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  • Disclaimer

  • The chain of events as they are described in this video

  • is in no way an official message of TVP nor TZM

  • and it only represents the views of the maker of this video.

  • Some of the data on which I am basing this, is available online and some is based

  • on my personal experience in TZM while being a Movement Coordinator between 2009-2011.

  • Why did The Venus Project part ways with The Zeitgeist Movement?

  • The web is cluttered with references that can't be ignored

  • regarding a relationship between TVP (The Venus Project)

  • and TZM (The Zeitgeist Movement).

  • First it must be noted that TVP has decided to part ways with TZM.

  • Whether you are trying to understand the nature of the relationship

  • that existed between the two organizations,

  • or whether you are trying to understand

  • why did TVP decide to part ways with TZM,

  • this video is likely to make things a lot clearer.

  • The Venus Project

  • In case some of you don't know, TVP is a global organization

  • based on more than 75 years of study done by Jacque Fresco,

  • a 95 year-old industrial designer, multi-disciplinary researcher and inventor.

  • Jacque's involvement in science goes back to childhood.

  • Tremendously educated and self-taught he is considered by many

  • to be ahead of his time, and some people often point out

  • his unique perspective on society - just another testimony

  • of the wide range of knowledge he has acquired.

  • Jacque and Roxanne founded TVP in the early 1980's

  • although the organization had existed prior to that for several years

  • under a different name.

  • TVP promotes a new social system

  • which also includes the transition into a "Resource-Based Economy",

  • which is a term that was coined by Jacque,

  • and is one of the main themes of his work.

  • Zeitgeist

  • 27 years later, in 2007, after the success of the film "Zeitgeist"

  • that introduced a world full of problems

  • and that is being controlled by money, religion and economic elites,

  • Peter Joseph, the film's creator, who was looking for solutions,

  • came across TVP and flew over several times

  • to TVP's research center in Florida

  • to learn about Jacque's ideas from Jacque.

  • The filming Peter did during those meetings

  • eventually became a part of the sequel of 2008

  • "Zeitgeist: Addendum", that in fact introduces TVP as what could solve these problems.

  • Since late 2008, using the release of his new film,

  • Peter has founded TZM.

  • TZM that worked under the guidance of Peter,

  • was in fact Peter's idea of helping TVP.

  • It was working in affiliation with TVP from the very beginning

  • according to the shared agreement of Peter, Jacque and Roxanne,

  • under the definition: "The activist arm of TVP".

  • And so, TVP received the support of tens of thousands of activists

  • who have joined TZM.

  • In this way, Peter has become (whether intentionally or not)

  • not only the head of TZM,

  • but also the main character among whoever that were interested in helping TVP.

  • In fact, TVP used to direct people that wanted to help them

  • to TZM, and you might hear them do that in some of the videos

  • that are not up to date.

  • First signs of concern

  • The hopes of working together in cooperation began to weaken,

  • when Peter's working style started to become more apparent.

  • Rather than working cooperatively with Jacque and Roxanne,

  • Peter has come up with and worked out projects by himself

  • and only brought the final product for approval,

  • a habit that Roxanne stated she felt uncomfortable about,

  • since it seemed like she was bothering him with her corrections.

  • She felt this wasn't really working together

  • and it seemed like from his part, he was only fulfilling an obligation.

  • Eventually, Peter virtually stopped his visits at the research center.

  • As time went on,

  • Jacque and Roxanne had issues that they wanted to discuss in person with Peter.

  • They felt is was best to do this in person,

  • not over the phone or by email.

  • They asked him to visit many times, but it never came about.

  • Jacque and Roxanne were worried about this.

  • After all, they have allowed him to coordinate "the activism arm"

  • and basically run the activism meant to fulfill TVP's aims and proposals.

  • Confusion

  • As time passed, it became more clear that Peter's films create quite a confusion.

  • Again and again, people that came across the movement,

  • were confused by the use of the word Zeitgeist.

  • The word "Zeitgeist" was associated more with the first film than the second one,

  • since it was a lot more popular.

  • This made many people think the movement was about conspiracies and religion.

  • Peter didn't just ignore that risk by choosing the movement's name,

  • but also refused to make a clear cut distinction

  • between his films (and thus his opinions),

  • and the movement.

  • The fact he kept addressing 9\\11 issues through his radio show,

  • and was, in practice, the head of the movement,

  • didn't just confuse people interested in the movement,

  • but also its own activists for a very long time.

  • But it wasn't just the first film that was the problem.

  • The second film had its own issues.

  • Not only did it bring up conspiracies again,

  • but it also presented TVP very briefly

  • and presented the next steps needed to be taken, in a very problematic way.

  • As a result, A lot of the activists didn't seem to understand

  • the direction of TVP or what it was really about,

  • which is not the technological aspects alone,

  • and how they will affect people's behavior and value systems,

  • but how people's value systems need to change

  • in order to allow this transition to happen in the first place.

  • Some of the activists started working toward

  • sustainable low-tech communes and the like.

  • Others dwelled upon alternative barter systems,

  • monetary reforms, conspiracies, new age concepts,

  • direct democracy concepts and other solutions within the monetary system.

  • None of these have anything to do with TVP.

  • This was especially common among the local chapters

  • due to the lack of communication between them and the international forum

  • (made of local coordinators and Peter Joseph).

  • The word "Zeitgeist" appears to have become an icon, a wide concept

  • that was taken further away even from the zeitgeist organization,

  • into a cultural phenomnon,

  • subject to enormous amount of different interpretations.

