The Zeitgeist Movement: An Organisation for Global Social Change
An in-depth overview with excerpts from the movements website and book The Zeitgeist Movement Defined: Realising a New Train of Thought
What is the Zeitgeist Movement?
Our Mission Statement
Founded in 2008, The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM) is a sustainability and public health advocacy organization.
It conducts research and activism through a network of regional chapters, public events and various forms of educational media.
The focus includes recognizing that the majority of the modern world’s social problems, including mounting ecological crises and destabilizing economic inequality (oppression, poverty, conflict, corruption, etc.) is not an inevitable outcome of our civilization. Rather, TZM sees these issues as consequential symptoms of an outdated social system.
While common reforms and general community support to improve conditions are of interest to TZM, working to galvanize the population in a move to change the very nature of our social system itself is the goal.
In this, a central criticism has been in addressing the inefficient nature of market-based economics or capitalism itself. TZM concludes that without a dramatic move away from the incentives and structural dynamics of the market system, there is little hope today for further, relevant improvements in the areas of human rights, ecological sustainability and general public health.
Supporters refer to the model promoted by TZM as a “Natural-Law Resource-Based Economy”. This model is inferential, derived from modern principles of scientific, sustainable earthly management, along with contemporary findings in social and epidemiological research.
TZM’s interest in change is global.
It has no allegiance to country or traditional political platforms. It views the world as a single system and the human species as a single family. It recognizes that all countries must disarm and learn to share resources and ideas if we expect to survive in the long run. Self-interest must become social-interest and the solutions arrived at and promoted are in the interest to help every human being.
Excerpts from The Zeitgeist Movement Defined
TZM’s activism… core focus is on educating the public about the true root sources of many common personal, social and ecological problems today, coupled with the vast problem solving and humanity improving potential science and technology has now enabled, but yet goes unapplied due to barriers inherent in the current, established social system. (P.5)
The Zeitgeist Movement is best categorized as an activist/educational institution that works to amplify a context upon which existing/emerging scientific findings may find a concerted social imperative. (P.3)
Origin of the name
The title is based upon the semantic meaning of the very terms, explicitly. The term “zeitgeist” is defined as the “general intellectual, moral and cultural climate of an era.” The term “movement” simply implies “motion” or change. Therefore, The Zeitgeist Movement is an organization that urges change in the dominant intellectual, moral and cultural climate of the time.” (P.1)
How does TZM view our major social problems today?
TZM is different from most activist communities and political/social movements in the world today, due to the way we view the majority of the societal problems and their causes. We see it as structural.
In short, the socioeconomic system itself is regarded as the root cause of persistent negative societal outcomes, with human behavior and its resulting effects — corruption, pollution, wars, waste, exploitation, and hence, distortion of values and psychology — seen as symptoms of this fundamental root source.
How does TZM view the solutions to our major social problems today?
It appears that most solutions offered in the world today are framed within the current social order of monetary practice.
For example, there are over 1 billion people starving in the world and the most common solutions sought tend to utilize money in some fashion to enable the resources needed.
TZM takes a very different view. Rather than take each problem on a per case basis and work to solve that problem within the confines of the customarily accepted system — a system that might, in fact, be creating the problem itself — TZM steps back to consider the inherent logic of the issues themselves and how they relate to the emerging Scientific Benchmark (with respect to The Scientific Method), which tends to go outside of social tradition and custom.
In the case of 1 Billion people starving, the solution does not rest with the need for more donations, more governmental subsides, or even legislation to limit possible causal abuse and exploitation of such regions (as those are not direct solutions since they do not relate to the mechanics of survival). Rather they relate and intermediate with current social customs.
The real issue and hence logic is Technical — not political or financial. Starvation is a technical problem when clean, life supporting resources are not made available to a certain region for some reason. The question is then asked: Is there an empirical environmental restriction which is making those resources unavailable? The answer today is clearly ‘no’. It is well noted by the W.H.O. and others that there is plenty of food being produced in the world to feed everyone and we also have clear technical means to also desalinate and clean polluted water to make it safe for drinking. This can be done on an industrial scale.
The Financial Approach clearly has an inherent flaw which is not enabling these basic life supporting attributes and resources to be made available to 1 billion people. It is economically inefficient, when considering the true sense of the definition of “economics”.
The Technical Approach, which proves that these things are, indeed, possible, where no one would ever have to starve, says- if it is possible to do it, then we need to simply figure out a new way to do it and bypass the current social custom if need be.
As is common within much of The Zeitgeist Movement materials, we see the financial structure, as a whole, as being a foundational cause of most of the world’s issues — with the Technical Reality of what is possible as an approach to the solution. It is based upon Scientific Causality, not Financial Causality. In a world of extreme advancement in information and mechanical technology, the great realization is that we can do much more than ever to meet the needs of the human population, along with generating a logic where most of the environmental and social issues we face today would be gone tomorrow if we simply applied our updated understandings now.
Which current issues does the movement focus on?
General Observations:
In the view of The Movement, the society today has become increasingly detached from the physical world, with techniques of production, distribution and social ordering that have little to no relationship to the environment or the current state of scientific knowledge with respect to public health and sustainability.
Cyclical Consumption
For instance, our use of a profit-based, “growth”-driven monetary system has become one of the greatest destroyers of the natural world and sustainable human values. The entire global economy requires “cyclical consumption” to operate, which means that money must constantly be circulating. Thus, new goods and services must be constantly introduced regardless of the state of the environment and actual human necessity. This “perpetual” approach has a fatal flaw, for resources as we know it are simply not infinite. Resources are finite and the Earth is essentially a closed system. To assume the need for constant consumption to keep people employed and hence the market system going is eco-cidal on a finite planet. The true goal of an economy, by definition, is to strategically preserve and create efficiency. The system today demands the opposite.
