We're not like that in
this troop. We don't do stuff like that, we're not that aggressive. We spend more time grooming
each other, males are calmer with each other. You do not dump on a female if you're in a bad mood,
and it takes these new guys about 6 months, and they assimilate this style,
and you have baboon culture, and this particular troop has a culture of very low levels of aggression,
and high levels of social affiliation, and they're doing that 20 years later.
HOWARD ZINN: Inevitably, in any discussion on war, at a certain point in the discussion,
somebody would say, "oh well, it's human nature." And, well first of all from my own experience...
and I still have to tell this to people because there are still people who
talk about the desire of young men to go to war, the thrill it is for young men to be
in war to shoot their guns, to kill... and I thought about my own experience in the Air
Force and it was very clear to me, looking around at all these guys around me who were dropping
bombs, and who were killing people... that did not come from inside. It did not come
from ''oh God, how good it would be to kill some people today.'' [laugh] You know?
There was no 'urge' to kill, even though... "they were the enemy." No. What it came from,
was simply we had been 'trained' and also we had been told it's a good war.
We'd been told "we're the good guys, they're the bad guys. It'll be bad if they won,
it'll be good if we win. We've gotta drop the bombs, so we'll do it,
and we'll do it as well as we can, but there was no spontaneous urge to kill."
BRANDY: "Bad eggs" aren't born. They're made. We can't let this "Bad Egg Theory" hold us
all back from pursuing a better system, and a better future, for everyone.
That concludes this episode of Take The Venus Project Challenge, welcoming your intelligent
questions, comments, and feedback. Remember to Read the FAQ's, Get your facts straight,
Keep it relevant, and Rise to the challenge. You can also send an email to
TVPChallenge@gmail.com. Thanks for participating!