Social Pathology

The first of these videos is a high-res copy of the video shown as an introduction to the NYC ZDay 2010. It is a classic take on the Zeitgeist Imagine video to include, instead of Jacque, a girl called Severn Suzuki; who famously delivered the speech she gives here to the UN Earth Summit in 1992. It clearly shows the goals of this movement, the fact that we are one family inhabiting one planet, and that we should aim to act as one planet moving towards one goal. Fantastic intro!

But the lecture is even better, if possible. Peter Joseph takes the audience on a ride through the social paralysis that is current in our society, and then analyses society as if it were a disease, going through the symptoms of the system today, the prognosis for the future, and the treatment of society as a whole if we are to change. This lecture is more focussed on the present then on the future, and clearly shows that unless we change, we will face serious and growing problems in years ahead. Note that the lecture did experience sound difficulties, hence the sound has had to be dubbed in certain places, but that doesn't detract too much from the content and a new lecture with better dubbing will be put online at a later date.

Zeitgeist Movement - Common Objections

The Zeitgeist Movement - Common Objections, Observations, Responses from Ben McLeish on Vimeo.

This video is a recording of a live presentation given by Ben that goes over some of the common problems people have when they first come across the movement. I actually had the pleasure to watch this presentation live, and Ben has done a superb job of taking that live performance and capturing it in this video.

Ben has a superb way of putting across information in both a clear and crisp manner, and in this presentation really does seem to cover almost every common angle that people view the movement from, and provide solid answers to those issues raised. A definite watch regardless of your views on the movement.

This video was retweeted from Resource Based Living, and should be noted that there are some good comments worth reading on the site there.

The Crash Course - The End of Money?

This video is a lecture series that comprises a short crash course into the current financial situation and how we are teetering on the edge of a financial crisis like none has ever seen. This film presents the evidence in a straightforward manner based completely around easily searchable facts and statistics, so that anyone can watch this without being alienated by anything that might not be appropriate.

A longer video archive can be found here: http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse

This video was retweeted from Resource Based Living.

Who Is Peter Joseph?

Who is Peter Joseph? from charles robinson on Vimeo.

A fantastic video on the background of the founder of the Zeitgeist Movement, this video looks into who Peter Joseph is, why he created the movies and why he founded the Zeitgeist Movement. Peter has a knack for explaining things in a clear and yet intellectual manner, and puts forward his views as well as what the movement stands for in an easy to follow dialog. A very good interview.

The Science of Miracles

This video series was one that really pulled at my spiritual side. Although I am unsure as to the science behind it, the fact still remains that we should be focussing on the connections that link us together instead of the differences that drive us apart. We are all connected, we are all part of the greater whole; and the world reflects the overall views of everyone on this planet. If everyone is fearful, society as a whole will reflect that fear and become it. We need to realise this, and start replacing that fear in our own hearts with love; for we must change ourselves before we can change the world.

The Zeitgeist Movement: An Introduction

The Zeitgeist Movement can be summarised as the application of the scientific method for social concern. The movement is not a political or religious movement; but a social movement. We do not recognise nations, governments, races, religions, creeds or class; but instead see the Earth for what it is, one single planet, with the human race being a single family. We recognise that we only have one Earth, a natural spacecraft roaring through space; and that we depend on the environment provided by this Earth not only for essentials, such as food, water and air, but also that we can learn from the Earth and nature about life's own functioning and processes, and that by aligning ourselves with these processes is the most progressive and productive thing we can do.

Put simply, The Zeitgeist Movement is the activist arm of The Venus Project, an organisation which constitutes the lifelong work of industrial designer and social engineer Jacque Fresco; and what the Venus Project represents and the Zeitgeist Movement advocates, is the application of the scientific method for social concern. Through the humane use of the application of science and technology for social design and decision making, we can transform our society into something far more balanced, organised, humane, productive and, most importantly, sustainable.

The Secret Garden

"It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could have imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of climbing roses which were so thick that they were matted together. Mary Lennox knew they were roses because she had seen a great many roses in India. All the ground was covered with grass of a wintry brown and out of it grew clumps of bushes which were surely rose-bushes if they were alive. There were numbers of standard roses which had so spread their branches that they were like little trees. There were other trees in the garden, and one of the things which made the place look strangest and loveliest was that climbing roses had run all over them and swung down long tendrils which made light swaying curtains, and here and there they had caught at each other or at a far-reaching branch and had crept from one tree to another and made lovely bridges of themselves. There were neither leaves nor roses on them now and Mary did not know whether they were dead or alive, but their thin gray or brown branches and sprays looked like a sort of hazy mantle spreading over everything, walls, and trees, even brown grass, where they had fallen from their fastenings and run along the ground. It was this hazy tangle from tree to tree which made it look so mysterious. Mary had thought it must be different from other gardens which had not been left all by themselves so long; and indeed it was different from any other place she had ever seen in her life."