Infinite Growth
The Monetary-Market Model is based upon money being treated as a Commodity and its origination from Debt; sold for Interest Income. This is a “Ponzi Scheme”. Each time this Commodity (Money) is sold (Bank Loans), it needs to be paid back (Debt) with more money charged as a fee for profit (Interest). The problem is that the Interest Value required to settle the debt does not exist in the Money Supply outright. In other words, Bankruptcy and Default are not byproducts — they are inevitable — as there is always more debt outstanding than money in existence. This creates severe, offset monetary scarcity that oppresses many people on many levels.
The Value of Scarcity
Likewise, the intents inherent within the monetary system derive a strategic edge from scarcity. This means that depleted resources are actually a positive thing for industry in the short term, for more money can be made off each respective unit. This is contextual to the monetary law of Supply & Demand and hence “Value” in economics. It creates a perverse reinforcement to ignore environmental problems and the negative consequences that create scarcity; not to mention reinforcing technically unnecessary human deprivation. This system does not/can not meet the needs of the many because it isn’t financially efficient to do so.
Problems/Inefficiency = Profit.
Similarly, the system also requires problems/constant consumer interest in order to work. The more people who have cancer or cars that breakdown, the better the economy due to the servicing of those problems. Needless to say, this also generates an inherent disregard for human well-being and the environment. Sustainability, efficiency, and preservation are the enemies of this model.
Cost Efficiency & Irresponsible Obsolescence
There is also the Cost Efficiency mechanism that demands cutting expenses to remain “competitive” in the marketplace. Every single product created by a corporation today is immediately inferior by design, for the market requirement to cut creation costs in favor of lowering the output “purchase price” to maintain a competitive edge automatically reduces the quality of any given item by default. It is impossible to create the “strategically best”/long-lasting anything in our society, which translates into outrageous amounts of wasted resources and time. Likewise, this same mechanism is reinforcing the environmental disregard, depletion, and pollution that we see as a constant in the world today… among other issues.
Waste & Oppression of the Human Resource
As far as Occupations today, we need to ask ourselves what the point is of a given focus and why it is necessary. The fact is, most jobs today are not directly related to the actual necessities of life. Rather, most are artificial concoctions created in order to keep people employed so they can maintain purchasing power in an environment where our technology continues to expand exponentially, displacing humans from the production force.
It is a common statement in politics today to hear about “creating jobs”. Well, in theory, an occupation could be created where people are paid to sit in a room and test chewing gum all day, everyday… but is that a viable use of the human mind? Should we relegate our mental capacity to simple any so called job due to mere “economic” reasons, regardless of what it actually contributes to personal and/or social development? This becomes even more bizarre as a train of reason when we realize that Mechanization not only frees us from labor, but is actually more efficient and productive due to the exponential advancement of science and technology.
On a different level, the very reality that each human being is required to be put in a position of servitude to a corporation or client in order to gain income to purchase the necessities of life not only perpetuates the waste of the human mind and human life, it is also a form of oppression — slavery. If we combine the aforementioned “Infinite Growth” point above regarding the Debt pressure that is built into this system, we see that the combination of the guaranteed Debt imbalance and the requirement to submit to Labor, regardless of its purpose/effect, in order to gain monetary income to survival — is a structural form of oppression against the lower classes (who hold the most debt and need for more periodic income).
As noted, advancements in science and technology have shown that we can automate a great deal. The more we have applied mechanization to labor, the more productive things have become. Therefore, it is not only negligent for us to waste our lives waiting tables, working at a bus station, fixing cars, or other repetitive, monotonous jobs, it is also entirely irresponsible for us not to apply modern mechanization techniques to all industries where it is possible, for apart from strategic resource management, this is a powerful way to achieve balance and abundance for all the world’s people, thus reducing crime generating imbalances.
The fact is, the Market System cannot maintain itself with any viable integrity anymore, for corporations will continue to save money through automation, displacing human labor — which also displaces purchasing power, continuing the inevitable loss of “growth” that defines this system.
In the end, today’s society now has access to highly advanced technologies and can easily provide more than enough for all of the earth’s people. This is possible through the implementation of an economy based on scientific resource management and applying modern methods. This is the purpose of The Zeitgeist Movement- to create a global awareness to thus transition into a new, sustainable direction for humanity as a whole.
About the Natural Law Resource Based Economy (NLRBE)
What are some of the central characteristics of the solution proposed?
Automation of Labor
As the trend of what appears to be an exponential increase in the evolution of information technology, robotics, and computerization continues, it is apparent that human labor is becoming more and more inefficient in regard to meeting the demands necessary for supporting the global population. From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we have seen an increasing trend toward “technological unemployment”, which is the phenomenon where humans are replaced by machines in the work force. This trend, while debatable in regard to its ultimate long term effect on employment, creates a propensity to displace the worker and hence the consumer, slowing consumption.
That stated, this issue is actually overshadowed by a larger social imperative: That the use of machine labor (mechanization) is provably more efficient than human performance in virtually all sectors. For example, if one was to track the performance output of factory production within the US steel industry for the past 200 years, we find that not only do less than 5% of the workforce now work in such factories, the efficiency and output capacities have increased substantially. The trend, in fact, now shows that “Employment is Inverse to Productivity.” The more mechanization occurs, the more productive an industry becomes.
Today, there are repetitive occupations which simply do not need to exist given the state of automation and computerization (“cybernation”). Not only would mechanization in these areas reduce the mundane burden and allow more free time for people, it also would, more importantly, increase productivity. Machines do not need breaks, vacations, sleep, etc.. The use of mechanization on its own means to create many forms of abundance on this planet, from food to physical goods.