  • Interpretations that got attached to TVP as well.

  • Peter had noticed some of these misunderstandings very early on,

  • and had continuously pressed on getting away from the communes ideas

  • and getting into education.

  • However, this message was brought up mainly

  • on his internet radio shows and was rarely getting to local activists around the world

  • which were getting their information

  • from the films that were handed out and shown by TZM activists.

  • Those films have been received pretty much as TZM's agenda.

  • Misinformation and little Relevant Action

  • TZM has become an entity of its own, directed by Peter,

  • and TVP which was the origin of practically all of the ideas behind it,

  • was being marginalized more and more.

  • On TZM website, on interviews, in his lectures and what not,

  • Peter presented TVP's goals as TZM's goals.

  • He used Jacque's analysis of the root causes of problems in society

  • as TZM's analysis,

  • and used many of the concepts Jacque talks about as TZM's key concepts.

  • He even picked up ideas from Jacque's books and put it on his films.

  • The credits that Peter gave Jacque

  • were a far way from avoiding the inevitable confusion.

  • Many people in the movement got the impression

  • that TZM has to do with the ideas regarding social change,

  • while TVP was merely about buildings, city designs, and technology.

  • In fact, a lot of them thought Peter was the one behind the ideas.

  • This was an even more serious problem

  • since Peter did not seem to fully grasp

  • a lot of The Venus Project's aspects himself,

  • Therefore, the movement's activity, which was directed by Peter,

  • was rarely relevant to what TVP was trying to promote.

  • There were very few efforts done in trying to get to influential figures,

  • to get air time,

  • virtually no efforts to find investors to help support the next steps of project,

  • and no attention to educating the community itself via study groups and reading groups.

  • More and more it seemed that The movement has taken its own direction.

  • TVP's World Lecture Tour

  • In 2010, Jacque and Roxanne started their worldwide lecture tour,

  • meeting many of the movement's activists

  • and trying to give them more information about TVP in person.

  • They were surprised with how little most of the activists knew about TVP.

  • While touring they saw many ads written by TZM promoting only its main website

  • with no reference to TVP yet using all of TVP's materials.

  • When they noted this to Peter,

  • asking him to inform the activists about adding TVP to their advertising,

  • his reply was: "It will take on a life of its own."

  • TVP felt this was troublesome

  • since The Venus Project has a specific direction, based on research

  • and felt It's important to direct people to the source since he is still alive

  • and able to answer questions to maintain the integrity of the findings as much as possible,

  • and not to let it "take on a life of its own".

  • TVP's Major Motion Picture

  • In the middle of March 2011, a video was uploaded to TVP's YouTube channel

  • in which Jacque and Roxanne for the first time asked for donations

  • for the major motion picture they have been working on for years.

  • What was first seen as a cheerful event by TZM activists,

  • was really a tense and sensitive subject between Peter and TVP.

  • One should be aware that this movie project isn't just years of work,

  • but also a main part of the transition,

  • that was meant to achieve public support

  • and a change in values in a huge amount of people.

  • It was also a part of this plan 40 years before Peter entered the scene.

  • The Split

  • In April 2011, A YouTube video was uploaded,

  • recorded at one of Jacque's lecture tours at the research center,

  • showing Jacque talking about how Peter and TZM didn't really understand TVP's direction.

  • This resulted in public disputes about the reasons of him saying that

  • in TZM's forums and voice chat server.

  • As part of this dispute, Peter has publicly stated

  • that he doesn't believe the film would work,

  • that he doesn't believe they could get the money from the community,

  • and that he feels this is an erroneous use of the community's funds

  • that should be spent on other projects.

  • Shortly after that, Peter showed up at the voice chat server to answer questions,

  • followed by Roxanne who was contacted.

  • When she arrived she said TVP has decided

  • to end the official affiliation with TZM

  • and no longer have it as an "Activist arm".

  • She invited whoever wished to help TVP to come and work with TVP directly.

  • In the following days,

  • Roxanne described the absurdity of being in a situation

  • of hearing public explanations of why their project would not work

  • from a person who works with them in a time they are looking for investors,

  • and how counter-intuitive it is for the "Activist Arm of TVP"

  • not to support its main project.

  • This was too much.

  • Aftermath and Final Words

  • The result of the split was that some individuals within TZM,

  • have joined what now are "The Venus Project Activism Teams",

  • and work directly for The Venus Project.

  • Others stayed in TZM

  • and today they continue to promote some aspects of TVP's ideas

  • along with other ideas.

  • Most of them are no longer in contact with TVP.

  • This split has also made many ZM chapters

  • become even more independent about their interpretation of the Zeitgeist concept,

  • and some of them work in completely different ways

  • than what even Peter Joseph is trying to promote.

  • To put it simply,

  • TVP decided they cannot continue affiliating with an organization

  • run by an individual that is working on his own, in his own direction,

  • who doesn't fully understand all of TVP's concepts,

  • carries out projects without consulting Jacque and Roxanne

  • and rejects the projects they really want to do.

  • This was not an activist arm of TVP, but something else entirely.

  • In TVP's view, TZM tries to promote what they think TVP's ideas are,

  • without knowing enough about it.

  • This however, is a subject that is really too big to go into in this brief video.

  • To this day, many people erroneously affiliate TVP

  • with conspiracies, communes and the like.

  • If you encounter those affiliations,

  • please inform others through this video.

  • We invite you to learn more about TVP at:

  • www.TheVenusProject.com

  • Thank you for watching.

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