(The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Beginning of Chapter IX)

The above extract is taken from a very famous book that I was reminded of while setting up this blog called The Secret Garden. I won't go into any details of the storyline behind this book, other then that you should read it if you haven't already (the blurb is at the link just there and the book is available free of charge from Project Gutenberg).

So what is this blog anyway? Well, that's a very interesting question. Because this blog is many different things and will contain a wide range on different subjects. But let me try and summarize it as best as I can below.

In the world we live in, most of the people who read this blog feel safe and secure in the knowledge that themselves and their family are happy. This cannot be said for the majority of people currently living on this Earth, who must live in fear, hunger and poverty. Those at the top of the social hierarchy have so much money that they probably don't even need to open their savings accounts, while those at the bottom probably don't even have savings accounts.

This so obvious stratification between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, is growing. The biggest question we face in this day and age is not why this is so, for that is easily visible with the fact that society is built on the necessity of greed; the more cash you have the higher you move up the social ladder, no matter the fact that gaining so much cash means taking off others. Nor is it how this can be solved, which we will look into many times on this blog, and which my personal answer to is mentioned briefly at the end of this keynote. No, the biggest question we face is this: why the majority of those who have the ability to live, not just to survive, are so apathetic in helping to change the world so that all mankind can share what we have.

For me to see so clearly why these problems are occurring, and to have such a clear understanding of how they can be resolved, and yet to see so much apathy to even try and understand ways to fix the problems by those who can, is one of the few things in my life that really, really frustrates and angers me. My desire to help those in need and to attempt to bring equality to a dying planet, is the driving force behind my passion to change the world we live in.

And I ask myself often, do people really even care? Do people care that billions are below the poverty line and struggle to survive while hundreds are among the richest people on Earth? Do people care about the wars and crimes committed daily throughout the planet we all must live on, such that every one of us must fear our fellow man? And so I then asked myself, what do people really care about, because they must care about something...

And an answer comes springing back: Family. The family is truly at the centre of everything and is, in my opinion, one of the core reasons why people really live. It is an open garden that is allowed to flourish and show true beauty.

The trouble is, we've got to start realising that the entire planet is our family, that what happens in another part of the world affects us and those close to us, and that until children who live in the poorest countries in the world can grow up with the same standards that we in the West enjoy, this world will never be peaceful. We need to realise that we're on a giant lump of rock, a spaceship made of solidified molten lava, water, air and other gases, and that we're all on this spaceship together! If we irreversibly cause too much destruction, it could mean the extinction of the entire human race.

For all the time that we preach love, we don't follow it. And true unconditional love is a secret hidden garden many of us hide away to show a brave face to the harsh realities of the world around us. But now, the keys to that garden are beginning to be found; and that garden is so different to the other gardens we have walked through before, so wild and untended, that it scares many of us, and we feel it cannot be so. But how can we know unless we try? How can we know what that garden contains unless we open the door and walk through? How can we build a better society focussed on peace and compassion when we don't want to even see what might be possible?

And if you don't want a better society, then you logically agree to all the wars and crimes committed in the current one, as well as the widening poverty gap. What if those problems were to affect your close family and friends? I challenge you to stare yourself in the face and say that you don't want to try to build a better society, with the knowledge of the problems of the world, and really mean it. And if you can't say that, why aren't you trying?

I cannot stand idly by while we move further and further towards going around the same circle of racism, death and destruction we have been going around the past thousands of years, especially as technology is allowing for this circle to rapidly expand. As it continues to do so, eventually we will make the circle too big, and it will lead to the destruction of everything we know. We need to stand up for what is right, or we will risk losing everything we want to believe might be possible in the future. The future is now! And it is only what we make of it.

So, what is this blog for? This blog is my way of trying to spread this desire for unconditional love, for change to a better world, for peace for all mankind; now, in today's future. This blog is my output of insights and inspirations about this world, a door to the deep vaults of my heart. This blog will show you the path I took to get where I am today, and how I found the necessity of the removal of greed, and the necessity of unconditional love, if we are to not become extinct. And this blog will show you what I believe we need to change to. But even more important, this blog is to make you think, to help to remove that apathetic layer that seems to cloud so much of humanity today to the perpetual suffering of our global family.

I will use this blog to output my interests in life, my experiences, my views on Christianity and my views about the Zeitgeist Movement, my answer to change; as well as any 'questions' around this nature that people ask of me. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a window into my own personal secret garden that I've managed to find the keys for. I hope you enjoy the view.