However, to do this, the traditional labor system we have simply cannot exist. The reality is that our labor for income system is stifling progress in its requirement to “keep people working” for the sake of “economic stability”. We are reaching a stage where the efficiency of automation is overriding and making obsolete the system of labor for income. This trend shows no sign of slowing, especially in regard to the now dominant Service Industry, which is increasingly being automated in the form of kiosks, robotics, and other forms. Likewise, due to phenomena related to Moore’s law and the growing in-expense of computers and machines, it is likely that it is simply a matter of time before corporations simply can no longer rationalize keeping human labor anymore, as the automation systems will become too cheap. Of course, this is a paradoxical market phenomenon, called by some theorists as “the contradiction of capitalism”, for it is, in effect, removing the consumer (laborer) itself and hence reducing consumption.
Apart from those issues, it is important to also consider human labor contributions based on social relevance, not monetary gain. In a RBE, there would be no reason to have occupations such as Banking, Trading, Insurance, Cashiers, Brokers, Advertising… or anything related to the governance of money.
All human actions in the form of institutionalized labor should also have the highest social return. There is no logic in wasting resources, time, and energy on operations that do not have a direct and tangible function. This adjustment alone would remove millions of jobs, for the idea of “working for money” as a purpose would no longer exist.
In turn, all the poor demographic, shoddy goods, vanity items, and culturally contrived creations designed to influence people for reasons of status (for the sole sake of profit) would also no longer exist, saving countless amounts of time and resources.
One final note on this issue: Some hear this and they assume that this voids the Communicative Arts, and personal and social expression as far as painting, sculpture, music, and the like. No. These mediums of expression will likely thrive like never before, for the amount of free time made available to people will permit a renaissance of creativity and invention, along with community and social capital. The elimination of the burden of labor obligation will also reduce stress and create a more amiable culture.
There is a difference between creating for the sake of keeping society sustainable and efficient, focusing on resource preservation, product efficiency, and strategic allocation of labor for those things which generate a tangible social return — versus creating for personal expression, exploration, experimentation, and hence art, which has been a staple of human evolution since the dawn of time.
Access over Property
The concept of property, unannounced to most people today, is a fairly new social concept. Before the neolithic revolution, as extrapolated from current hunter and gatherer societies existing today, property relationships did not exist as we know them. Neither did money, or even trade, in many cases. Communities existed in an egalitarian fashion, living within the carrying capacity of their regions and the natural production built in. It was only after direct agricultural development was discovered, eventually proceeding with resource acquisition by ship traders and the like — up to modern day power establishments and corporations — that property became a highly defined staple of society as we know it today.
With that understood, which dismisses the common notion that property is a result of some kind of empirical “human nature”, the notion of “no property” is also today often blindly associated with “Communism” and the works of Karl Marx. It is important to point out TZM’s advocation of no property is derived from logical inference, based almost explicitly upon strategic resource management and efficiency, rather than any surface influence by these supposed “Communist” ideals. There is no relation between the two, for communism was not derived from the needs to preserve and manage resources efficiently. Communism, in theory and practice, was based on a social/moral relativism which was culturally specific — not environmentally specific — which is the case with a RBE.
The real issue relevant to meeting human needs is not ownership — it is access. People use things; they do not “own” them. Ownership is a non-operational, protectionist advent, derived from generations of scarcity over resources, currently compounded by market-based advertising which supports status/class division for the sake of monetary gain . To put it another way, ownership is a form of controlled restriction, both physically and ideologically. Property as a system of controlled restriction, coupled with the monetary value inherent, and hence the market consequences, is unsustainable, limiting, and impractical.
In a NL/RBE model, the focus moves from static ownership to strategic access, with a system designed for society to obtain access as needed. For example, rather than owning various forms of recreational sporting equipment, Access Centers are set up, typically in regions where such actions occur, where a person simply “checks out” the equipment, uses it for as long as they want, and then returns it. This “library” type arrangement can be applied to virtually any type of human need. Of course, those reading this who have been conditioned into a more individualistic, materialistic mindset often objects with claims such as “What if I want green, custom golf clubs, but only white are available?”. This is a culturally contrived, biased reservation. The issue in question is utility, not vanity. Human expression has been molded by the needs of the current market based system (consumption) into values which are simply nonfunctional and irrelevant. Yes, this would require a value adjustment to quality rather than identity. The fact is, even for those who object from the standpoint of their interest in personal identity, the overarching social ramifications of such an social approach will create benefits that will greatly overshadow any such arbitrary personal preference, creating new values to replace the outdated ones.
These include : (a) No Property Crime: In a world of access rather than ownership, and without money, there is no incentive to steal, for there is no resale value. You can not steal something that no one owns and you certainly couldn’t sell it. (b) Access Abundance: It has been denoted that the average automobile sits in parking spaces for the majority of its life span, wasting space and time. Rather than having this wasteful consequence of the ownership system, one car could facilitate a large number of users in a given region, with only a fraction of the production/resources needed. [c) Peak Efficiency of Production: Unlike today, where the market system must perpetuate inherently inferior products for the sake of economic turnover, we could actually design goods to last, using the best materials and processes strategically available. We no longer make “cheap” products to serve a poor demographic (which is the majority). This attribute alone will save cataclysmic amounts of resources, while also enabling a society to have access to goods and services that they would never have had in a world based on money, inherent obsolescence, and property.
