- The old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism
to rabid nationalist fervor are beginning not to work.
-The business of who I am and whether I'm good or bad
or achieving or not, all that's learned along the way.
-It's just a ride
and we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice.
No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money.
-I realized that I had the game wrong
that the game was to find out what I already was.
-We were saying,
how very important it is
to bring about, in the human mind
the radical revolution.
The crisis is a crisis in consciousness.
A crisis that cannot, anymore
accept the old norms
the old patterns
the ancient traditions.
And, considering what the world is now
with all the misery
conflict
destructive brutality
aggression
and so on...
Man
is still as he was.
Is still brutal
violent
aggressive
acquisitive
competitive.
And, he's built a society along these lines.
.
ZEITGEIST ADDENDUM
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted
to a profoundly sick society. " J. Krishnamurti
-Society today, is composed of a series of institutions.
From political institutions
legal institutions
religious institutions.
To institutions of social class
familial values
and occupational specialization.
It is obvious the profound influence
these traditionalized structures have
in shaping our understandings and perspectives.
Yet, of all the social institutions, we are born into
directed by and conditioned upon
there seems to be no system as taken for granted
and misunderstood
as the monetary system.
Taking on nearly religious proportions
the established monetary institution exists
as one of the most unquestioned forms of faith there is.
How money is created, the policies by which it is governed
.
and how it truly affects society
are unregistered interests of the great majority of the population.
In a world where 1% of the population owns 40% of the planet's wealth.
In a world where 34.000 children die every single day
from poverty and preventable diseases
and where 50% of the world's population
lives on less than 2 dollars a day...
One thing is clear.
Something is very wrong.
And, whether we are aware of it or not
the lifeblood of all of our established institutions
and thus society itself, is money.
Therefore, understanding this institution of monetary policy
is critical to understanding why our lives are the way they are.
Unfortunately, economics is often viewed with confusion and boredom.
Endless streams of financial jargon
coupled with intimidating mathematics
quickly deters people from attempts at understanding it.
However, the fact is:
The complexity associated with the financial system is a mere mask
designed to conceal one of the most socially paralyzing structures
humanity has ever endured.
"None are more hopelessly enslaved
than those who falsely believe they are free."
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - 1749-1832
-A number of years ago
the central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve
produced a document entitled "Modern Money Mechanics".
This publication detailed the institutionalized practice
of money creation as utilized by the Federal Reserve
and the web of global commercial banks it supports.
On the opening page the document states its objective:
"The purpose of this booklet is to describe
the basic process of money creation
in a 'fractional reserve' banking system."
It then proceeds to describe this fractional reserve process
through various banking terminology.
A translation of which goes something like this:
The United States government decides it needs some money.
So it calls up the Federal Reserve
and requests, say, 10 billion dollars.
The FED replies saying:
"Sure, we'll buy ten billion in government bonds from you".
So the government takes some pieces of paper
paints some official looking designs on them
and calls them treasury bonds.
Then it puts a value on these bonds to the sum of 10 billion dollars
and sends them over to the FED.
In turn, the people of the FED
draw up a bunch of impressive pieces of papers themselves
only this time, calling them "Federal Reserve notes"
also designating a value of ten billion dollars to the set.
The FED then takes these notes and trades them for the bonds.
Once this exchange is complete
the government then takes the ten billion in federal reserve notes
and deposits it into an bank account.
And, upon this deposit
the paper notes officially become legal tender money
adding ten billion to the US money supply.
And there it is, ten billion in new money has been created.
Of course, this example is a generalization.
For, in reality, this transaction would occur electronically
with no paper used at all.
In fact, only 3% of the US money supply exists in physical currency.
The other 97 percent essentially exists in computers alone.
Now, government bonds are by design instruments of debt.
And when the FED purchases these bonds
with money essentially created out of thin air
the government is actually promising
to pay back that money to the FED.
In other words, the money was created out of debt.
This mind numbing paradox
of how money or value can be created out of debt or a liability
will become more clear as we further this exercise.
So, the exchange has been made
and now ten billion dollars sits in a commercial bank account.
Here is where it gets really interesting.
For, as based on the fractional reserve practice
that ten billion dollar deposit
instantly becomes part of the bank's reserves
just as all deposits do.
And, regarding reserve requirements
as stated in "Modern Money Mechanics":
"A bank must maintain legally required reserves
equal to a prescribed percentage of its deposits".
It then quantifies this by stating: "Under current regulations
.
the reserve requirement against most transaction accounts is 10%".
This means that with a ten billion dollar deposit
10%, or one billion, is held as the required reserve
.
while the other nine billion is considered an excessive reserve
and can be used as the basis for new loans.
.
Now, it is logical to assume, that this nine billion
is literally coming out of the existing ten billion dollar deposit.
However, this is actually not the case.
What really happens, is that the nine billion
is simply created out of thin air
on top of the existing 10 billion dollar deposit.
This is how the money supply is expanded.
As stated in "Modern Money Mechanics":
"Of course they" -the banks-
"do not really pay out loans for the money they receive as deposits.
If they did this, no additional money would be created.
What they do when they make loans
is to accept promissory notes" -loan contracts-
"in exchange for credits" -money-
"to the borrowers' transaction accounts."
In other words, the nine billion can be created out of nothing
simply because there is a demand for such a loan
and that there is a 10 billion dollar deposit
to satisfy the reserve requirements.
Now, let's assume that somebody walks into this bank
and borrows the newly available nine billion dollars.
They will then most likely take that money
and deposit it into their own bank account.
The process then repeats.
For that deposit becomes part of the bank's reserves.
10% is isolated and in turn 90% of the nine billion, or 8.1 billion
is now available as newly created money for more loans.
And, of course, that 8.1 can be loaned out and redeposited
creating an additional 7.2 billion.
To 6.5 billion... to 5.9 billion... etc.
This deposit money creation loan cycle
can technically go on to infinity.
The average mathematical result is that about 90 billion dollars
can be created on top of the original 10 billion.
In other words, for every deposit
that ever occurs in the banking system
about nine times that amount can be created out of thin air.
Money-Jitters. Ask the obliging Bank of America
for a jar of soothing instant money.
M-O-N-E-Y in the form of a convenient personal loan.
So, now that we understand how money is created
by this fractional reserve banking system
a logical yet illusive question might come to mind:
What is actually giving this newly created money value?
The answer: the money that already exists.
The new money essentially steals value from the existing money supply.
For the total pool of money is being increased
irrespective to demand for goods and services.
And, as supply and demand finds equilibrium, prices rise
diminishing the purchasing power of each individual dollar.
This is generally referred to as inflation.
And inflation is essentially a hidden tax on the public.
-What is the advice that you generally get?
And that is, inflate the currency.
They don't say: debase the currency.
They don't say: devalue the currency.
They don't say: cheat the people who are safe.
They say: lower the interest rates.
The real deception is when we distort the value of money.
When we create money out of thin air, we have no savings.
Yet there's so called "capital".
So, my question boils down to this:
How in the world can we expect to solve the problems of inflation
that is the increase in the supply of money, with more inflation?
-Of course, it can't.
The fractional reserve system of monetary expansion
is inherently inflationary.
For the act of expanding the money supply,
without there being a proportional expansion of goods and services
in the economy, will always debase a currency.
In fact, a quick glance at the historical values of the US dollar
versus the money supply, reflects this point definitively
for the inverse relationship is obvious.
One dollar in 1913 required $21.60 in 2007 to match value.
That is a 96% devaluation
since the Federal Reserve came into existence.
Now, if this reality of inherent and perpetual inflation
seems absurd and economically self defeating
hold that thought, for absurdity is an understatement
in regard to how our financial system really operates.
For in our financial system money is debt
and debt is money.
Here is a chart of the US money supply from 1950 to 2006.
Here is a chart of the US national debt for the same period.
How interesting it is that the trends are virtually the same.
For the more money there is, the more debt there is.
The more debt there is, the more money there is.
To put it a different way, every single dollar in your wallet
is owed to somebody by somebody. For remember:
The only way the money can come into existence is from loans.
Therefore, if everyone in the country were able to pay off all debts
including the government
there would not be one dollar in circulation.
"If there were no debts in our money system
there wouldn't be any money."
-Marriner Eccles- Governor of the Federal Reserve September 30th, 1941
-In fact, the last time in American history
the national debt was completely paid off was in 1835
after president Andrew Jackson shut down the central bank
that preceded the Federal Reserve.
In fact, Jackson's entire political platform essentially revolved
around his commitment to shut down the central bank.
Stating at one point:
"The bold efforts the present bank has made to control the government
are but premonitions of the fate that awaits the American people
should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution
or the establishment of another like it."
Unfortunately his message was short lived,
and the international bankers succeeded
to install another central bank in 1913, the Federal Reserve.
And as long as this institution exists, perpetual debt is guaranteed.
.
Now, so far we have discussed the reality
that money is created out of debt through loans.
These loans are based on a bank's reserves
and reserves are derived from deposits.
And through this fractional reserve system
any one deposit can create 9 times its original value.
In turn, debasing the existing money supply
raising prices in society.
And, since all this money is created out of debt
and circulated randomly through commerce
people become detached from their original debt
and a disequilibrium exists
where people are forced to compete for labor
in order to pull enough money out of the money supply
to cover their costs of living.
As dysfunctional and backwards as all of this might seem
there is still one thing we have omitted from this equation.
