Listened to Peter Joseph on blog talk radio earlier today. The episode was titled "TZM: Complaints and Attack." Lasted just over 2 hours (I think) so I listened to it in steps. I must say: the dude can talk. Sometimes I wonder if he's not a she. Just kidding of course and I appreciate all the work Peter Joseph does for the Zeitgeist Movement. I think people should realize that PJ could easily make it in the corporate world. His heart may not be in it but he has the demeanor of a CEO, if he would purely focus on raking in the dollars my gut tells me he would be successful. Zeitgeist supporters should consider themselves fortunate having such a knowledgable and articulate spokesperson. Ok, that's enough butt-kissing.
I listened to this particular radio show because I've come across plenty of critics on the internet who criticize the Zeitgeist Movement. Sometimes the critics have intelligent questions - but in my opinion - most of the time their critique is based on their own (fear) projections. PJ does an excellent job answering most of the points the critics have. I think that in a strange way the critics can answer their own questions since most of their problems are based on their own projections. In order to do that you need introspection - you need to fully understand your own position. Next you need to compare your position to the position of the Venus Project and the Zeitgeist Movement to contemplate and realize where you stand in the grander scheme of things. That is fertile ground for growth, in more ways then you can imagine.
For example, some critics claim the Zeitgeist Movement is a cult. This claim alone is multi-facet. Let me run it down for you. People making the claim basically use it in a derogatory manner. It is almost exclusively used to make 'the other party' look bad. The ZM doesn't advocate religion (although everyone is free to practice), so that angle is out the window. Next the 'cult of personality' is used. Some critics 'think' we have pictures of Peter Joseph or Jacque Fresco hanging over our beds, like in North Korea with the dictatorship there. Think again! Personally, I appreciate the work the aforementioned and Roxanne Meadows do but I wont let it turn into a kind of worship. They are people just like me and everyone else. We all have our talents and we all smell just as bad in the bathroom after a number 2. I'm over 40 and fully aware that there are no saints in this world. Everybody has a downside. Most of the Zeitgeist members realize this. In the Venus Projects core ideology there's a great sense of brother&sisterhood. Why is the cult claim used? Because some people are just projecting their own fears (of the unknown) and in some cases there are people who have a beef with the movement and use it as a means to an end.
Zeitgeist is Communism. I've heard that a lot. I wont beat around the bush. There are similarities with the teachings of Marx, yet I have to ask the critics to examine their own position. Again this is multi-facet. The Zeitgeist Movement or the Venus Project don't advocate the teachings of Marx. It regards it as outdated and obsolete. Marx wrote his thesis in the 19th century and made no account for the technological progress we have come to expect today. Marx had his mind set in a monetary system, TZM and TVP don't. When you really think about it, the Venus Project actually doesn't fit in our current understanding of a political scale. Why? Because it doesn't use the monetary system or any viewpoint from the political scale which is based on the former, it uses the latest technological understanding to improve the welfare of the whole planet. It looks at what resources are available for the betterment of mankind. Has any political party or political movement ever managed that?
I also have to ask, when you make the communist claim, where are you on the political scale? Have you really contemplated what your position actually is? If you say that the Venus Project and the Zeitgeist Movement is Communism, aren't you a Capitalist? Are you not for the free market system? Isn't the free market system a kind of economic survival of the fittest (Darwinism)? Aren't you advocating selfism? The strong will survive? That will automatically imply that there are people who go the way of the dinosaurs. If you're ok with that - would you be ok with that if it was you?
What we need is contemplation and I realize it is hard in our current day lives where our buttons our pushed in so many ways that we have a hard time figuring out our front from our back. People are so bend on securing their own survival that we don't look at those things that benefit everyone and ourselves. We must find time to realize that we live on this planet together.
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