Self-Contained/Localized City and Production Systems
There are many brilliant engineers who have worked to tackle the issue of industrial design; from Jacque Fresco, to R. Buckminster Fuller, to Nicola Tesla. Behind such designs, such as Jacque Fresco’s famed Circular Cities or Fuller’s Geodesic Domes, rests a basic train of thought: Strategic Efficiency and Maximization of Productivity.
For example, Fresco’s “circular city” is constructed of a series of “belts”, each serving a social function such a energy production, research, recreation, living, etc.. Each city is a hence a system, where all needs are produced within the city complex, in a localized fashion, whenever possible. For example, renewable energy generation occurs near the outer perimeter. Food production is produced closer to the middle within industrial-sized greenhouses.
This is very different in its logic from the “globalization”-based economy we live in today, which wastes outrageous amounts of energy and resources due to unneeded transport and labor processing. Likewise, transportation within the circular cities is strategically created to eliminate the use of detached automobiles, except for rare cases such as emergency vehicles. Homes are created to be micro-systems as well, with much power generation occurring internally, such as from sunlight absorbed by the building structure using photovoltaic technology. More information on these city system can be found at https://www.thevenusproject.com.
The Geodesic Dome, perfected by Buckminster Fuller, offers another efficiency oriented medium within a similar train of thought. Fuller’s goal was to build designs to do more with fewer resources. He noticed problems inherent in conventional construction techniques, and recognized the indigenous strength of naturally occurring structures. The advantages include: a much stronger structure than a conventional building while using less material to construct; domes can be built very quickly because they are of a modular prefab construction and suit being mass produced; They also use less energy to keep warm/cool than a conventional box structure. More information can be found at http://www.bfi.org/
In the end, the fundamental interest is, again, sustainability and efficiency on all levels, from the “housing design” to the “earth design”. The market system actually fights this efficiency due to the broken, competitive nature inherent.
Technological Unification of Earth via “Systems” Approach
We live in a symbiotic/synergistic planetary ecosystem, with a cause-effect balance reflecting a single system of earthy operation. Buckminster Fuller defined this well when he referred to the planet as “Spaceship Earth”. It is time we reflect this natural state of affairs in our societal affairs on this planet. The fact of the matter is that human societies, which are dispersed across the globe, require resources which are also un-uniformly dispersed across the globe. Our current procedure for enabling resource distribution comes in the form of corporations which seek and claim “ownership” of our earthly resources, which they in turn “sell” to others in the name of profit. The problems inherent in this practice are numerous, again due to the self-interest based disposition inherent in selling anything for personal gain, as denoted above. But in the larger scheme of things, this is only partially the issue when it come to the reality that we live on a finite planet, and where resource management and preservation should be the number one concern in regard to human survival, especially with the population explosion of the last 200 years.
Two people are born every second on this planet, and each one of those humans needs a lifetime of food, energy, water and the like. Given this fundamental need to understand what we have, the rates of depletion and, invariably, the need to streamline industry in the most efficient, productive way, a Global System of Resource Management must be put in place. It is just common sense. This is an extensive subject when one considers the technical, quantitative variables needed for implementation. However, for the sake of overview, it can be stated that the first step is a Full Global Survey of all earthly resources. Then, based on a quantitative analysis of the properties of each material, a strategically defined process of production is constructed from the bottom up, using such variables as negative retroactions, renewability, etc. (More on this can be found in the section called Project Earth in the ZM lecture called “Where Are We Going?”). Then consumption statistics are accessed, rates of depletion become monitored, distribution is logically formulated, etc.. In other words, it is a full Systems Approach to earthly resource management, production, and distribution, with the goal of absolute efficiency, conservation, and sustainability. Given the mathematically defined attributes, as based on all available information at the time, along with the state of technology at the time, the parameters for social operation within the industrial complex become self-evident, with decisions “arrived at” by way of computation, not human opinion. This is where computer intelligence becomes an important tool for social governance, for only the computation ability/programming of computers can access and strategically regulate such processes efficiently, and in real time. This technological application is not novel. It is simply ‘scaled out’ from current methods already known.
The Scientific Method as the Methodology for Governance
The application of “the scientific method for social concern” is an oft-repeated mantra for the basis of social operation in a RBE model. While the obviousness of this in regard to industry is simple enough to understand, it is important to also realize its value in regard to human behavior. Science, historically speaking, has often been derailed as a cold, restrictive discipline, reserved for the sake of mere technology and invention. Little regard seems to be currently given to its use in the understanding of human behavior.
Superstitious thought, which has been powerfully dominant in human evolution, has worked on the basis that the human being was somehow detached from the physical world. We have “souls”; “spirits”; we are “divine”; we are related/guided by an all seeing, all knowing, controlling god, etc..
Conversely, yet oddly similar, there is an argument that humans have “free will” in their decisions and that we have the open ability to choose our actions, absent of the influence of our environment or even education. Now, while the vastness of the prior two statements and many reading those could find numerous cultural arguments to claim the contrary, this doesn’t change the basic reality that we humans have historically liked to think that we are special and unique from the rest of the organisms and natural phenomena around us.
However, as time has gone on, it has become increasingly obvious that we are not special and that there is no such thing as “special” in the natural world…for everything is special based on the uniqueness of all organisms. There is no reason to assume the human being is any more important or intrinsically different or special than a mole, a tree, an ant, a leaf or a cancer cell. This isn’t “New Age” rhetoric — it is fundamental logic. We are physical phenomena — nothing more or less.
We are greatly influenced by our culture and our values and behaviors can only mostly be a result of our conditioning, as external phenomena interacts with our genetic predispositions. For example, we have a notion called “talent”, which is another word for a genetic predisposition to a given behavior, or set of behaviors. A piano prodigy might have an inherent ability that enables them to learn more quickly and perform in a more acute way than another, who has spent the same time in practice, but doesn’t have the genetic predisposition. Be that as it may, that “talented” person still had to learn ‘what a piano was’ and how to play it. In other words, genes are not autonomous initiators of commands. It takes an environmental trigger to allow for the propensity to materialize.