And it is this element of the structure
which reveals the truly fraudulent nature of the system itself.
The application of interest.
When the government borrows money from the FED
or when a person borrows money from a bank
it almost always has to be paid back with accrued interest.
In other words, almost every single dollar that exists
must be eventually returned to a bank with interest paid as well.
But, if all money is borrowed from the Central Bank
and is expanded by commercial banks through loans
only what would be referred to as the "principal"
is being created in the money supply.
So then, where is the money
to cover all of the interest that is charged?
Nowhere.
It doesn't exist.
The ramifications of this are staggering
for the amount of money owed back to the banks will always exceed
the amount of money that is available in circulation.
This is why inflation is a constant in the economy
for new money is always needed
to help cover the perpetual deficit built into the system
caused by the need to pay the interest.
What this also means, is that mathematically
defaults and bankruptcy are literally built into this system
and there will always be poor pockets of society
that get the short end of the stick.
An analogy would be a game of musical chairs
for the once music stops, somebody is left out to dry.
And that's the point.
It invariably transfers true wealth from the individual to the banks.
For, if you are unable to pay for your mortgage
they will take your property.
This is particularly enraging when you realize
that not only is such a default inevitable
due to the fractional reserve practice, but also because of the fact
that the money that the bank loaned to you
didn't even legally exist in the first place.
In 1969 there was a Minnesota court case
involving a man named Jerome Daly
who was challenging the foreclosure of his home by the bank
which provided the loan to purchase it.
His argument was that the mortgage contract
required both parties -being he and the bank-
each put up a legitimate form of property for the exchange.
In legal language this is called consideration:
[ a contract's basis. a contract is founded on an exchange
of one form of consideration for another. ]
Mr. Daly explained that the money was, in fact
not the property of the bank, for it was created out of nothing
as soon as the loan agreement was signed.
Remember what "Modern Money Mechanics" stated about loans?
"What they do, when they make loans, is to
accept promissory notes in exchange for credits.
Reserves are unchanged by the loan transactions.
But, deposit credits constitute new additions
to the total deposits of the banking system."
In other words, the money doesn't come out of their existing assets.
The bank is simply inventing it, putting up nothing of its own
except for a theoretical liability on paper.
As the court case progressed
the bank's president Mr. Morgan took the stand
and in the judge's personal memorandum, he recalled that
the Plaintiff - bank's president - admitted that
in combination with the Federal Reserve Bank
did create the money and credit upon its books by book-keeping entry.
The money and credit first came into existence when they created it.
Mr. Morgan admitted that
no US Law or Statute existed which gave him the right to do this.
A lawful consideration must exist and be tendered to support the note.
The Jury found that there was no lawful consideration and I agree.
He also poetically added:
"Only God can create something of value out of nothing".
And, upon this revelation
the court rejected the bank's claim for foreclosure
and Daly kept his home.
The implications of this court decision are immense.
For every time you borrow money from a bank
whether it is a mortgage loan or a credit card charge
the money given to you is not only counterfeit
it is an illegitimate form of consideration
and hence, voids the contract to repay.
For the bank never had the money as property to begin with.
Unfortunately such legal realizations are suppressed and ignored.
And the game of perpetual wealth transfer and perpetual debt continues.
And this brings us to the ultimate question:
Why?
During the American Civil War
President Lincoln bypassed the high interest loans
offered by the European banks
and decided to do what the founding fathers advocated
which was to create an independent and inherently debt-free currency.
It was called "The Greenback".
Shortly after this measure was taken, an internal document circulated
between private British and American banking interests, stated:
"...slavery is but the owning of labor
and carries with it the care of laborers.
While the European plan
is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages.
This can be done by controlling the money.
It will not do to allow the Greenback... as we cannot control that."
The fractional reserve policy
perpetrated by the Federal Reserve which has spread in practice
to the great majority of banks in the world
is, in fact, a system of modern slavery.
Think about it, money is created out of debt.
And what the people do when they are in debt?
They submit to employment to pay it off.
But if money only can only be created out of loans
how can society ever be debt free?
It can't and that's the point.
And it is the fear of losing assets
coupled with the struggle to keep up
with the perpetual debt and inflation inherent in the system
compounded by the inescapable scarcity within the money supply itself
created by the interest that can never be repaid
that keeps the wage-slave in line.
Running on a hamster wheel, with millions of others
in effect powering an empire
that truly benefits only the elite at the top of the pyramid.
For, at the end of the day, who are you really working for?
.
The banks.
Money is created in a bank and invariably ends up in a bank.
They are the true masters
along with the corporations and governments they support.
Physical slavery requires people to be housed and fed.
Economic slavery requires people to feed and house themselves.
It is one of the most ingenious scams
for social manipulation ever created.
And at its core
it is an invisible war against the population.
Debt is the weapon used to conquer and enslave societies
and interest is its prime ammunition.
And, as the majority walks around oblivious to this reality
the banks in collusion with governments and corporations
continue to perfect and expand their tactics of economic warfare
spawning new bases, such as the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund [IMF]
while also inventing a new type of soldier:
The birth of the Economic Hit Man.
"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation.
One is by sword. The other is by debt." - John Adams - 1735-1826
-We economic hit men, really have been the ones responsible for creating
this first truly global empire and we work many different ways.
John Perkins Former Chief Economist for Chas. T. Main Inc. Author: Confessions of an Economic Hitman
But perhaps the most common is that we will
identify a country that has resources our corporations covet, like oil
and then, arrange a huge loan to that country
from the World Bank or one of its sister organizations.
But the money never actually goes to the country.
Instead it goes to our big corporations
to built infrastructure projects in that country.
Power plants, industrial parks, ports.
Things that benefit a few rich people in that country
in addition to our corporations
but really don't help the majority of the people at all.
However, those people, the whole country is left holding a huge debt.
It's such a big debt they can't repay it and that's part of the plan
that they can't repay it. And so, at some point
we economic hit men, go back to them and say, "Listen,
you owe us a lot of money. You can't pay your debt. So, sell your oil
real cheap to our oil companies
allow us to build a military base in your country", or
"send troops in support of ours to someplace in the world like Iraq"
or "vote with us in the next UN vote", to have their
electric utility company privatized and
their water and sewage system privatized
and sold to US corporations or other multinational corporations.
So there is a whole mushrooming thing and
it's so typical of the way the IMF and the World Bank work.
They put a country in debt and it's such a big debt it can't pay it
and then you offer to refinance that debt and pay even more interest
and you demand this quid pro quo
which you call a "conditionality" or "good governance"
which means basically that they've got to sell off their resources
including many of their social services, their utility companies,
their school systems sometimes, their penal systems
their insurance systems, to foreign corporations.
So it's a double - triple - quadruple whammy!
IRAN; 1953
The precedent for economic hit men really began back in the early 50's
when the democratically elected Mossadegh who was elected in Iran.
He was considered to be the hope for democracy in the middle east
and around the world. He was in Time-Magazine's "Man of the year". But...
one of the things that he ran on and began to implement was
the idea that foreign oil companies needed to pay the Iranian people
a lot more for the oil that they were taking out of Iran
and the Iranian people should benefit from their own oil. Strange policy.
We didn't like that of course. But...
we were afraid to do what we normally were doing
which was to send in the military. Instead we sent in one CIA agent
Kermit Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt's relative.
And Kermit went in with a few million dollars and
was very, very effective and efficient and in a short amount of time
he managed to get Mossadegh overthrown
and brought in the shah of Iran to replace him
who always was favorable to oil. And it was extremely effective.
[ Revolt in Iran ]
"Mobs overthrow Tehran.
Army officers shout that Mossadegh has surrendered and his regime as
virtual dictator of Iran is ended. Pictures of the Shah are paraded
through the streets as sentiment reverses. The Shah is welcomed home."
So back here in the United States, in Washington
people looked around and said: "Wow, that was easy and cheap".
So this established a whole new way
of manipulating countries, of creating empire.
The only problem with Roosevelt was that he was a
card carrying CIA agent. And if he'd been caught
the ramifications could have been pretty serious.
So very quickly, at that point, the decision was made to
use private consultants to channel the money through the
World Bank or the IMF or one of the other such agencies
to bring in people like me, who worked for private companies.
So that if we got caught
there would be no governmental ramifications.
GUATEMALA 1954
When Árbenz became president of Guatemala
the country was very much under the thumbs of
United Fruit company, the big international corporations
and Árbenz ran on this ticket that said: "You know
we want to give the land back to the people".
And once he took power, he was implementing policies that would
would do exactly that, give the land rights back to the people.
United Fruit didn't like that very much.
And so, they hired a public relations firm, launched a huge campaign
in the United States to convince the United States people
the citizens of the United States, the press of the United States and
the Congress of the United States, that Árbenz was a soviet puppet
and that if we allowed him to stay in power
the Soviets would have a foothold in this hemisphere.
And that, at that point in time, was a huge fear on everybody's mind
of the red terror, the communist terror.
And so, to make a long story short, out of this public relations campaign
came a commitment on the part of the CIA and the military to take this man out.
And in fact, we did. We sent in planes, we sent in soldiers, we sent
in jackals, we sent everything in to take him out. And did take him out.
And as soon as he was removed from office
the new guy that took over after him basically reinstated everything to
the big international corporations, including United Fruit.
