“Zeitgeist Day”, or ZDAY for short, is an 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 The Venus Project. If you are not familiar with the tenets and goals of The Zeitgeist Movement and its relationship to The Venus Project, please see the following information:
This year, the worldwide ZDay main event will be in London.
There will be a series of presentations and lectures from various speakers including the founder of The Zeitgeist Movement, Peter Joseph.
Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows of The Venus Project will also be attending and speaking at the event. Andy Buxton of The Venus Project Design will also give a presentation about the latest projects they have been working on.
Started in late 2008, The Zeitgeist Movement exists fundamentally as the communication and activist arm of an organization called The Venus Project.
The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. The Venus Project is a veritable blue-print for the genesis of a new world civilization, one that is based on human concern and environmental reclamation. There are many people today who are concerned with the serious problems that face our modern society: unemployment, violent crime, replacement of humans by technology, over-population and a decline in the Earth's ecosystems.
Through the use of innovative approaches to social awareness, educational incentives, and the consistent application of the best that science and technology can offer directly to the social system, The Venus Project offers a comprehensive plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology, and nature will be able to coexist in a long-term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium.
The Venus Project proposes a social system in which automation and technology would be intelligently integrated into an overall social design where the primary function would be to maximize the quality of life rather than profits. This project also introduces a set of workable and practical values.
The basic pursuit of The Movement is to begin a transition into a new, sustainable social design called a “Resource-Based Economy”. This term was first coined by Jacque Fresco of the Venus Project and refers to an economic structure based exclusively on resource management and relevant education.
The world today has become very detached from nature, with techniques of production and distribution that have no relationship to the physical environment. 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. It is important to understand that 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 not infinite. Resources are finite and the Earth is essentially a closed system. Once we run out of life sustaining resources, the game is over. For example, our entire society is constructed out of fossil fuels, which are not renewable, and require millions of years to develop.
The plastics in everything you own, along with the ammonia-based fertilizer which is used for the mass production of food, coupled with the outrageous amounts of energy used in transportation, along with the electrical grid that powers your home, are almost all derived from fossil fuels. In other words, we have constructed a society based on a resource that is nonrenewable. What is going to happen when we run out of this resource? It is simply a matter of time, isn't it?
This is a question which is critical to consider, for the consequences are dire and staggering for the human species unless we make a quantum and radical change quickly.
The plastics in everything you own, along with the ammonia-based fertilizer which is used for the mass production of food, coupled with the outrageous amounts of energy used in transportation, along with the electrical grid that powers your home, are almost all derived from fossil fuels. In other words, we have constructed a society based on a resource that is nonrenewable. What is going to happen when we run out of this resource? It is simply a matter of time, isn't it?
This is a question which is critical to consider, for the consequences are dire and staggering for the human species unless we make a quantum and radical change quickly.
Sadly, the intents associated with the monetary system are counter progressive in this regard, and derive a strategic edge from scarcity itself. 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 known as the basic law of supply & demand and hence “value” in economics. This creates a perverse reinforcement to ignore environmental problems and the negative consequences of scarcity, for it literally translates into profit.
To make matters worse, the system requires problems/constant consumer interest in order to work. The more people who have cancer in America, the better the economy due to expensive medical treatments. Needless to say, this generates an inherent disregard for human well being. The monetary arrangement, whether in the form of capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism, free-market or the like, is utterly detached from natural resources and thus human well-being. It is erroneously assumed that the incentive to seek money is also the incentive to help society.
Nothing could be further from the truth. For example, every single product created by a corporation 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. In other words it is impossible to create the “best” long lasting anything in our society and this translates into, again, outrageous amounts of resource waste.
This is entirely and provably unsustainable as a social system and the world you are beginning to see emerge around you, with starvation, poverty, unemployment; along with the growing scarcity of water, food and arable land, is the result.
This is entirely and provably unsustainable as a social system and the world you are beginning to see emerge around you, with starvation, poverty, unemployment; along with the growing scarcity of water, food and arable land, is the result.
Likewise, most occupations are not directly related to the actual necessities of life. Rather, they are artificial concoctions in order to keep people employed so they can maintain purchasing power. 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 also perpetuates extreme waste... however, this time, it is the waste of the human mind and human life. In the modern world, advancements in science and technology have shown that we can automate a great deal.
In fact, statistically speaking, 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 possible for, apart from strategic resource management, this is a powerful way to achieve balance and abundance for all the world's people, reducing crime generating imbalances. In other words, it is time to update society to present day knowledge, taking the carrying capacity of the earth into account and realigning our methods based not on the reward of monetary gain..but the goal of social sustainability as a whole.
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 possible for, apart from strategic resource management, this is a powerful way to achieve balance and abundance for all the world's people, reducing crime generating imbalances. In other words, it is time to update society to present day knowledge, taking the carrying capacity of the earth into account and realigning our methods based not on the reward of monetary gain..but the goal of social sustainability as a whole.
Even with our current, destructive methods, the Earth is still abundant with resources. Today our practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter-productive to the well-being of people. Today’s society has access to highly advanced technologies and can easily provide more than enough for a very high standard of living for all the earth’s people. This is possible through the implementation of a Resource-Based Economy.
A Resource-Based Economy would utilize existing resources from the land and sea, and the means of production, such as physical equipment and industrial plants, to enhance the lives of the total population.
In an economy based on resources, conservation and the most advanced methods of science and technology, we could easily produce all of the necessities of life and provide a high standard of living for all.
To do this, we have to overcome our current, outdated, established practices, and start in a new direction:
1. Conserving all the world's resources as the common heritage of all of the Earth’s people.
2. Transcending all of the artificial boundaries that separate people.
3. Evolving from a monetary-based economy to a resource-based world economy.
4. Reclaiming and restoring the natural environment to the best of our ability.
5. Redesigning our cities, transportation systems, and agricultural and industrial plants so that they are energy efficient, clean, and conveniently serve the needs of all people.
6. Evolving towards a cybernated society that can gradually outgrow the need for all political local, national, and supra-national governments as a means of social management.
7. Sharing and applying all of the new technologies for the benefit of all nations.
8. Using clean, renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal power, etc.
9. Ultimately utilizing the highest quality products for the benefit of all the world’s people.
10. Requiring environmental impact studies prior to construction of any mega-projects.
11. Encouraging the widest range of creativity and incentive toward constructive endeavor.
12. Assisting in stabilizing the world’s population through education and voluntary birth-control to conform to the carrying capacity of the earth.
13. Outgrowing nationalism, bigotry and prejudice through education.
14. Eliminating any type of elitism, technical or otherwise./em>
15. Arriving at methodologies by careful research rather than random opinions.
16. Enhancing communication in the new schools so that our language and education is relevant to the physical conditions of the world around us.
17. Providing not only the necessities of life but also offering challenges that stimulate the mind, emphasizing individuality rather than uniformity.
18. Finally, preparing people intellectually and emotionally for the possible changes that lie ahead.
Like all other innovative social proposals, it starts out with a few devoted people that dedicate their time to informing others of the humane benefits of this new direction.
The design of The Venus Project does not regard environmental conditions as fixed or static. We must allow for adaptation and change within the system as a continuous process. This would avoid the tendency to perpetuate temporary arrangements beyond their period of usefulness.
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.
The only limitations are those we impose upon ourselves.
If you identify with this direction, I welcome you to join with us and work towards its realization.
Join in Live for the Webcast of the Zday in London on March 13th, Sunday 2011 at 1:30pm (GMT)
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