At any rate, it is not the point of this article to expand on the argument of “nature and nurture”. The point is that we have proven to be scientifically defined and a product of a traceable causality and it is this understanding that can allow us to slow and even stop the aberrant, or “criminal” behavior we see in society today such a abuse, murder, theft and the like. The logic, once the effects of human conditioning are understood, is to remove the environmental attributes which are enabling the reactions.
Just as an abused dog who has been starved for a week might have a knee jerk reaction to react very violently to an otherwise innocuous passerby, we humans have the same behavior dynamic. If you don’t want people to steal food, do not deprive them of it. It has been found that prisons are now generating more violence than they are curbing. If you teach a child to be a hateful racist, then he will carry those values into the rest his life, very often. Human values and hence human behavior are shaped by the environment in a cause and effect based way, no different than a leaf being blown by the wind.
In a RBEM, the central focus in regard to removing aberrant human actions is not to “punish them”, but to find the reasons for their offensive actions and work to eliminate them. Humans are products of their environment and personal/social reform is a scientific process.
Moving away from money and markets
Market theory assumes a number of things which have proven to either be false, marginally beneficial, or outright socially detrimental.
The core problems to consider are the following:
A
The need for “Infinite Growth”, which is mathematically unsustainable and ecologically detrimental. The entire basis of the Market System is not the intelligent management of our mostly finite resources on this planet, but rather the perpetual extraction and consumption of them for the sake of profit and “economic growth”. In order to keep people employed, people must constantly consume, regardless of the state of affairs within the environment, and often regardless of product utility. This is the absolute reverse of what a sustainable practice would require, which is the strategic preservation and efficient use of resources.
B
A “Corruption Generating” Incentive System. It is often said that the competitive marketplace creates the incentive to act for the sake of social progress. While this is partially true, it also generates an equal if not more pronounced amount of corruption in the form of planned obsolescence, common crime, wars, large scale financial fraud, labor exploitation, and many other issues. The vast majority of people in prison today are there because of monetary-related crime or non-violent drug offenses. The majority of legislation exists in the context of monetary-based crimes.
Also, if one was to critically examine history and peer into the documented biographies/mentalities of the greatest scientists and inventors of our time, such a N. Tesla, A. Einstein, A. Bell, the Wright Brothers, and many others — it is found that they did not find their motivation in the prospect of monetary gain. The interest to make money must not be confused with the interest to create socially beneficial products and very often they are even at odds.
C
A disjunct, inefficient industrial complex which wastes tremendous amount of resources and energy. In the world today, with the advent of Globalization, it has become more profitable to import and export both labor and goods across the globe rather than to produce locally. We import bananas from Ecuador to the US and bottled water from Fuji Japan, while western companies will go to the deprived 3rd world to exploit cheap labor, etc.. Likewise, the process of extraction, to component generation, to assembly, to distribution of a given good might cross through multiple countries for a single final product, simply due to labor and production costs / property costs. This “cost efficiency” generates extreme “technical inefficiency” and is only justifiable within the market system for the sake of saving money.
In a RBE model, the focus is maximum technical efficiency. The production process is not dispersed, but made as centralized and fluid as possible, with elements moving the very least amount, saving what would be tremendous amounts of energy and labor as compared to methods today. Food is grown locally whenever possible (which is most of the time given the flexibility of indoor agriculture technology today), while all extraction, production and distribution is logically organized to use as little labor/transport/space as possible while producing the “strategically best” possible goods (see more below). In other words, the system is planned to maximize efficiently and minimize waste.
D
A propensity for “Establishments”. Very simply, established corporate/financial orders have a built-in tendency to stop new, socially positive advents from coming to fruition if there is a foreshadowed loss of market share, profit, and hence power. It is important to consider the basic nature of a corporation and its inherent need for self-perpetuation.
If a person starts a company, hires employees, creates a market and becomes profitable, what has thus been created, in part, is the means for survival for a group of people. Since each person in that group typically becomes dependent on that organization for income, a natural, protectionist propensity is created whereas anything that threatens the institution thus threatens the well-being of the group/individual. This is the fabric of a “competition” mindset. While people think of free market competition as a battle between two or more companies in a given industry, they often miss the other level — the competition against new advents which would make them obsolete, outright.
The best way to expand on this point is to simply give an example, such as the US Government and ‘Big Oil’ collusion to limit the expansion of the fully Electric Car (EV) in the US. This issue was well-presented and sourced in the documentary called “Who Killed the Electric Car?”. The bottom line here is that the need to preserve an established order for the sake of the well-being of those on the payroll, leads to an inherent tendency to stifle progress. A new technology which can make a prior technology obsolete will be met with resistance unless there is a way for the market system to absorb it in a slow fashion, allowing for a transition for the corporations (i.e. the perpetuation of “Hybrid” cars in the US, as opposed to the fully electric ones which could exist now, in abundance). There is also a large amount of evidence that the FDA has engaged in favoritism/collusion with pharmaceutical companies to limit/stop the availability of advanced progressive drugs which would void existing/profitable ones.
In a RBE, there is nothing to hold back developmental/implementation of anything. If safe and useful, it would immediately be implemented into society, with no monetary institution to thwart the change due to their self-preserving, monetary nature.