[Ecuador 1981] Ecuador, for many, many years had been ruled by pro-US dictators
often relatively brutal. Then it was decided they were gonna have
a truly democratic election. Jaime Roldós ran for office and his main goal
he said, as president would be to make sure that Ecuador's
resources were used to help the people. And he won. Overwhelming.
By more votes than anybody had ever won anything in Ecuador.
And he began to implement these policies.
To make sure that the profits from oil went to help the people.
Well, we didn't like that in the United States.
I was sent down as one of several economic hit men to change Roldós.
To corrupt him. To bring him around. To let him know, you know.
"Ok, you know, you can get very rich, you and your family, if you play
our game. But if you continue to try to keep these policies you've promised
you're gonna go. " He wouldn't listen.
He was assassinated.
As soon as the plane crashed, the whole area was cordoned off.
The only people allowed in were US military from a nearby base
and some of the Ecuadorian military.
When an investigation was launched
two of the key witnesses died in car accidents
before they had a chance to testify.
A lot of very, very strange things that went on around
the assassination of Jaime Roldós.
I, like most people who've really looked at this case
have absolutely no doubt that it was an assassination.
And, of course, in my position as an economic hit man
I was always expecting something to happen to Jaime
whether it'd be a coup or assassination, I wasn't sure, but that
he would be taken down, because he was not being corrupted, he would
not allow himself to be corrupted the way we wanted to corrupt him.
PANAMA 1981
Omar Torrijos, president of Panama
was, you know, one of my favorite people. I really, really liked him.
He was very charismatic. He was a guy who really wanted to help his country.
And when I tried to bribe him or corrupt him, he said: "Look, John"
- he called me Juanito - He said: "Look Juanito,
I don't need the money. What I really need is for my country
to be treated fairly. I need for the US to repay the
debts that you owe my people for all the destruction you've done here.
I need to be in a position where I can help other Latin American countries
win their independence and be free of this
of this terrible presence from the North.
You people are exploiting us so badly.
I need to have the Panama Canal back in the hands of the Panamanian people.
That's what I want.
And so, leave me alone, don't, you know, don't try to bribe me".
It was 1981 and, in May, Jaime Roldos was assassinated.
And Omar was very aware of this.
Torrijos got his family together and he said:
"I'm probably next, but it's OK
because I've done what I came here to do
I've renegotiated the Canal.
The Canal will now be in our hands. " He'd just finished negotiating
the treaty with Jimmy Carter.
In June of that same year, just a couple of months later
he also went down in an airplane crash
which, there's no question, was executed by CIA sponsored jackals.
A tremendous amount of evidence that
one of Torijos' security guards handed him, at the last moment
as he was getting on the plane, a tape recorder.
A small tape recorder that contained a bomb.
VENEZUELA 2002
It is interesting to me how this
system has continued pretty much the same way
for years and years and years, except the economic hit men
have got better and better and better.
Then we come up with, very recently, what happened in Venezuela.
In 1998, Hugo Chavez gets elected president
following a long line of presidents
who'd been very corrupt and basically destroyed the economy
of the country. And Chavez was elected amidst all that.
Chavez stood up to the United States
and he's done it primarily demanding that Venezuelan oil
be used to help the Venezuelan people.
Well, we didn't like that in the United States.
So in 2002
a coup was staged, which there's no question in my mind
and most other people's minds, that the CIA was behind that coup.
The way that that coup was fomented
was very reflective of what Kermit Roosevelt had done in Iran.
Of paying people to go out onto the streets
to riot, to protest, to say that Chavez was very unpopular.
You know, if you can get a few thousand people to do that
television can make it look like it's the whole country
and things start to mushroom.
Except in the case of Chavez, he was smart enough
and the people were so strongly behind him, that they overcame it
.
which was a phenomenal moment in the history of Latin America.
IRAQ 2003
Iraq, actually, is a perfect example
of the way the whole system works.
So we, economic hit men, are the first line of defense.
We go in, we try to corrupt the governments
and get them to accept these huge loans
which we then use as leverage to basically own them.
If we fail, as I failed in Panama with Omar Torrijos
and Ecuador with Jaime Roldós, men who refused to be corrupted
then the second line of defense is we send in the jackals.
And the jackals either overthrow governments or they assassinate.
And, once that happens and a new government comes in
boy it's gonna tow the line because
that new president knows what will happen if he doesn't.
In the case of Iraq, both of those things failed.
The economic hit men were not able to get through to Saddam Hussein.
We tried very hard, we tried to get him to accept a deal
very similar to what the House of Saud had accepted in Saudi Arabia
but he wouldn't accept it.
And so the jackals went in to take him out.
They couldn't do it. His security was very good.
After all, he at one time, worked for the CIA.
He'd been hired to assassinate a former president of Iraq and failed
but he knew the system.
So, in '91, we send in the troops and we take out the Iraqi military.
.
So, we assume at that point
that Saddam Hussein is gonna come around.
We could have taken him out, of course at that time
but we didn't want to. He's the kind of strong man we like.
He controls his people. We thought he could control the Kurds
and keep the Iranians in their border and keep pumping oil for us.
And that once we took out his military, now he's gonna come around.
So the economic hit men go back in in the 90's, without success.
.
If they'd had success he'd still be running the country.
We'd be selling him all the fighter jets he wants
and everything else he wants, but they couldn't; they didn't have success.
The jackals couldn't take him out again
so we sent the military in once again
and this time we did the complete job and took him out.
And in the process, created for ourselves
some very, very lucrative construction deals
to reconstruct the country that we'd essentially destroyed.
Which is a pretty good deal
if you own construction companies, big ones.
So, Iraq shows the three stages.
The economic hit men failed there.
The jackals failed there. And as a final measure the military goes in.
And in that way we've really created an empire
but we've done it very, very subtly. It's clandestine.
All empires of the past were built on the military
and everybody knew they were building them.
The British knew they were building them, the French
the Germans, the Romans, the Greeks
and they were proud of it, and they always had some excuse
like spreading civilization, spreading some religion
something like that, but they knew they were doing it.
We don't.
The majority of the people in the United States have no idea
that we're living off the benefits of the clandestine empire.
That today there is more slavery in the world than ever before.
Then you have to ask yourself;
well, if it's an empire, then who is the emperor?
Obviously our Presidents of the United States are not emperors.
An emperor is someone who is not elected
doesn't serve a limited term
and doesn't report to anyone, essentially.
So you can't classify our presidents that way.
But we do have what I consider to be the equivalent of the emperor
and it's what I call the corporatocracy.
The corporatocracy is this group of individuals
who run our biggest corporations.
And they really act as the emperor of this empire.
They control our media
either through direct ownership or advertising.
They control most of our politicians
because they finance their campaigns
either through the corporations or through personal contributions
that come out of the corporations.
They're not elected, then don't serve a limited term
.
they don't report to anybody
and at the very top of the corporatocracy
you really can't tell whether the person
is working for a private corporation or the government
because they're always moving back and forth.
So, you know, you've got a guy who one moment
is the president of a big construction company like Halliburton
and the next moment he's Vice President of the United States
or the President who was in the oil business. And this is true
whether you get Democrats or Republicans in the office.
You have this moving back and forth through a revolving door.
And in a way, our government is invisible a lot of the time
and its' policies are carried out by our corporations
on one level or another. And then again
the policies of the government are basically
forged by the corporatocracy, and then presented to the government
.
and they become government policy. So, there's an incredibly
cozy relationship.
This isn't a conspiracy theory type of thing. These people don't have to
get together and plot to do things.
.
They all basically work under one primary assumption
and that is that they must maximize profits
regardless of the social and environmental costs.
-This process of manipulation by the corporatocracy
through the use of debt, bribery and political overthrow is called
Globalization
Just as the Federal Reserve keeps the American public in a position
of indentured servitude though perpetual debt, inflation and interest
the World Bank and IMF serve this role on a global scale.
The basic scam is simple.
Put a country in debt either by its own indiscretion
or through corrupting the leader of that country
then impose "conditionalities" or "structural adjustment policies"
often consisting of the following:
Currency devaluation.
When the value of a currency drops, so does everything valued in it.
This makes indigenous resources available to predator countries
at a fraction of their worth.
Large funding cuts for social programs.
These usually include education and healthcare
compromising the well-being and integrity of the society
leaving the public vulnerable to exploitation.
Privatization of state-owned enterprises.
This means that socially important systems
can be purchased and regulated by foreign corporations for profit.
For example, in 1999, the World Bank insisted
that the Bolivian government sell
the public water-system of its third-largest city
to a subsidiary of the US corporation "Bechtel."
As soon as this occurred, water bills
for the already impoverished local residents, skyrocketed.
It wasn't until after a full-blown revolt by the people
that the Bechtel contract was nullified.
Then there is trade liberalization
or the opening up of the economy
through removing any restrictions on foreign trade.
This allows for a number of abusive economic manifestations
such as transnational corporations
bringing in their own mass-produced products
undercutting the indigenous production and ruining local economies.
An example is Jamaica;
which, after accepting loans and conditionalities from the World Bank
lost its largest cash crop markets
due to competition with Western imports.
Today, countless farmers are out of work for they're unable to compete
with the large corporations.
Another variation is the creation of numerous
seemingly unnoticed, unregulated, inhumane sweatshop-factories
which take advantage of the imposed economic hardship.
Additionally, due to production deregulation
environmental destruction is perpetual, as a country's resources
are often exploited by the indifferent corporations
while outputting large amounts of deliberate pollution.
