London, UK / July 25th 2009

The title of the presentation is "Where are we now?"

In my experience so far in attempting to promote the ideas

of the movement and the Venus Project, I find about 95% of the critics

tend to ignore the current state of affairs.

And in a detached manner, they simply criticize the abstracts

of what our proposed resolutions are

without ever reflecting on the train of thought

that was employed to reach those solutions.

So in response to this, I decided to simply focus on the information

which will, at a minimum, at least further compound the dire need

to get away from our current social practices

while also showing the logic that the Venus Project employs

to arrive at the conclusions and ideas that they do.

We're not just making things up. Jacque Fresco didn't just

creatively come up with ideas. He has a pivotal train of thought

and it has a near empirical basis.

First there's going to be an overview

of the movement, the tenets of the Venus Project.

In Part 1 we're going to elaborate even more

on the nature of our world monetary system and its consequences

while in Part 2 we will take a larger step back and consider the human condition

its cultivation and the effects of the social system at large.

Before I begin, please note that it was recommended

in the emails sent out that people read the Orientation Guide

or the Activist Video because

basically I'm going to move very quickly through a lot of this information

on the assumption that a lot of you are already familiar with some of it.

If you're not, don't be surprised if some things come as extremely foreign.

This lecture is actually part of two lectures.

The second lecture will be given sometime in the future to deal with the other section.

As you'll see, I deal with the first part

of the idea which is the fact that our social system is corrupt

and the second section is what the solutions are. We're not going to talk

about solutions specifically right now. We're going to talk about

the reasoning behind it.

The term "Zeitgeist" is defined as the intellectual

moral, cultural climate of an era.

The term "Movement" simply implies motion or change.

Therefore, the Zeitgeist Movement is an organization that urges change

in the dominant, intellectual, moral and cultural climate of the time

specifically to values and practices which would better serve

the well-being of the whole of humanity, regardless of race

religion, creed or any other form of contrived social status.

The Zeitgeist Movement in function exists as a communicative representation

of an organization called The Venus Project

which is essentially a conceptual and technological set of ideas

which constitutes the life-long work of industrial designer

and social engineer, Jacque Fresco.

Mr Fresco, along with his associate Roxanne Meadows, have been working

for decades to establish the technical methods and educational imperatives

which can transition society away from its current cycles of war

perpetual poverty and pervasive corruption

into an improved social design based on environmental alignment

practicality, peak efficiency, and most critically

a heightened standard of living, personal freedom and well-being

for not just one nation or class, but for the entire human family.

The ultimate materialization of these ideas

is in the form of a new social design

updated to present-day knowledge. And the design can be termed

a "Resource-Based Economy" (RBE).

In the words of Mr. Fresco

"We call for a straight forward redesign of our culture

in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt

and unnecessary human suffering are viewed as not only avoidable

but also as totally unacceptable.

Anything less simply results in a continuation

of the same catalog of problems inherent in the present system.

In summary, a Resource-Based Economy utilizes resources rather than commerce.

All goods and services are available without the use of currency

credit, barter, or any form of debt or servitude.

The aim of this new social design is to free humanity

from the repetitive, mundane and arbitrary occupational roles

which hold no true relevance to social development

while also encouraging a new incentive system

that is focused on self-fulfillment, education

social awareness and creativity, as opposed

to the contrived, shallow, self-interested, corruption generating goals

of wealth, property and power which are dominant today.

The enabling foundation of this concept is the realization

that through the intelligent management of the earth's resources

along with the liberal application of modern technology and science

we have the ability to create a near global abundance on this planet

and thus escape the detrimental consequences generated

by the real and artificial scarcity and waste which is dominant today.

This reality can provably create a high quality of life for

the entire world population many times over.

The Venus Project takes into account something which has been long lost

in our modern, financially driven world

the fundamental building blocks of society

and the basic understandings required to maintain a person's emotional

intellectual and physical well-being.

All social systems regardless of political philosophy, religious beliefs

or social customs ultimately depend upon natural resources

as the initial step towards social functionality.

Concurrently, society itself is a culture machine.

In other words, it's a natural consequence

for a culture to support the values integral to the dominant institutions

of that society, regardless of the benefit of those values.

In other words, a society reaps what it sows.

If your society's foundation inherently supports self-interest

elitism, greed and dishonesty

then no one should ever be surprised when certain members of society

continuously fall into the extremity of murder

financial corruption or indifferent, selfish gain.

In other words, society is not only a product of the sum of its members values

paradoxically, it's also a generator of them for each new generation.

It should be no wonder that government perpetuates

nationalistic and patriotic values.

If they didn't, people might not support the state agendas or their wars.