E
An inherent obsolescence which creates inferior products immediately due to the need to stay “competitive”. This little recognized attribute of production is another example of the waste which is created in the market system. It is bad enough that multiple companies constantly duplicate each others items in an attempt to make their variations more interesting for the sake of public consumption, but a more wasteful reality is that, due to the competitive basis of the system, it is a mathematical certainty that every good produced is immediately inferior the moment it is created, due the need to cut the initial cost basis of production and hence stay “competitive” against another company… which is doing the same thing for the same reason. The old free market adage where producers “create the best possible goods at the lowest possible prices” is a needlessly wasteful fantasy and detrimentally misleading, for it is impossible for a company to use the most efficient material or processes in the production of anything, as it would be too expensive to maintain a competitive cost basis.
They very simply cannot make the “strategically best” physically — it is mathematically impossible. If they did, no one would buy it, for it would be unaffordable due the values inherent in the higher quality materials and methods. Remember — people buy what they can afford to. Every person on this planet has a built in limit of affordability in the monetary system, so it generates a feedback loop of constant waste via inferior production, to meet inferior demand. In a RBEM, goods are created to last, with the expansion and updating of certain goods built directly into the design, and with recycling strategically accessed as well, limiting waste.
You will notice the term “strategically best” was used in a statement above. This qualification means that goods are created with respect to the state of affairs of planetary resources, with the quality of materials used based on an equation taking into account all relevant attributes, rates of depletion, negative retroactions, and the like. In other words, we would not blindly use titanium for, say, every single computer enclosure made, just because it might be the “strongest” materials for the job. That narrow practice could lead to depletion. Rather, there would be a gradient of material quality which would be accessed through analysis of relevant attributes — such as comparable resources, rates of natural obsolescence for a given item, statistical usage in the community, etc. These properties and relationships could be assessed through programming, with the most strategically viable solution computed and output in real-time. It is mere issue of calculation.
F
A propensity for monopoly and cartel due to the basic motivation of growth and increased market share. This is a point that economic theorists will often deny under the assumption that open competition is self-regulating and that monopolies and cartels are extremely rare anomalies in a free-market system. This “invisible hand” assumption holds little validity, historically, not to mention the outstanding legislation around the issue which proves its infeasibility. In America, there have been numerous monopolies, such as Standard Oil and Microsoft. Cartels, which are essentially Monopolies by way of collusion between the largest competitors in an industry, are also persistent to this day, although perhaps less obvious to the casual observer. In any case, the “free market” itself does not resolve these issues — it always takes the government to step in and break up the monopolies.
This aside, the more important point is that in an economy based on “growth”, it is only natural for a corporation to want to expand and hence dominate. After all, that is the basis of economic stability in the modern world — expansion. Expansion of any corporation always gravitates toward monopoly or cartel, for, again, the basic drive of competition is to out-do your competitor. In other words, monopoly and cartel are absolutely natural in the competitive system. In fact, it is inevitable, for again, the very basis is to seek dominance over market share. The true detriment of this reality goes back to the point above — the inherent propensity of an “Establishment” to preserve its institution. If a medical cartel is influencing the FDA, then new ideas which void that cartel’s income sources will often be fought, regardless of the social benefits being thwarted.
G
The market system is driven, in part, by Scarcity. The less there is of something, the more money that can be generated in the short term. This sets up a propensity for corporations to limit availability, and hence deny production abundance. It is simply against the very nature of what drives demand to create abundance. The Kimberly Diamond Mines in Africa have been documented in the past to burn diamonds in order to keep prices high. Diamonds are rare resources which take billions of years to be created. This is nothing but problematic. The world we live in should be based on the interest to generate an abundance for the world’s people, along with strategic preservation and streamlined methods to enable that abundance. This is a central reason why, as of 2010, there are over a billion people starving on the planet. It has nothing to do with an inability to produce food, and everything having to do with an inherent need to create/preserve scarcity for the sake of short term profits.
Abundance, Efficiency and Sustainability are, very simply, the enemies of profit. This scarcity logic also applies to the quality of goods. The idea of creating something that could last, say, a lifetime with little repair, is anathema to the market system, for it reduces consumption rates, which slows growth and creates systemic repercussions (loss of jobs, etc.). The scarcity attribute of the market system is nothing but detrimental for these reasons, not to mention that it doesn’t even serve the role of efficient resource preservation, which is often claimed.
While supply and demand dictates that the less there is of something, the more it will be valued and hence the increased value will limit consumption, reducing the possibility of “running out”, the incentive to create scarcity, coupled with the inherent short term reward which results from scarcity driven based prices, nullifies the idea that this enables strategic preservation. We will likely never “run out” of oil in the current market system. Rather, the prices will become so high that no one can afford it, while those corporations who own the remaining oil will make a great deal of money off of the scarcity, regardless of the long term social ramifications. In other words, remaining scarce resources, existing in such high economic value that it limits their consumption, is not to be confused with preservation that is functional and strategic. True strategic preservation can only come from the direct management of the resource in question in regard to the most efficient technical applications of the resource in industry itself, not arbitrary, surface price relationships, absent of rational allocation.
The Zeitgeist Movement Defined: Realising a New Train of Thought
An Introduction to the Book
This tediously sourced and highly detailed work argues for a large-scale change in human culture, specifically in the context of economic practice. The dominant theme is that the current socioeconomic system governing the world at this time has severe structural flaws, born out of primitive economic and sociological assumptions originating in our early history, where the inherent severity of these flaws went largely unnoticed.
However, in the early 21st century, these problems have risen prominently, taking the consequential form of increasing social destabilization and ongoing environmental collapse. Yet, this text is not simply about explaining such problems and their root causality — It is also about posing concrete solutions, coupled with a new perspective on social/environmental sustainability and efficiency which, in concert with the tremendous possibility of modern technology and a phenomenon known as ephemeralization, reveals humanity’s current capacity to create an abundant, post-scarcity reality.