-The largest environmental lawsuit in the history of the world
today is being brought on behalf of
30,000 Ecuadorian and Amazonian people
against Texaco, which is now owned by Chevron;
so it's against Chevron, but for activities conducted by Texaco.
They're estimated to be more than 18 times
what the Exxon Valdez dumped into the Coast of Alaska.
In the case of Ecuador it wasn't an accident.
The oil companies did it intentionally. They knew they were doing it
to save money rather than arranging for proper disposal.
-Furthermore, a cursory glance
at the performance record of the World Bank
reveals that the institution, which publicly claims to
help poor countries develop and alleviate poverty
has done nothing but increase poverty and the wealth-gap
while corporate profits soar.
In 1960, the income-gap between the
fifth of the world's people in the richest countries
versus the fifth in the poorest countries was thirty to one.
By 1998, it was seventy-four to one.
While global GNP rose 40% between 1970 and 1985
those in poverty actually increased by 17%.
While from 1985 to 2000
those living on less than one dollar a day increased by 18%.
Even the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress
admitted that there is a mere 40% success rate
of all World Bank projects.
In the late 1960's, the World Bank
intervened in Ecuador with large loans.
During the next 30 years, poverty grew from 50% to 70%.
Under or unemployment grew from 15% to 70%.
Public debt increased from 240 million to 16 billion
while the share of resources allocated to the poor
went from 20% to 6%.
In fact, by the year 2000, 50% of Ecuador's national budget
had to be allocated for paying its debts.
It is important to understand: The World Bank is, in fact
a U.S. bank, supporting U. S. interests.
For the United States holds veto-power over decisions
as it is the largest provider of capital.
And where did it get this money?
You guessed it. It made it out of thin air
through the fractional reserve banking system.
Of the world's top 100 economies, as based on annual GDP
51 are corporations and 47 of that 51 are U.S.-based.
Walmart, General Motors and Exxon are more economically powerful
than Saudi Arabia, Poland, Norway, South Africa
Finland, Indonesia and many others.
And, as protective trade barriers are broken down
currencies tossed together and manipulated in floating markets
and State economies overturned in favor of open competition
in global capitalism, the empire expands.
-You get up on your little 21-inch screen
and howl about America and democracy.
There is no America, there is no democracy.
There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T
and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon.
Those are the nations of the world today.
What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state?
Karl Marx?
They get out their linear programming charts
statistical decision theories, min and max solutions
and compute the price-cost probabilities
of their transactions and investments, just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale.
The world is a college of corporations
inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business.
The world is a business, Mr. Beale.
"Taken cumulatively, the integration of the world as a whole
particularly in terms of economic globalization
and the mythic qualities of "free market" capitalism
represents a veritable "empire" in its own right.
Few have been able to escape the "structural adjustment" and
.
"conditionalities" of the W. B, the IMF, or the WTO
those international financial institutions that, however inadequate
still determine what economic globalization means.
Such is the power of globalization that, within our lifetime, we are likely to see
the integration, even if unevenly, of all national economies in the world
.
into a single global, free market system."
-The World is being taken over by a handful of business powers
who dominate the natural resources we need to live
while controlling the money we need to obtain these resources.
The end result will be world monopoly
based not on human life but financial and corporate power.
And, as the inequality grows, naturally
more and more people are becoming desperate.
So the establishment was forced to come up with a new way
to deal with anyone who challenges the system.
So they gave birth to the "Terrorist."
The term "terrorist" is an empty distinction
designed for any person or group
who chooses to challenge the establishment.
This isn't to be confused with the fictional "Al Qaida"
which was actually the name of a computer database
of the U.S. -supported Mujahideen in the 1980's.
"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group
called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this.
But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe
in the presence of an identified entity... The country behind this propaganda is the U.S."
- Pierre-Henri Bunel, Former French Military Intelligence
In 2007
the Department of Defense received 161.8 billion dollars
for the so-called global war on terrorism.
According to the national counter-terrorism center
in 2004 roughly 2000 people were killed internationally
due to supposed terrorist acts.
Of that number, 70 were American.
Using this number as a general average, which is extremely generous
it is interesting to note that twice as many people die
from peanut allergies a year than from terrorist acts.
Concurrently, the leading cause of death in America
is coronary heart disease, killing roughly 450,000 each year.
And in 2007, the government's allocation of funds for research
on this issue was about three billion dollars.
This means that the US government, in 2007
spent 54 times the amount for preventing terrorism
than it spent for preventing a disease
which kills 6600 times more people annually, than terrorism does.
Yet, as the name terrorism and Al Qaida are arbitrarily stamped
on every news report relating to any action taken against US interests
the myth grows wider.
In mid 2008, the US Attorney General actually proposed
that the US Congress officially declare war against the fantasy.
Not to mention, as of July 2008, there are now over 1 million people
currently on the US terrorist watch list.
These so called "Counter-Terrorism Measures"
of course, have nothing to do with social protection
and everything to do with preserving the establishment
amongst the growing anti-American sentiment
both domestically and internationally
which is legitimately founded on
the greed-based corporate empire expansion
that is exploiting the world.
The true terrorists of our world, do not meet at the docks at midnight
or scream "Allah Akbar" before some violent action.
The true terrorists of our world wear 5000 dollar suits
and work in the highest positions of finance, government and business.
So, what do we do?
How do we stop a system of greed and corruption
that has so much power and momentum?
How do we stop this aberrant group behavior, which feels no compassion
for say, the millions slaughtered in Iraq and Afghanistan
so the corporatocracy can control
energy resources and opium production for Wall St. profit?
Before 1980, Afghanistan produced 0% of the world's opium.
After the US/CIA backed Mujahideen won the Soviet/Afghan war
by 1986 they were producing 40% of the world's heroin supply.
By 1988, they were producing 80% of the total market supply.
But then, something unexpected happened.
The Taliban rose to power and by 2000, they had destroyed most of the opium fields.
Production dropped from 3000+ tons to only 185 tons, a 94% reduction.
On Sept. 9th 2001, the full Afghanistan invasion plans were on President Bush's Desk.
Two days later they had their excuse.
Today, opium productions in US controlled Afghanistan
which now provides more than 90% of the world's heroin
breaks new production records nearly every year.
How do we stop a system of greed and corruption
that condemns poor populations to "Sweatshop-Slavery"
for the benefit of Madison Avenue?
Or that engineers false-flag terror attacks
for the sake of manipulation?
Or that generates built-in modes of social operation
which are inherently exploitative?
Or that systematically reduces civil liberties
and violates human rights
in order to protect itself from its own shortcomings.
How do we deal with the numerous covert institutions
such as the Council on Foreign Relations
the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group
and other undemocratically elected groups
which, behind closed doors collude to control the political
financial, social and environmental elements of our lives?
In order to find the answer, we must first find
the true underlying cause.
For the fact is:
The selfish, corrupt power and profit- based groups
are not the true source of the problem.
They are symptoms.
"Greed and Competition are not the result of immutable human temperament...
...greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being created and amplified...
the direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.
- Bernard Liertaer - Founder of the EU Currency System
-My name is Jacque Fresco.
I'm an industrial designer and a social engineer.
I'm very much interested in society
and developing a system that might be sustainable, for all people.
First of all, the word "corruption" is a monetary invention
that aberrant behavior
behavior that's disruptive to the well-being of people.
Well you're dealing with human behavior.
And human behavior appears to be environmentally determined.
Meaning, if you were raised by the Seminole Indians as a baby
never saw anything else, you'd hold that value system.
And this goes for nations, it goes for individuals, for families.
They try to indoctrinate their children to their particular faith
and their country and make them feel like they're part of that.
And they build a society, which they call established.
They established a workable point of view and tend to perpetuate that.
Whereas, all societies are really emergent, not established.
And so they fight new ideas
that would interfere with the establishment.
Governments try to perpetuate that which keeps them in power.
People are not elected to political office to change things.
They are put there to keep things the way they are.
So you see, the basis of corruption is in our society.
Let me make it clear. All nations then are basically corrupt
because they tend to uphold existing institutions.
I don't mean to uphold or downgrade all nations
but communism, socialism, fascism, the free enterprise-system
and all other sub-cultures are the same.
They are all basically corrupt.
-The most fundamental characteristic of our social institutions
is the necessity for self-preservation.
Whether dealing with a corporation, a religion or a government
the foremost interest is to preserve the institution itself.
For instance, the last thing an oil company would ever want
is the utilization of energy that was outside of its control.
For it makes that company less relevant to society.
Likewise the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union
was, in reality, a way to preserve and perpetuate
the established economic and global hegemony of the United States.
Similarly, religions condition people
to feel guilty for natural inclinations
each claiming to offer the only path to forgiveness and salvation.
At the heart of this institutional self-preservation
lies the monetary system
for it is money that provides the means for power and survival.
Therefore, just as a poor person
might be forced to steal in order to survive
it is a natural inclination to do whatever is needed
to continue an institution's profitability.
This makes it inherently difficult
for profit-based institutions to change, for it puts in jeopardy
not only the survival of large groups of people
but also the coveted materialistic lifestyles
associated with affluence and power.
Therefore, the paralyzing necessity to preserve an institution
regardless of its social relevance
is largely rooted in the need for money or profit.
[ Industry ]
- "What's in it for me? " is the way people think.
And so if a man makes money selling a certain product
that's where he's going to fight the existence of another product
that may threaten his institution.
Therefore, people cannot be fair.
