You are hereBlogs / Margaret Flowers's blog / A Peaceful World IS Possible- The Zeitgeist Movement
A Peaceful World IS Possible- The Zeitgeist Movement
Steve McIntosh
Buffalo, NY
“There are some things in our society, and some things in our world, to which I am proud to be maladjusted. I call upon all men of goodwill to be maladjusted to these things, until the good society is realized.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Global debt and economic crises, rampant international human rights violations, disgusting levels of inequality, ecological destruction on all levels- this and more culminate into our world’s current state of affairs. It is truly a wonder how our grandchildren’s grandchildren will look back and think of us. The ultimate answer is how we work to resolve these conflicts; that will be the deciding factor for this generation. The rest of the world is waking up; it’s time for the US to do the same.
In October, when those who recognize the need for serious change gather in Freedom Square, the Zeitgeist Movement will be there, in support of a ‘New World’- as the protest’s mission statement suggests. The change we seek will not come overnight, which is why protests like this one are direly needed. The change will also not be easy. For the ultimate truth is, the real change must first occur within us before it can occur anywhere else.
We must ask ourselves, how valid is the integrity of a society if people are not healthy and happy? Above all else, we must first strive to provide people with the necessities of life- food, shelter, clean water, clothing, and a relevant education. It is not obtuse to say that every person of the planet can have these things if we alter our current ways of thinking. And there is literally no reason why every human being doesn’t deserve those things. Without these basic necessities, we can never expect to obtain a peaceful world.
Most people seek to return the United States to some ‘Golden Age of Democracy.’ If one looks closely at US history, one can easily see- if they look in the right places- a pattern emerges. Since the very formation of our country (possibly with the exception of the postwar years), there has always been inequality, there has always been consolidation of power, there has always been civil unrest, and there have been wars- waged by the elite, fought by the poor. Virtually every president has promised much, and done relatively little. The fact of the matter is there is nothing to return or go back to; we must move forward.
The people who run this world, the ‘owners’- as George Carlin referred to them- have been doing so for centuries; they are not about to give it up. Yes, these people need to be removed from power; they need to step down and give the world back to the people, for the Earth is the common heritage of all mankind. However, the ‘Us against Them ‘mentality will not serve to create a new productive society; the elite are people too. They therefore deserve the right to the necessities of life as anyone else does. These people belong to a dominant subculture that grooms and conditions them towards self maximization and power, anything that threatens these things is seen as an enemy. There is no conspiratorial notion behind this; it is simply self preservation at its peak, as it operates in our system. A change in personnel will affect nothing in the long run.
It is not enough to think outside the box; we need to throw the box away and start over. Truth be told, it is our current socioeconomic system itself that is inherently flawed, by its basic, fundamental nature. It creates and propagates stratification- and hence stress and neuroses, poverty- and hence violence and crime, corruption- and hence war and environmental destruction. All this for the sake of short term gains; profit. These maladies are both directly and indirectly built right in to our prevailing establishments and institutions. It is unsustainable, environmental wasteful and socially corrosive on all levels. We live in an anti-economy.
The political system is obsolete and works to solve nothing; this is one of the biggest reasons we are in the mess we’re in- we try to solve our problems politically. Once we understand that most, if not all, of our problems are actually technical, a new approach becomes apparent. Science has accomplished more for humanity in the last century than politics has ever. If we apply science to social concern and maximize our technological capabilities we can provide a healthy life for all the Earth’s people. Whether we know it or not, we owe practically every modern amenity we have to the objective, unbiased and publically verifiable practice of the scientific method.
If one wishes to build a plane, there is a specific way one must build it in order for it fly properly and efficiently. There is no liberal, or conservative, or democratic, or libertarian, or Jewish, or atheist way to build a plane. Why should society be any different? The same empirical laws exist in human behavior, and hence society, even if we have yet to fully understand them. For some reason though, science seems strangely absent from all levels of societal management. Perhaps this is because, if we did apply science to these things, it would force us to reevaluate our preconceived notions of work, democracy, competition, money, property, behavior, economics, and our relationship to our environment. Our societal paradigm exists, as it is, completely detached from the physical world around us. We must realign with our planet, and manage ourselves accordingly. For, as assertive as it may seem, if we honestly believe that job creation, GDP, political integrity, economic growth, or purchasing power actually translates to social well being, then real change will never occur.