While largely misunderstood as being “utopian” or fantasy, this text walks through, step by step, the train of thought and technical industrial reordering needed to update our global society (and its values) to enable these profound new possibilities. While this text can be read strictly from a passive perspective, it was created also to be used as an awareness or activist tool. The Zeitgeist Movement, which has hundreds of chapters across dozens of countries and is perhaps the largest activist organization of its kind, hopes those interested in this direction will join the movement in global solidarity and assist in the culmination of this new social model, for the benefit of the whole of humanity.
Book Opening Quote
“The tremendous and still accelerating development of science and technology has not been accompanied by an equal development in social, economic, and political patterns…We are now…only beginning to explore the potentialities which it offers for developments in our culture outside technology, particularly in the social, political and economic fields. It is safe to predict that…such social inventions as modern-type Capitalism, Fascism, and Communism will be regarded as primitive experiments directed toward the adjustment of modern society to modern technology”
— Dr. Ralph Linton
Contents
Preface
Part I: Introduction
1: Overview
2: The Scientific Worldview
3: Sourcing Solutions
4: Logic vs Psychology
5: The Case for Human Unity
6: The Final Argument –Human Nature
Part II: Social Pathology
7: Defining Public Health
8: History of Economy
9: Market Efficiency vs Technical Efficiency
10: Value System Disorder
11: Structural Classism, The State and War
Part III: A New Train of Thought
12: Introduction to Sustainable Thought
13: Post-Scarcity Trends, Capacity and Efficiency
14: True Economic Factors
15: The Industrial Government
16: Lifestyle, Freedom and the Humanity Factor
Part IV: The Zeitgeist Movement
17: Social Destabilization and Transition
18: Becoming The Zeitgeist Movement
Where to Find the Book
The Zeitgeist Movement Website Education page has a link to the pdf edition of the book
A Kindle Edition or a Paperback can be acquired via Amazon or BookPatch
The medium publication: ‘The Zeitgeist Movement Defined: Realizing a New Train of Thought’
https://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/what-is-zday/
ZDAY
“Zeitgeist Day”, or ZDAY for short, is the flagship annual, global event day which occurs in the middle of March, each year. The goal is to increase public awareness of The Zeitgeist Movement and our potential for a new society. If you are not familiar with the tenets and goals of The Zeitgeist Movement:
What is the Zeitgeist Movement?
It all started in in 2009, with over 400 events in over 70 countries. These events were well documented by news agencies across the world, including the New York Times in America. In 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013 we averaged about 300+ events each year.
A Zeitgeist Day Event can take many forms, ranging from a simple showing of DVD media to prerecorded lectures to interactive question-and-answer events with Chapter Organizers in various regions, giving their own unique presentations.
About The Event
TZM’s flagship gloabal event which occurs each year in mid-March and features a main event with prominent Movement speakers and guests from all over the world, while working in solidarity with many other parallel events that occur the same day or weekend. This gesture is one of global unity towards a sustainable world that works for the planet and everyone one it.
It all started in in 2009, with over 400 events in over 70 countries. These events were well documented by news agencies across the world, including the New York Times in America.
A Zeitgeist Day Event can take on many forms, ranging from a simple showing of DVD media, to pre-recorded lectures, to interactive question-and-answer events, with Chapter Organizers in various regions giving their own unique presentations.
While it is not required to be in a regional Zeitgeist Movement Chapter to have an event, it is recommended. Generally speaking, we encourage each Chapter to help organize events in their region. If wish to start a chapter, please do!
Zeitgeist-Day 2020 Iceland
Date: Saturday, 26 September 2020 from 10:00–17:00 UTC
Location: Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre
Hosted by The Zeitgeist Movement — Iceland
Welcome to the 11th annual Global Z-Day for 2020 in Reykjavík, Iceland!
Are people globally going to continue to accept war, poverty, and the many crucial needs of others not being met as normality? Is the progression of technology going to be the answer for a better civilization, or is it going to require much more than that? What does our current global financial situation and changes in the environment mean for Iceland and the rest of the world? What visions and changes do you want to see now and in the future?
These are only some of the questions that will be addressed by many speakers from Iceland and around the world. On the 26th of September, we would like to welcome you to presentations from these speakers, as well as your participation in Q&As and open discussions to be a part of the program, in order to share with everybody what you think matters.
A beginning of a new decade has started with a lot of concerns and worries from the previous ones, along with the dreams, predictions, and hopes people wish to see fulfilled in this decade and beyond. In what future do you want to live in?
The event will be hosted in the Harpa Concert Hall, which is a state of the art architecturally designed building that features a distinctive colored glass facade inspired by the basalt landscape of Iceland. The building itself is a huge attraction in Reykjavík for tourists and even native Icelanders.
The program and budget for this event are still in early planning, and we will be announcing further details about the event later on. Therefore, stayed tuned for more information and the opening of ticket sales.
We will also be organizing suggestions to help people’s stay in Reykjavík be affordable. There will be a list of recommended things to do for some people’s first time in Iceland, such as sightseeing, viewing breathtaking nature around and outside of Reykjavík, and learning more about the country.
This will be a unique and eye-opening Z-Day event presented from The Zeitgeist Movement — Iceland, the very first global TZM event ever held in the country. We hope it inspires everybody, leaves good memories, and gives a lot of motivation to join in the revolution, because it is now and not over!