And people do not trust each other.
A guy will come over to you and say
"I've got just the house you're looking for. " He's a salesman.
When a doctor says, "I think your kidney has to come out."
I don't know if he's trying to pay off a yacht
or that my kidney has to come out.
It's hard in a monetary system to trust people.
If you came into my store and I said, "This lamp that I've got
is pretty good, but the lamp next door is much better."
I wouldn't be in business very long. It wouldn't work.
If I were ethical, it wouldn't work.
So when you say industry cares for people, that's not true.
They can't afford to be ethical.
So your system is not designed to serve the well-being of people.
If you still don't understand that there would be no outsourcing of jobs
if they cared about people.
Industry does not care. They only hire people
because it hasn't been automated yet.
So don't talk about decency and ethics.
We cannot afford it and remain in business.
-It is important to point out that regardless of the social system -
whether fascist, socialist, capitalist or communist
the underlying mechanism is still money, labor and competition.
Communist China is no less capitalistic than the United States.
The only difference is the degree
by which the state intervenes in enterprise.
The reality is that "Monetary-ism", so to speak
is the true mechanism that guides the interests
of all the countries on the planet.
The most aggressive and hence dominant variation
of this monetary-ism is the free enterprise system.
The fundamental perspective, as put forth
by early free market economists like Adam Smith
is that self interest and competition leads to social prosperity
as the act of competition creates incentive
which motivates people to persevere.
However, what isn't talked about, is how a competition based economy
invariably leads to strategic corruption
power and wealth consolidation, social stratification
technological paralysis, labor abuse and ultimately a covert form
of government dictatorship by the rich elite.
The word "corruption" is often defined as moral perversion.
If a company dumps toxic waste into the ocean to save money
most people recognize this as "corrupt behavior".
On a more subtle level, when Walmart moves into a small town
and forces small businesses to shut down
for they are unable to compete, a grey area emerges.
For what exactly is Walmart doing wrong?
Why should they care about the Mom and Pop organizations they destroy?
Yet, even more subtly, when a person gets fired from their job
because a new machine has been created
which can do the work for less money
people tend to just accept that as "the way it is"
not seeing the inherent corrupt inhumanity of such an action.
Because the fact is, whether it is dumping toxic waste
having a monopoly enterprise or downsizing the workforce
the motive is the same: Profit.
.
They are all different degrees of the same self-preserving mechanism
which always puts the well-being of people second to monetary gain.
Therefore, corruption is not some byproduct of monetary-ism
it is the very foundation.
And while most people acknowledge this tendency
on one level or another, the majority remains naive
as to the broad ramifications
of having such a selfish mechanism
as the guiding mentality in society.
-Internal documents show
that after this company positively absolutely knew
that they had a medication that was infected with the AIDS virus
they took the product off the market in the US
and then they dumped it in France, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
The US government allowed it to happen.
The FDA allowed this to happen
and now the government is completely looking the other way.
Thousands of innocent hemophiliacs have died from the AIDS virus.
This company knew absolutely that it was infected with AIDS,
they dumped it because they wanted to turn this disaster into a profit.
-So you see, you have built-in corruption.
We're all chiseling off each other
and you can't expect decency or that sort of thing.
Politics
...a feeling that they don't know who to elect.
They think in terms of a democracy
which is not possible in a monetary based economy.
If you have more money to advertise your position
the position you desire in government, that isn't a democracy.
.
It serves those in positions of differential advantage.
So it's always a dictatorship of the elitist, the financially wealthy.
.
"We can either have democracy in this country or
we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few,
but we can't have both." - Louis Brandeis - Supreme Court Justice
-It is an interesting observation
to note how seemingly unknown personalities
magically appear on the scene as presidential candidates.
Then before you know it, somehow you are left to choose
from a small group of extremely wealthy people
who suspiciously have the same broad social view.
Obviously it's a joke.
The people placed on the ballot are done so
because they have been pre-decided to be acceptable
by the established financial powers who actually run the show.
Yet many who understand this illusion of democracy, often think
"If only we could just get our honest, ethical politicians in power,
then we would be okay".
Well, while this idea, of course, seems reasonable
in our established oriented world view
it is unfortunately another fallacy.
For when it really comes down to what is actually important,
the institution of politics and thus politicians themselves
have absolutely no true relevance as to
what makes our world and society function.
-It's not politicians that can solve problems.
They have no technical capabilities.
They don't know how to solve problems.
Even if they were sincere, they don't know how to solve problems.
It's the technicians that produce the desalinization plants.
It's the technicians that give you electricity.
That give you motor vehicles.
That heat your house and cool it in the summer time.
It's technology that solves problems, not politics.
Politics cannot solve problems 'cause they are not trained to do so.
-Very few people today stop and consider
what it is that actually improves their lives.
Is it money? Obviously not.
One cannot eat money or stuff money into their car to get it to run.
Is it politics?
All politicians can do is create laws
establish budgets and declare war.
Is it religion? Of course not.
Religion creates nothing except
intangible emotional solace for those who require it.
The true gift that we as human beings have
which has been solely responsible for everything
that has improved our lives
is technology.
What is technology?
Technology is a pencil
which allows one to solidify ideas on paper for communication.
Technology is an automobile, which allows one to travel faster
than feet would allow.
Technology is a pair of eye glasses
which enables sight for those who need it.
Applied technology itself is merely an extension of human attributes
which reduces human effort
freeing humans from a particular chore or problem.
Imagine what your life would be like today
without a telephone, or an oven
or a computer, or an airplane.
.
And, everything in your home, which you take for granted
from a doorbell, to a table
to a dishwasher, is technology
generated from the creative scientific ingenuity of human technicians.
Not money, politics or religion.
These are false institutions.
- ...and writing your congressman is fantastic.
They tell you to write your congressman if you want something done.
The men in Washington should be at the forefront of technology.
The forefront of human study.
The forefront of crime.
All the factors that shape human behavior.
You don't have to write your congressman.
What kind of people are they that are appointed to do that job?
The future will have great difficulty...
and the question that's raised by politicians is:
How much will a project cost?
The question is not "how much will it cost".
Do we have the resources?
And we have the resources today to house everyone,
build hospitals all over the world,
build schools all over the world
the finest equipment in labs for teaching and doing medical research.
So you see, we have all that, but we're in a monetary system
and in a monetary system there's profit.
-And what is the fundamental mechanism that drives the profit system
besides self-interest?
What is it exactly that maintains that competitive edge at its core?
Is it high efficiency and sustainability?
No. That isn't part of their design.
Nothing produced in our profit based society
is even remotely sustainable or efficient.
If it was, there wouldn't be a multi-million dollar a year
service industry for automobiles.
Nor would the average lifespan for most electronics
be less than three months before they're obsolete.
Is it abundance?
Absolutely not.
Abundance, as based on the laws of supply and demand
is actually a negative thing.
If a diamond company finds
ten times the usual amount of diamonds during their mining
it means the supply of diamonds has increased
which means the cost and profit per diamond drops.
The fact is: efficiency, sustainability and abundance
are enemies of profit.
To put it into a word
it is the mechanism of scarcity that increases profits.
-What is scarcity?
Based on keeping products valuable.
Slowing up production on oil raises the price.
Maintaining scarcity of diamonds keeps the price high.
They burn diamonds at the Kimberly Diamond Mine.
They are made of carbon. That keeps the price up.
-So then, what does it mean for society when scarcity
either produced naturally or through manipulation
is a beneficial condition for industry?
It means that sustainability and abundance
will never ever occur in a profit system
for it simply goes against the very nature of the structure.
Therefore, it is impossible to have a world without war or poverty.
It is impossible to continually advance technology
to its most efficient and productive states.
And, most dramatically
it is impossible to expect human beings
to behave in truly ethical or decent ways.
"Human nature
or human behavior? "
-People use the word instinct
because they can't account for the behavior.
They sit back and they evaluate
with their lack of knowledge, you know
and they say things like
"Humans are built a certain way. Greed is a natural thing"
as though they'd worked for years on it.
And it's no more natural than wearing clothing.
-What we want to do is to eliminate
the causes of the problems.
Eliminate the processes
that produce greed and bigotry and prejudice
and people taking advantage of one another and elitism
eliminating the need for prisons and welfare.
We have always had these problems
because we have always lived within scarcity and barter
and monetary systems that produce scarcity.
-If you eradicate the conditions that generate
what you call socially offensive behavior, it does not exist.
A guy says: "Well, isn't that in-born? " No it's not.
.
-There is no human nature; there's human behavior,
and that's always been changed throughout history.
You're not born with bigotry and greed and corruption and hatred.
You pick that up within the society.
-War, poverty, corruption, hunger, misery, human suffering
will not change in a monetary system;
that is, there will be very little significant change.
It's going to take the redesign of our culture, our values
.
and it has to be related to the carrying capacity of the earth
not some human opinion or some politicians notions
of the way the world ought to be
or some religious notion of the conduct of human affairs.
And that's what The Venus Project is about.
The society that we're about to talk about
is a society that is free of all the old superstitions
incarceration, prisons, police, cruelty and law.
All laws will disappear
and the professions will disappear, that are no longer valid
such as stockbrokers, bankers, advertising.
Gone! Forever!
Because it's no longer relevant.
-When we understand that it is technology
devised by human ingenuity
which frees humanity and increases our quality of life
we then realize that the most important focus we can have
is on the intelligent management of the earth's resources.