To push for true equality is not communistic, socialistic, or utopianist; all of which have broad cultural characteristics with no real universal definition. Our current ways of thinking are outdated; our very consciousness must evolve if we wish to not only survive, but thrive. We have enough history behind us, and evidence in front of us, to drop the archaic folk ways that have kept a strangle hold on our world for far too long and blocked humanity from true progress.
It is important to consider the end goal. Many see what’s wrong with the world, and want to fix it. Few however have viable, informed solutions, if they have solutions at all. The Zeitgeist Movement offers a solution. If we shifted our society from a Monetary Based Economy to a Resource Based Economy, we would see a staggering decline in all social degradations worldwide. Our propositions are backed by science and logic alike. At the end of the day, human well being and sustainability should be everyone’s prime concerns.
There is no ‘flaw of human nature’ that holds us back from peace. The only thing that keeps this cancerous machine running is our participation in it. It is a game, nothing more; it’s time we stop playing along.
What will the future hold? No one knows for sure. With hope and perseverance we can pull together and stem the tide of the current eco-genocidal collision course we are on. We, the Zeitgeist Movement, will join the People’s Protest- not only in the hopes that our ideas will be brought to the table if and when the change occurs, but also to help the other groups who share our desire to push for a better, more humane and just world that we all deserve.
Goodnight and good luck.
*Founded in 2008, the Zeitgeist Movement is a worldwide social movement aimed at altering and resolving society’s current unsustainable tendencies. They seek to accomplish this through spreading awareness of the self destructive attributes of our current system, as well as illustrating the very real possibilities of a happy, healthy, peaceful, and ultimately sustainable future for the Earth and it’s people. As of 2011, they have over half a million members from many countries across the globe.
FOR MORE INFORMATION-
Please Visit:
The Zeitgeist Movement Official Website
www.truththeory.org
Please Watch:
Zeitgeist: Moving Foward
Arriving at a Resource Based Economy
Please Read:
NY Times Article
The New New Social Movement
- Margaret Flowers's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Pledge
Fair Use Notice
This website re-published copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this message for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
"To push for true equality is not communistic, socialistic, or utopianist;" but all of which have been demeaned by socially geared opinions traditionally passed down. Yet when push comes to shove, the reality hits you. You wish you had wished for more rights or more equality or more of something that the system fails to provide you when it fails.
I have seen stuff here and there about the Zeitgeist Movement, and this is the first thing I have come across that spoke to me. This blog put into words what most people forget is still going on. A group of people are continuing to get groomed through no fault of their own to "lead" the world. Their ancestors consider it a blood right. The problem is they are trained to subjugate people who have not been born into wealth. We must rise up to remind them that even though we do not have wealth we are the controlling class no matter what they have been taught by their family.
From the ten billion years that the universe existed before a solar disk formed the planets around us in this corner of the Milky Way to the four billion years that have gone by since Earth has existed to the amazing progress our species has made over the past few thousand years since we developed language to share our ideas - simple math suggests that there not only is life on other planets, but there may be as many different intelligent species investigated space right now as there are different kinds of insects on Earth.
From drawings in caves to paintings of the Renaissance to modern films of unidentified flying objects - art throughout the ages has recorded the presence of peoples from other planets who are obviously not averse to letting us know they exist.
From our original empires to the Crusades to the Spanish Inquisition to the Nazi holocaust to the brink of mutually assured destruction demonstrated most poignantly by the Cuban Missile Crisis - the fact that mankind has always been left alone to decide our own fate proves that, while life surely exists elsewhere (and in plentiful supply), these peoples may very well have some kind of concern for our existence, but they cannot intervene on sanity's behalf or communicate with us directly until we accept the simple fact the human evolution is a human responsibility.
We are not alone, but we are on our own. At least for the moment.
We may very well be the most advanced species on this planet, but we are eons behind others who must find our current state of affairs to be both incredulous, since it defies our intelligence, and expected, since it has more than likely occurred many times.
So all we really need to do is accept our place in a history that extends far beyond what we currently understand and stop delaying our arrival at awareness simply because it's inconvenient to the lies, myths, and fallacies we've established in our search for answers.