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The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM) is a grassroots movement concerned with the future of humanity. It describes itself as a sustainability advocacy organization, seeking a long term restructuring of human society, notably being opposed to money and advocating scientific decision making based on available resources.

The Zeitgeist Movement was inspired by the social response from Peter Joseph's film Zeitgeist: Addendum, sequel to Zeitgeist: The Movie. It was Zeitgeist: Addendum which first introduced the Venus Project. A third film was released in theaters globally on January 15, 2011 and on the internet on the 25th called Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, which focuses on human behavior, technology, and rationality. As of 2011, the Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project have split ways and are no longer functioning as a partnership.

Concepts advocated by the Zeitgeist Movement

The core idea advocated by TZM is the replacement of current civilization with a money-free and cybernated "resource-based economy". The Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project promote replacing human labour with automation, government will be through collective participation of the public, aided by advanced cybernation. According to the movement, there will be no decision-making process regarding greater social issues by human beings, those decisions are arrived at by using the scientific method, based on the carrying capacity of the Earth, rather than using human opinions. The replacement of human decision making by artificial intelligence is termed 'Social Cybernation'. Private property will not be abolished, but it will become obsolete as culture grows, being replaced by "a system of universal access".

Activities and publications

Zeitgeist Day (Z-Day)

The Zeitgeist Movement holds an annual "Z-Day" in March. The first Z-Day was on March 15, 2009 and the second on March 13, 2010. On this day, the Zeitgeist Movement has local gatherings to learn and share information with all interested individuals. In 2009 there were more than 450 events held in 70 countries around the world. In 2009, among other events, Peter Joseph and Jacque Fresco spoke to a sold-out crowd of around 900 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College for over two hours. The third Z-Day was on March 13, 2011. Peter Joseph and others spoke to a sold-out audience of 1100 at "Friends House" in Euston, London.

Michelle Rodriguez of Avatar attended Z Day 2011 in Los Angeles on March 12, 2011 at Los Angeles Convention Center. She said she is intrigued by the idea of the Venus Project.

Brandon Boyd of Incubus also attended Z Day in Los Angeles with his girlfriend Baelyn Neff. He said Zeitgeist Moving Forward is his favorite Zeitgeist film so far. He also said he is very familiar with Jacque Fresco and watched a documentary film about Jacque Fresco's work called Future by Design.

Media Project

According to a press release circulated to members on May 12, 2010, the Zeitgeist Media Project (ZMP) Beta was released. According to the press release the Media Project is an extension of the Communications Team.

Chapters

The Zeitgeist Movement members are organized into country/regional, state and city "sub"-chapters. Each chapter/sub-chapter is hosted and maintained independently on its own domain, or in sub-domains from the Zeitgeist Movement's main site. The chapters are coordinated by individuals or groups of individuals who are well-versed in the movement's tenets and direction and have chosen to donate their time to help further its current goals. According to the Zeitgeist Movement July 2010 Newsletter, the Zeitgeist Movement has 46 official country chapters and over 200 regional sub-chapters internationally. This includes all 50 official U.S. state chapters.

Radio address

Peter Joseph, the founder of the Zeitgeist Movement and other Zeitgeist Movement members deliver a weekly radio address which is broadcast every Wednesday on BlogTalkRadio. These broadcasts discuss the progress of the Zeitgeist Movement, hold interviews with various relevant personalities, provide information for the Zeitgeist Movement's chapters, and answer questions sent in by listeners/members. There are two other BlogTalkRadio shows that discuss the Zeitgeist Movement, a resource-based economy and the Venus Project. One is Z Radio, a weekly broadcast co-hosted by Thunder and Franklee, and produced by Shawn Hodgins. The other, known as V-Radio, is hosted by Neil Kiernan Stephenson.

Criticism

1. Libertarian: Since the Zeitgeist program requires central planning and control (by a computer no less), libertarians criticize it as an extreme form of authoritarianism. Such a system, once programmed, would be an unalterable (therefore ultra-conservative) straightjacket on mankind.
2. Economic: Assuming that no scarcity will exist - that human desire will never exceed the available resources - is naive according to classical and neo-classical economic thought. The failure of central planning to satisfy consumer demand has an extensive literature - see calculation problem. In short, most economic information is local, and unavailable to central planners. The farmer knows what grows best in his soil, not a far-off government bureaucrat.
3. Systemic: The central planning approach ignores the possibilities and potential for emergent order. Cosmos, the emergent order of ecosystems, markets, and various other phenomena may be a better solution than taxis, planned order from above.

Reception

Media reviews

On April 30, 2009, Rhonda Swan of the Palm Beach Post wrote:

Who can argue with such a movement? What we have never has worked for the benefit of society as a whole. How much longer can we really expect it to last? Isn't keeping our current system and expecting something different from what it's always given us insanity?

— Palm Beach Post

On March 17, 2009, Alan Feuer of the New York Times wrote in an article:

"The mission of the movement is the application of the scientific method for social change,” Mr. Joseph announced by way of introduction. The evening, which began at 7 with a two-hour critique of monetary economics, became by midnight a utopian presentation of a money-free and computer-driven vision of the future, a wholesale reimagination of civilization, as if Karl Marx and Carl Sagan had hired John Lennon from his “Imagine” days to do no less than redesign the underlying structures of planetary life.

— New York Times

From the same article:

"If this sounds vaguely like a disaster scenario out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mr. Fresco did not seem worried in the least. Machines are unemotional and unaggressive, unlike human beings, he told the crowd during the question-and-answer phase. “If you took your laptop and smashed it in front of 50 other laptops, trust me, none of them would care.”

Alan of The Sovereign Independent wrote of the Zeitgeist Movement:

"The idea, though it is not new, (but is packaged in hypnotising emotional propaganda movies) sounds lovely. Lets give up our power to machines. In one generation we lose every skill we ever had at managing the earth, growing food, existing as a family unit, forget how to exercise, work at anything and become so dependant on the system that should an error occur the engineers become the new elite, the rulers of the technocratic communist sci-fi dystopia."

— The Sovereign Independent

See also

• Post scarcity
• Criticism of fractional-reserve banking

References

1. The Zeitgeist Movement Public Forum, Radio Address, Full Q & As (from Peter), available at http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=1905&func=showcat&catid=232. Retrieved on 2009-05-31
2. "Chapter instructions: April 2011".
3. ^ Feuer, Alan (March 17, 2009). "They've Seen the Future and Dislike the Present". The New York Times.
4. Jacque Fresco "Construction", The Venus Project
5. Zeitgeist India FAQ
6. The Zeitgeist Movement FAQ
7. Jacque Fresco "City Systems", Cybernetic Government The Venus Project
8. Peter Joseph "The Zeitgeist Movement Orientation Guide", page 69.
9. "What is Zday".
10. Alan Feuer (March 16, 2009). "They've Seen the Future and Dislike the Present". New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
11. "Michelle Rodriguez from Avatar at Zeitgeist Day Los Angeles".
12. "Brandon Boyd of Incubus at Zeitgeist Day Los Angeles".
13. http://www.zeitgeistmediaproject.com
14. The Zeitgeist Movement Polish
15. http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/July2010NL.pdf
16. "The Zeitgeist Movement Website". The Zeitgeist Movement. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
17. "V-Radio".
18. Rhonda Swan (April 30, 2009). "COLUMN: A dream worth having". The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
19. http://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=13193 Peter Joseph, Jacque Fresco and the Zeitgeist Movement: Venus Flytrap or Final Solution?

External links

• Official Website
• Zday 2010 Review
• Zday 2009 Review by New York Times
• The Venus Project

• Social movements
• Zeitgeist