For it is from these natural resources we gain the materials
to continue our path of prosperity. Understanding this we then see
that money fundamentally exists as a barrier to these resources
for virtually everything has a financial cost.
And why do we need money to obtain these resources?
Because of real or assumed scarcity.
We don't usually pay for air and tap water
because it is in such high abundance,
selling it would be pointless.
So then, logically speaking, if resources
and technologies applicable to creating everything in our societies
such as houses, cities and transportation, were in high enough
abundance, there would be no reason to sell anything.
Likewise, if automation and machinery was so technologically advanced
as to relieve human beings of labor,
there would be no reason to have a job.
And with these social aspects taken care of,
there would be no reason to have money at all.
So the ultimate question remains:
Do we on Earth have enough resources
and technological understanding
to create a society of such abundance
that everything we have now could be available without a price tag
and without the need for submission through employment?
Yes, we do.
We have the resources and technology to enable this at a minimum
.
along with the ability to raise the standards of living so high
that people in the future will look back at our civilization now
and gawk at how primitive and immature our society was.
-What The Venus Project proposes is an entirely different system
.
that's updated to present day knowledge.
-We've never given scientists the problem of
how do you design a society which would
eliminate boring and monotonous jobs
that would eliminate accidents in transportation
that would enable people to have a high standard of living
that would eliminate poisons in our food
give us other sources of energy that are clean and efficient.
We can do that out there.
[A resource-based economy.]
The major difference between a
Resource-Based Economy (RBE) and a monetary system
is that a RBE is really concerned with people and their well-being,
.
where the monetary system has become so distorted that the
concerns of the people are really secondary, if they're there at all.
The products that are turned out are for how much money you can get.
If there is a problem in society and
you can't earn money from solving that problem, then it won't be done.
The Resource-Based Economy is really
not close to anything that's been tried.
And with all our technology today we can create abundance.
It could be used to improve everyone's lifestyle
abundance all over the world if we use our technology wisely
and maintain the environment.
-It's a very different system and it's very hard to talk about
because the public is not that well enough informed
as to the state of technology.
[Energy]
At present, we don't have to burn fossil fuels.
We don't have to use anything that would contaminate the environment.
There are many sources of energy available.
-Alternative energy solutions pushed by the establishment
such as hydrogen, biomass and even nuclear
are highly insufficient, dangerous and exist only
to perpetuate the profit-structure that industry has created.
When we look beyond the propaganda and self-serving solutions
put forth by the energy companies
we find a seemingly endless stream
of clean, abundant and renewable energy for generating power.
Solar and wind energy are well known to the public
but the true potential of these mediums remains unexpressed.
Solar energy, derived from the sun
has such abundance that one hour of light at high noon
contains more energy than what the entire world consumes in a year.
If we could capture 1/100th of a percent of this energy
the world would never have to use oil, gas or anything else.
The question then, is not availability
but the technology to harness it.
And there are many advanced mediums today
which could accomplish just that
if they were not hindered by the need to compete for market share
with the established energy power structures.
Then there's wind energy.
Wind energy has long been denounced as weak
and due to being location driven impractical.
This is simply not true.
The US Department of Energy admitted in 2007
that if wind was fully harvested in just three of America's 50 states
it could power the entire nation.
And then there are the rather unknown mediums
of tidal and wave power.
Tidal power is derived from tidal shifts in the ocean.
Installing turbines which capture this movement generates energy.
In the United Kingdom, 42 sites are currently noted as available
forecasting that 34% of all the UK's energy
could come from tidal power alone.
Wave power, which extracts energy
from the surface motions of the ocean
is estimated to have a global potential
of up to 80,000 terawatt-hours a year.
This means 50% of the entire planet's energy usage
could be produced from this medium alone.
Now, it is important to point out that
tidal, wave, solar and wind power
requires virtually no preliminary energy to harness
unlike coal, oil, gas, biomass, hydrogen and all the others.
In combination, these four mediums alone
if efficiently harnessed through technology
could power the world forever.
That being said, there happens to be another form
of clean renewable energy, which trumps them all.
Geothermal power.
Geothermal energy utilizes what is called "heat mining"
which, through a simple process using water
is able to generate massive amounts of clean energy.
In 2006, an MIT report on geothermal energy
found that 13,000 ZJ of power are currently available in the earth
with the possibility of 2,000 ZJ being easily tappable
with improved technology.
The total energy consumption of all the countries on the planet
is about half of a ZJ a year.
This means about 4000 years of planetary power
could be harnessed in this medium alone.
And when we understand that the earth's heat generation
is constantly renewed, this energy is really limitless.
It could be used forever.
These energy sources are only a few
of the clean renewable mediums available
and as time goes on, we will find more.
The grand realization is that we have total energy abundance
without the need for pollution
traditional conservation or, in fact, a price tag.
And what about transportation?
The prevailing means of transportation in our societies
is by automobile and aircraft
both of which predominantly need fossil fuels to run.
In the case of the automobile, the battery technology
needed to power an electric car
that can go over a hundred miles an hour
for over two hundred miles on one charge
exists and has existed for many years.
However, due to battery patents, controlled by the oil industry
which limits their availability to maintain market share
coupled with political pressure from the energy industry
the accessibility and affordability of this technology is limited.
There is absolutely no reason,
other than pure corrupt profit interests
that every single vehicle in the world
cannot be electric and utterly clean, with zero need for gasoline.
As far as airplanes, it is time we realize
that this means of travel is inefficient, cumbersome
slow, and causes far too much pollution.
This is a maglev train.
It uses magnets for propulsion.
It is fully suspended by a magnetic field
and requires less than 2% of the energy used for plane travel.
The train has no wheels, so nothing can wear out.
The current maximum speed of versions of this technology
as used in Japan, is three hundred and sixty one miles per hour.
However this version of the technology is very dated.
An organization called ET3
which has connections with The Venus Project
has established a tube-based maglev
that can travel up to 4000 miles per hour
in a motionless, frictionless tube
which can go over land or under water.
Imagine going from LA to New York for an extended lunch break
or from Washington D.C. to Beijing, China, in two hours.
This is the future of continental and intercontinental travel.
Fast, clean, with only a fraction of the energy usage
we use today for the same means.
In fact, between maglev technology
advanced battery storage and geothermal energy
there will be no reason to ever burn fossil fuels again.
And we can do this now
if we were not held back by the paralyzing profit structure.
[work]
-Now America is inclined toward fascism.
It has a propensity by its dominant philosophy and religion
to uphold the fascist point of view.
American industry is essentially a fascist institution.
If you don't understand that, the minute you punch that time clock
you walk into a dictatorship.
-We're given notions about the respectability of work.
And I really look at it as being paid slavery.
-You're brought up to believe that you shall earn your living
by the sweat of your brow. That holds people back.
Freeing people from drudgery
repetitive jobs which make them ignorant.
You rob them.
In our society, that is a resource- based economy
machines free people.
You see, we can't imagine that
because we've never known that kind of world.
[automation]
-If we look back at history
we see a very clear pattern of machine automation
slowly replacing human labor.
From the disappearance of the elevator man
to the near full automation of an automobile production plant
the fact is, as technology grows
the need for humans in the work force will continually be diminished.
.
This creates a serious clash
which proves the falseness of the monetary-based labor system
for human employment is in direct competition
with technological development.
Therefore, given the fundamental priority of profit by industry
people through time will be continually laid off
and replaced by machines.
-When industry takes on a machine
instead of shortening the work day, they downsize.
You lose your job so you have a right to fear machines.
-In a high technology, resource-based economy
it is conservative to say that about 90% of all current occupations
could be phased out by machines.
Freeing humans to live their life without servitude.
For this is the point of technology itself.
And through time, with nanotechnology
and other highly advanced forms of science
it is not far fetched to see how even complex medical procedures
could be performed by machines as well.
And based on the pattern, with much higher success rates
than humans get today.
The path is clear but our monetary-based structure
which requires labor for income, blocks this progress
for humans need jobs in order to survive.
The bottom line is that this system must go
or we will never be free
and technology will be constantly paralyzed.
-We have machines that clean out sewers
it frees a human being from doing that.
So look at machines as extensions of human performance.
-Furthermore, many occupations today
will have simply no basis to exist in a resource-based economy
such as anything associated with the management of money
advertising, along with the legal system itself.
For, without money, a great majority of the crimes
that are committed today would never occur.
Virtually all forms of crime are a consequence
of the monetary system, either directly or by neurosis
inflicted through financial deprivation.
Therefore, laws themselves could eventually become extinct.
-Instead of putting up a sign "Drive carefully
slippery when wet," put abrasive in the highway
so it is not slippery when wet.
And if a person gets in car, they're drunk
and the car oscillates a great deal
there's a little pendulum that swings up and back
and that will pull the car over to the side.
Not a law... solution.
Put sonar and radar on automobiles so they can't hit one another.
Man-made laws are attempts
to deal with occurring problems
and not knowing how to solve them
they make a law.
-In the United States, the most privatized
capitalist country on the planet, it should come as no surprise
that it also has the largest prison population in the world
growing every year.
Statistically, most of these people are uneducated
and come from poor, deprived societies.
And, contrary to propaganda, it is this environmental conditioning
which lures them into criminal and violent behavior.
However society looks the other way
in regard to this point.
The legal and prison systems are just more examples
of how our society avoids examining
the root causes of behaviour.