Zeitgeist Media Festival
About
Recognizing the power of art and media to help change the world, the annual “Zeitgeist Media Festival” (ZMF) bridges the artistic & activist communities in the hope to inspire change. It recognizes that needed changes in the structural/economic workings of society can only manifest in tandem with a personal/social transformation of values in each of us. While intellectual knowledge serves its role of showing the path, many in the world follow their feelings and comforts — not new knowledge.
Art is considered the most powerful tool we have to bridge these levels of awareness and inspire action for change. Keeping the gesture of the long history of influential artistic creators whose vision have changed our world for the better, The ZMF works to unify the world through this expression with the basic ethos that we are one species sharing one planet and it is time the world learns to work together for the betterment of all before it is too late.
The Inaugural Event for the now annual Zeitgeist Media Festival occurred in 2011 with over 40 events occurring across 20 countries with unique presenters and performances by Charles Fleischer, Lili Haydn and others.
By 2012, the Los Angeles Main Event increased in recognition with notable participants including Tim Kring, Rutger Hauer, Marianne Williamson, Cofield Mundi, The Activist Film Festival and many more.
While started by the non-profit, social sustainability activist organization The Zeitgeist Movement, the ZMF is open to any socially conscious group which wishes to express change and a better, peaceful world through the power of art.
Participating in The Media Festival does not mean each event shares some strict requirement of focus. However, participation does require that each act/expression understand and agree with a general train of thought (Please review our Mission Statement below) with respect to human and social sustainability and the self-evident factors that comprise a Global View of Earth as a single system and how that relates to our single Human Family.
All ZMF Events are Non-Profit / At Cost Expressions and are organized and run by volunteers. While this is a Global idea and all events are important, we feature one “Main Event” each year which is promoted directly.
If you are interested in conducting an event, please see “How to Submit an Event” below.
Mission Statement
The Mission of The Zeitgeist Media Festival is to unify the world through annual awareness events that bridge the difference between all nations, races, classes, genders and creeds; to understand we all share the same basic needs; ;to understand we are truly One Family sharing One Habitat and that our world views and hence societal approaches should reflect this foundational Global Perspective. The ZMF works to help facilitate this unifying expression for all socially conscious organizations that wish to use the power of Art to effect change in the social “Zeitgeist” — advancing our value system to see how much positive possibility there is for real social change if we choose not to fear it.
Network
Apart from joining the Mailing List, the ZMF’s main Youtube channel and its Facebook page is a good way to follow everything happening. Support for the event is limited only to your interest to promote. As noted before, this is a grassroots, non-corporate concept and the success of each years’ events depends on the support of the community.
TZM Activists
The Purpose:
The “TZM Chapter” structure is our communication network to organize world-wide. Each new chapter gives people in that region a place to go to engage in these ideas. At the moment the Movement’s focus is on awareness activism, not only of the Movement’s presence, but of the root-causes to persistent social problems and a sustainable social direction which can be briefly named a Natural-Law Resource Based Economic Model. The chapters themselves are focused on on-the-ground awareness projects and social interaction in regard to this direction.
The Reason:
Our greatest challenge isn’t the technical application of the solutions that exist to create an access abundance for the world’s population. It is the value systems which are perpetuated by established institutions that comprise the largest part of our society. Namely the monetary, political and religious establishments. The hardened value systems created by such established orders are the most difficult to address. Someone I admire stated to me once that, “The truth isn’t something that is told to you, it is something you realize on your own through new information.” To this end, the design of the chapters are that of a holographic, volunteer network. Organized and focused as an on-the-ground and in-person TZM presence which takes on the task of engaging the public through awareness activism, inputting new information into the current value system — communicating with people as best we can so that the possibility of a sustainable world can exist beyond the ultimate decay of an over-consumption model such as we have now.
Chapter Meetings:
Chapter Meetings usually consist of planning for activism events and feedback from completed projects, as well as being a communications portal of movement-wide efforts (Z-Day events, etc.). We learn about the effectiveness of our activism by experience, and work with the resources available regardless of chapter size.
Chapter meetings are not discussions of whether people like the idea of an RBE or a round-table melting-pot of everyone’s opinion (that will generally happen at your activism event itself). TZM Chapters are for those that are past the point of “is this a good idea?” and see the merit in the need for wide-spread awareness in society of the system problem and wish to engage on this level. Social aspects are certainly part of chapter activities as this is a social movement and that sense of global community is vital.
Communication Structure:
TZM’s chapter structure is holographic in the sense that each chapter contains the information and purpose of the Movement itself and engages in awareness activism in their region as best fits local language and culture. Chapters are comprised of volunteers who desire to forward the Movement’s direction in public awareness and understanding.
Activism projects, actions or ideas that are accomplished by members, that show merit to the Movement and a measure of success in the communication of what we advocate, tend to get picked up and emulated by other chapters. Feedback is given to coordinators, usefulness becomes self-evident, and, ultimately, such projects, actions and ideas are brought to the attention of the global coordinators through our networked levels of local, state, and national chapters so communication flows throughout the network.
TZM Activists:
Zeitgeist Movement activists are volunteers. Our time and efforts are focused on transitioning out of the current monetary/market paradigm to a sustainable Natural-Law Resource-Based Economy model.
Activists are generally involved in:
- Facilitating or attending meetings on a regular basis
- Planning of local or global activist events
- Understanding the book The Zeitgeist Movement Defined which explains the attributes of the Movement’s direction in detail
- Staying in communication with other TZM activists
Founder of the Movement: Peter Joseph
Peter Joseph emphasises that the movement is leaderless and self-organising but as the founder of The Zeitgeist Movement it is important to include a link to his personal page as part of this article.
Lectures and Presentations
Over the years of development of concepts, many activists decided to step up and produce videos, where they make lectures and presentations about the concepts and ideas of The Zeitgeist Movement.