It should be no wonder that the Catholic church perpetuates the idea

that humans are born into sin

otherwise, people might not show up to be saved.

And it should be no wonder

every major city on this planet is cloaked with corporate advertising

working to force materialism and inadequacy. Why?

Because otherwise, some people might just be happy with what they have

and not contribute to the profit and perpetuation

of a corporation or an economy.

Regardless, when it comes to cultural influence, nothing can hold a candle

to the vast psychological implications that have developed

due to the system of monetary finance.

Money, contrary to the attitudes of most of the world's populations today

is not a natural resource, nor does it represent resources.

In fact, by our standards of logic, money is only functionally relevant

in society, when natural resources

and the mechanisms of creation are scarce.

And thus, a system has emerged where people are given value

for their skills in exchange for their servitude

which can thus be used as a medium of exchange

for those supposed scarce resources.

Sadly, the culture is now fully indoctrinated into this frame of reference

and, like the rising sun, most could not even consider

any other possibility for our social functionality.

In fact, some have even redefined the relevance of money itself

by being conditioned to think that money represents choice.

That money somehow has something to do with democracy.

And the greatest illusion, that the monetary structure is a tool of liberty.

While money has indeed served

a positive role overall on the course of our social evolution.

Adaptation and change and improvement is still unstoppable.

The fact is, most of the original problems, which require the development

of the economic system we see today, are no longer pressing

due to the dramatic advancement of science and technology.

We now have the means to move in to a new paradigm

one where the negative by-products of our current social establishment

such as perpetual war, human exploitation, poverty

and environmental destruction are no longer tolerable.

What is advocated here is merely a next step in our social evolution

as dictated not by a person or group's opinion

but by statistics, trends, basic inference and extrapolation

all deduced by the scientific method.

Unfortunately, regardless of how logical, clear and obvious

new ideas may seem, the public still remains

on average...tremendous fear of any form of social change.

This is largely due to propaganda indoctrination

which has been pushed upon them by the established powers

which of course prefer the maintain their power.

These institutions range from religious organizations, to government, to business.

In fact, it really isn't the technical understandings

and implementations of the physical attributes

that comprise the Resource-Based Economy which is the problem.

We know we can do it, technically. We know it can happen.

The analysis has been extrapolated.

It is the outdated cultural values, such a testy subject.

The cultural values and the education barriers of our conditioned culture

is the most difficult aspect to consider

and that's one of the reasons I'm approaching this presentation as I have

because I want people to understand that we have to move somewhere.

This is where the Zeitgeist movement comes in!

We are not here to tell people what to think or believe.

We're here to spread statistical information

and socially positive value identifications

in hope of bringing people into an awareness

of the incredibly positive possibilities the future can hold.

Once these understandings are fully realized

I think most people will never be able to look at the world

in the same way again, and the problems we find as commonplace today

will become simply unacceptable, motivating change.

There are countless well-intentioned people

in activist organizations out there, and they keep popping up like weeds.

It's incredible to me how many of these there are

all admirable and amazing, and they're yelling at the top of their lungs

about the rampant problems and injustices in our world.

Yet, as you tend to find, very few actually offer any solutions whatsoever.

Those that do offer solutions, however, always frame those solutions

within the context of the current established system.

Very little regard seems to be given to the root structure

of our social design.

The Venus Project and hence the Zeitgeist Movement is different.

Our fundamental focus is finding

the foundational sources of our social problems

and working from that lowest common denominator to create solutions.

And when it comes to social corruption, poverty, environmental disregard

human exploitation, and most personal and social turmoil in the world today

an important realization is that most of these problems are not the result

of some particular company, some nefarious elite group

or some government legislation.

These are symptoms of the foundational problems.

And this is the ultimate realization when it comes to

how you look at the problems of the world today.

There is a massive superstitious basis out there:

It's us against them. That is

extremely poisonous to the development

because people are constantly looking for someone else to blame

when it's really themselves because they continue to perpetuate

the system that creates these things.

The real issue is human behavior.

And human behavior which will be addressed in this presentation specifically

is largely created and reinforced by the social patterns required for survival

as necessitated by the social system of a period.

We are products of our society, and the fact is

it is very foundation of our socio-economic system

and environmental condition which has created

the sick culture you see around you.

Our current system is based almost exclusively upon human exploitation

resource abuse and abundant waste.

It is simply what our system does.

As far as the infamous "they"

it is simply another social distortion

culminated and reinforced by our environment.

There is no singular "they".

In Zeitgeist I, I described "the men behind the curtain"

to the effect of a specific niche of economics

the ones that control most government policy, and those are the banks.

Banks have been running things forever

but that is still a product. These are still human beings.