Billions are spent each year on prisons and police
.
while only a fraction is spent on programs for poverty
which is one of the most fundamental variables
responsible for crime to begin with.
And, as long as we have an economic system
which prefers and in fact creates
scarcity and deprivation, crime will never go away.
[incentive]
-If people have access to the necessities of life
without servitude, debt, barter, trade
they behave very differently.
You want all these things available without a price tag.
Now then, "you gotta have a price tag, what will motivate people?
A man gets everything he wants, he'd just lay around in the sun."
This is the myth they perpetuate.
People in our culture are trained to believe
that the monetary system produces incentive.
If they have access to things, why should they want to do anything?
They would lose their incentive.
That's what you're taught to support the monetary system.
-When you take money out of the scenario,
there would be different incentives, very different incentives.
-When people have access to the necessities of life,
their incentives change.
What about the moon and the stars?
New incentives arise.
If you make a painting that you enjoy
you will enjoy giving it to other people, not selling it.
[education]
-I think most of the education that I've seen today is essentially
producing a person for a job
It's very specialized. They're not generalists.
People don't know a lot about a lot of different subjects.
I don't think you could get people to go to war
if they knew a lot about a lot of things.
I think education is mostly rote
and they're not taught how to solve problems.
They're not given the tools, emotionally or within their own field
of how to do critical thinking.
In a resource-based economy, the education would be very different.
-Our society's major concern is mental development
and to motivate each person to their highest potential.
.
Because our philosophy is; the smarter people are, the richer the world
because everybody becomes a contributor.
The smarter your kids are, the better my life will be.
.
Because they'll be contributing more constructively
to the environment and to my life.
Because everything that we devise within a resource based economy
would be applied to society, there would be nothing to hold it back.
.
[civilization]
Patriotism, weapons, armies, navies
all that is a sign that we're not civilized yet.
.
Kids will ask their parents:
"Didn't you see the necessity of the machines?
Dad, couldn't you see that war was inevitable
when you produce scarcity? Isn't it obvious?
Of course, the kid will understand that you were pinheads,
raised merely to serve the established institutions.
We're such an abominable, sick society
that we won't make the history book.
They'll just say that large nations took land from smaller nations
used force and violence.
You'll get history talked about as corrupt behavior
all the way along until the beginning of the civilized world.
.
That's when all the nations work together.
World unification, working toward common good
for all human beings
and without anyone being subservient to anyone else.
Without social stratification, whether it be technical elitism
.
or any other kind of elitism, eradicated from the face of the Earth.
.
The "state" does nothing because there is no "state".
Because there is no state...
The system I advocate, a resource based global economy
is not perfect, it's just a lot better than what we have.
.
We can never achieve perfection.
"My country is the world... and my religion is to do good."
.
- Thomas Paine - 1737-1809
-The social values of our society
which has manifested in perpetual warfare, corruption
.
oppressive laws, social stratification, irrelevant superstitions
.
environmental destruction, and a despotic
socially indifferent, profit oriented ruling class
is fundamentally the result of a collective ignorance
of two of the most basic insights humans can have about reality.
The emergent and symbiotic aspects of natural law.
The emergent nature of reality is that all systems
whether it is knowledge, society, technology
philosophy or any other creation
will, when uninhibited, undergo fluid perpetual change.
.
What we consider commonplace today
such as modern communication and transportation
would have been unimaginable in ancient times.
Likewise, the future will contain technologies
realizations and social structures
that we cannot even fathom in the present.
We have gone from alchemy to chemistry
from a geocentric universe to a heliocentric
from believing that demons were the cause of illness
to modern medicine.
This development shows no sign of ending
and it is this awareness that aligns us and leads us
on a continuous path to growth and progress.
.
Static, empirical knowledge does not exist
rather it is the insight of the emergence of all systems
we must recognize.
This means we must be open to new information at all times
even if it threatens our current belief system
and hence, identities.
Sadly, society today has failed to recognize this
and the established institutions continue to paralyze growth
by preserving outdated social structures.
Simultaneously, the population suffers from a fear of change.
For their conditioning assumes a static identity
and challenging one's belief system
usually results in insult and apprehension.
For being wrong is erroneously associated with failure.
When in fact to be proven wrong should be celebrated.
For it is elevating someone to a new level of understanding,
furthering awareness.
The fact is, there is no such thing as a smart human being
for it is merely a matter of time
before their ideas are updated, changed or eradicated.
And this tendency to blindly hold on to a belief system,
sheltering it from new, possibly transforming information
is nothing less than a form of intellectual materialism.
The monetary system perpetuates this materialism
not only by its self-preserving structures
but also through the countless number of people
who have been conditioned into blindly
and thoughtlessly upholding these structures
therefore becoming self-appointed guardians of the status quo.
Sheep which no longer need a sheep-dog to control them.
For they control each other
by ostracizing those who step out of the norm.
This tendency to resist change and uphold existing institutions
for the sake of identity, comfort, power and profit
.
is completely unsustainable
and will only produce further imbalance
fragmentation, distortion, and invariably
.
destruction.
It's time to change.
From hunters and gatherers
to the agricultural revolution
to the industrial revolution
the pattern is clear.
It is time for a new social system
which reflects the understandings we have today.
The monetary system is a product of a period of time
.
where scarcity was a reality.
Now, with the age of technology, it is no longer relevant to society.
.
Gone with the aberrant behavior it manifests.
Likewise, dominant world views, such as theistic religion
operate with the same social irrelevancy.
.
Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and all of the others
exist as barriers to personal and social growth.
For each group perpetuates a closed world view.
And this finite understanding that they acknowledge
is simply not possible in an emergent universe.
Yet, religion has succeeded in
shutting down the awareness of this emergence
by instilling the psychological distortion of faith upon its followers.
.
Where logic and new information is rejected
in favor of traditionalized outdated beliefs.
-The concept of God
is really a method of accounting for the nature of things.
In the early days people didn't know enough
about how things formed,
how nature worked.
So they invented their own little stories
and they made god in their own image.
A guy that gets angry
when people don't behave right, he creates floods and earthquakes
.
and they say it's an act of God.
-A cursory glance at the suppressed history of religion
reveals that even the foundational myths themselves
are emergent culminations developed through influence over time.
For example, a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith
is the death and resurrection of Christ.
This notion is so important that the Bible itself states
'And if Christ be not risen
then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain'.
Yet it is very difficult to take this account literally
for not only is there no primary source
denoting this supernatural event in secular history
awareness of the enormous number of pre-Christian saviors
who also died and were resurrected
immediately puts this story in mythological territory by association.
Early church figures, such as Tertullian
.
went to great lengths to break these associations
even claiming that the devil caused the similarities to occur.
Stating in the second century:
"The devil, whose business is to pervert the truth
mimics the exact circumstance of the Divine Sacraments.
He baptizes his believers and promises forgiveness of sins
he celebrates the oblation of bread
and brings in the symbol of the resurrection.
Let us therefore acknowledge the craftiness of the devil
who copied certain things of those that be Divine."
What is truly sad however
is that when we cease the idea that the stories from Christianity
Judaism, Islam and all the others
are literal history
and accept them for what they really are
which are purely allegorical expressions derived from many faiths
we see that all religions share a common thread.
And it is this unifying imperative
that needs to be recognized and appreciated.
Religious belief has caused more fragmentation and conflict
than any other ideology.
Christianity alone has 34,000 different subgroups.
-The Bible is subject to interpretation.
When you read it, you say
"I think Jesus meant this. I think Job meant that.
Oh No! He meant this."
So you have the Lutheran, the Seventh-day Adventist, the Catholic
and a church divided is no church at all.
And a church divided, is no church at all.
And this point on division
which is a trademark of all theistic religions,
brings us to our second failure of awareness.
The false assumption of separation
through the rejection of the symbiotic relationship of life.
Apart from the understanding that all natural systems are emergent
where all notions of reality will be constantly developed
altered and even eradicated
we must also understand that all systems are, in fact
invented fragments, merely for the sake of conversation.
For there is no such thing as independence in nature.
The whole of nature is a unified system of interdependent variables
each a cause and a reaction, existing only as a concentrated whole.
-You don't see the plug connected to the environment
so it looks like we're free, wandering around.
Take the oxygen away, we all die immediately.
Take plant life away, we die.
And without the sun, all the plants die.
So we are connected.
-We really must take into account the totality.
This isn't just a human experience on this planet,
this is a total experience.
And we know we can't survive without plants and animals.
We know we can't survive without the four elements, you know?
And so, when are we gonna really start taking that into account?
That's what it is to be successful.
Success depends on how well we relate to everything around us.
I'm very aware of the fact that my grandson
cannot possibly hope to inherit a sustainable
peaceful, stable, socially just world
unless every child today growing up in
Ethiopia, in Indonesia, in Bolivia, in Palestine, in Israel
also has that same expectation.
You've got to take care of the whole community
or you're gonna have serious problems.
And now we have to see that the whole world is the community.
And we must all take care of each other that way.
And it's not just a community of human beings
it's a community of plants and animals and elements.
And we really need to understand that.
That's what's gonna bring us joy too, and pleasure.
.
That's what's missing in our lives right now.
We can call it spirituality, but the fact of the matter is
.
joy comes from that bliss of connectedness.
That's our god spirit, that's that side of ourselves
that really feels it, and you can feel it deep inside you.
It's this amazing wonderful feeling, and you know it when you get it.
.
You don't get it from money, you get it from connection.
.
