Monday, October 13, 2008
Z for Zeitgeist
Thomas Vaughan
Zeitgeist: The Movie successfully challenged customary assumptions about democracy and religion, and resonated with the fears and dreams of millions of viewers. The sequel, Zeitgeist: Addendum, explores the corruption of our globalized monetary system, and considers how we might effect a transition from a society of scarcity and profiteering, to one of sustainability and abundance.
The film opens with a concise analysis of the monetary system, explaining how money is debt, and how debt is used as a subtle tool by an unelected "corporatocracy" to enslave the populace within the system. "Economic hitman" John Perkins describes how various reformist political leaders of developing nations worldwide have been overthrown or assassinated when they have attempted to withstand the global ambitions of this corporatocracy.
Suggesting that human behaviour is environmentally conditioned, the film argues that our current egocentric, profit oriented environment nurtures unthinking nihilistic consumers, who struggle to envisage any alternative to the status quo.
Zeitgeist: Addendum concludes by taking us on an inspirational tour of a world that might yet come into being, if we can move beyond our paralyzing profit structure, and the elite that manipulate it. The technology to create a truly egalitarian planetary civilization of sustainable abundance already exists. What is needed is the will, the courage and the opportunity to apply it.
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