-Now if that isn't a hazard to this country.
How are we gonna keep building nuclear weapons
you know what I mean?
What's gonna happen to the arms industry
when we realize we're all one?
It's gonna fuck up the economy.
The economy that's fake anyway.
Which would be a real bummer.
You can see why the government's crackin' down...
...on the idea of experiencing unconditional love."
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love
will have the final word in reality."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - 1929-1968
-Once we understand that the integrity of our personal existences
are completely dependent on the integrity
of everything else in our world
we have truly understood the meaning of unconditional love.
For love is extensionality and seeing everything as you
and you as everything can have no conditionalities
for in fact, we are all everything at once.
-If it's true that we're all from the center of a star
every atom in each of us from the center of a star
then we're all the same thing.
Even a Coke machine or a cigarette butt in the street in Buffalo
is made out of atoms that came from a star.
They've all been recycled thousands of times
as have you and I. And therefore, it's only me out there.
So what is there to be afraid of?
What is there that needs solace seeking?
Nothing. There's nothing to be afraid of because it's all us.
The trouble is we have been separated by being born
and given a name and an identity and being individuated.
We've been separated from the oneness and that's what religion exploits.
.
That people have this yearning to be part of the overall one again.
So they exploit that. They call it god, they say he has rules
and I think it's cruel.
I think you can do it absent religion.
"An extraterrestrial visitor examining the differences among human societies
would find those differences trivial compared to the similarities
Our lives, our past and our future are tied to the sun, the moon and the stars...
We humans have seen the atoms which constitute all of nature and the forces that sculpted this work...
And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos,
we have begun at least to wonder about our origins... star stuff contemplating the stars
.
organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms,
contemplating the evolution of nature, tracing that long path
by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet earth...
Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet.
Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves
but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring.
We are one species. We are star stuff harvesting star light.
- Carl Sagan - 1934-1996
-It's time to claim the unity
our outmoded social systems have broken apart
and work together to create a sustainable, global society
where everyone is taken care of and everyone is truly free.
Your personal beliefs, whatever they may be
are meaningless when it comes to the necessities of life.
Every human being is born naked
needing warmth, food, water, shelter.
Everything else is auxiliary.
Therefore, the most important issue at hand
is the intelligent management of the Earth's resources.
This can never be accomplished in a monetary system
for the pursuit of profit is the pursuit of self interest
and therefore imbalance is inherent.
Simultaneously, politicians are useless
for our true problems in life are technical not political.
Furthermore, ideologies that separate humanity
.
such as religion, need strong reflection in the community
in regard to its value, purpose and social relevancy.
Hopefully, through time
religion will lose its materialism and basis in superstition
and move into the useful field of philosophy.
The fact is, society today is backwards
with politicians constantly talking about protection and security
rather than creation, unity and progress.
The US alone now spends about
$500 billion dollars annually on defense.
That is enough to send every high school senior in America
to a four year college.
In the 1940s the Manhattan Project
produced the first true weapon of mass destruction.
This program employed 130,000 people, at an extreme financial cost.
Imagine what our life would be like today if that group of scientists
instead of working on a way of killing people
worked on a way to create a self-sustaining abundant world.
Life today would be very, very different if that was their goal.
Instead of weapons of mass destruction
it is time to unleash something much more powerful.
Weapons of Mass Creation (WMCs).
Our true divinity is in our ability to create.
And armed with the understanding of the symbiotic connections of life
while being guided by the emergent nature of reality
there is nothing we cannot do or accomplish.
Of course, we face strong barriers
in the form of established power structures that refuse to change.
At the heart of these structures is the monetary system.
As explained earlier, the fractional reserve policy
is a form of slavery through debt
where it is literally impossible for society to be free.
In turn, free market capitalism in the form of free trade
uses debt to imprison the world and manipulate countries
into subservience to a handful of large business and political powers.
Apart from these obvious amoralities
the system itself is based on competition
which immediately destroys the possibility
of large scale collaborations for the common good.
Hence paralyzing any attempt at true global sustainability.
These financial and corporate structures are now obsolete
and they must be outgrown.
Of course, we can not be naive enough to think that
the business and financial elite are going to subscribe to this idea
for they will lose power and control.
Therefore, peacefully yet highly strategic action must be taken.
The most powerful course of action is simple.
We have to alter our behavior
to force the power structure to the will of the people.
We must stop supporting the system.
The only way the establishment will change
is by our refusal to participate while continuously acknowledging
its endless flaws and corruptions.
-They're not gonna give up the monetary system
because of our designs or what we recommend.
The system has to fail
and people have to lose confidence in their elected leaders.
That will be a major turning point
if The Venus Project is offered as a possible alternative.
If not, I fear the consequences.
The trends now indicate that our country is going bankrupt.
The probability is our country will move
toward a military dictatorship to prevent riots
and complete social breakdown.
Once the US breaks down, all the other cultures
will undergo similar things.
-As of now, the world financial system
is on the brink of collapse due to its own shortcomings.
The controller of currencies stated in 2003
that the interest on the US national debt
will not be affordable in less than ten years.
This theoretically means total bankruptcy for the US economy
and its implications for the world are immense.
In turn the fractional reserve based monetary system
is reaching its theoretical limits of expansion
and the banking failures you are seeing are just the beginning.
This is why inflation is skyrocketing, all debt is at record levels
.
and the government and FED are hemorrhaging new money
to bailout the corrupt system.
For the only way to keep the banks going
is by making more money.
The only way to make more money is to create more debt and inflation.
.
It is simply a matter of time before the tables turn
and there's no one is willing to take new loans
while defaults grow as people are unable
to afford their current loans.
Then the expansion of money will stop
and contraction will begin on a scale never before seen
ending a century long pyramid scheme.
This has already begun.
Therefore, we need to expose this financial failure for what it is
using this weakness to our advantage.
Here are some suggestions:
Expose the banking fraud.
Citibank, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America
are the most powerful controllers
within the corrupt Federal Reserve system.
It's time to boycott these institutions.
If you have a bank account or a credit card with any of them
move your money to another bank.
If you have a mortgage, re-finance with another bank.
If you own their stock, sell it.
If you work for them, quit.
This gesture will express contempt
for the true powers behind the private banking cartel
known as the Federal Reserve.
And create awareness about the fraud of the banking system itself.
Two: Turn off the TV news.
Visit the emerging independent news agencies on the internet
for your information.
CNN, NBC, ABC, FOX and all the others
present all news pre-filtered to maintain the status quo.
With four corporations owning all major media outlets
objective information is impossible.
This is the true beauty of the internet
and the establishment has been losing control
because of this free flow of information.
We must protect the internet at all times
as it is truly our savior right now.
Three: Don't ever allow yourself, your family or anyone you know
.
to ever join the military.
This is an obsolete institution
now used exclusively for maintaining an establishment
that is no longer relevant.
US soldiers in Iraq work for US corporations, not the people.
.
Propaganda forces us to believe that war is natural
and the military is an honorable institution.
Well, if war is natural
why are there 18 suicides every single day
by American veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder?
.
If our military men and women are so honored
why is it that 25% of the American homeless population are veterans?
.
Four: Stop supporting the energy companies.
If you live in a detached house, get off the grid.
.
Investigate every means of making your home self-sustainable
with clean energy.
Solar, wind and other renewable energies
are now affordable consumer realities
and considering the never ending rising costs of traditional energies
it will likely be a cheaper investment over time.
If you drive, get the smallest car you can
and consider using one of the many conversion technologies
that can enable your car to be a hybrid
electric or run on anything other than establishment fuels.
Five: Reject the political system.
The illusion of democracy is an insult to our intelligence.
In a monetary system, there is no such thing as a true democracy
and there never was.
We have two political parties
owned by the same set of corporate lobbyists.
They are placed in their positions by the corporations
with popularity artificially projected by their media.
In a system of inherent corruption
the change of personnel every couple of years
has very little relevance.
Instead of pretending that the political game has any true meaning
focus your energy on how to transcend this failed system.
And six: Join the movement.
Go to the thezeitgeistmovement. com
and help us create the largest mass movement for social change
the world has ever seen.
We must mobilize and educate everyone
about the inherent corruption of our current world system
along with the only true sustainable solution
declaring all the natural resources on the planet
as common heritage to all people
while informing everyone as to the true state of technology
and how we can all be free if the world works together
rather than fights.
The choice lies with you.
You can continue to be a slave to the financial system
and watch the continuous wars, depressions and injustice across the globe
while placating yourself with vain entertainment
and materialistic garbage;
or, you can focus your energy on true, meaningful, lasting, holistic change
which actually has the realistic ability to support
and free all humans with no one left behind.
But in the end, the most relevant change
must occur first inside of you.
The real revolution is the revolution of consciousness
and each one of us first needs to eliminate
the diversionary, materialistic noise
we have been conditioned to think is true;
while discovering, amplifying and aligning
with the signal coming from our true empirical oneness.
It is up to you.
-What we are trying in all these discussions and talks here
is to see if we cannot radically bring about a transformation of the mind.
Not accept things as they are
but to understand it, to go into it, to examine it
give your heart and your mind with everything that you have to find out
a way of living differently.
But, that depends on you and not somebody else.
Because in this there is no teacher
no pupil
there's no leader
there's no guru
there's no master, no savior.
You yourself are the teacher and the pupil, you're the master, you're the guru, you are the leader
you are everything!
And
to understand
is to transform what is.