ZEITGEIST ADDENDUM Why Monetary Systems Don't Work by James Jaeger
I have just finished watching ZEITGEIST Addendum for the 5th time and my official opinion is this movie is accurate and presents the existing scene as far as the current economic, social and political model of our so-called civilization. As far as I have observed and studied, in my 50+ years on this world, this movie is moving in the right direction in rejecting not only communism, socialism, marxism and fascism, but capitalism, profit and monetarism as well. Unfortunately ZEITGEIST Addendum seems to have gone over the heads of many who are stuck in their current worldviews. For others, it has created serious cognitive dissonance. For still others it has assulted their religion (unnecessarily in my opinion).My most recent screening of ZEITGEIST Addendum was done the afternoon of 25 October 2008 with two associates. We took about four hours to get through the show as we paused the picture and CLARIFIED and DEBATED its merits exhaustively. I recommend you do same. From this clarification and debate, all three of us agree that this movie is in NO WAY promoting Communism, Socialism OR Fascism. What is getting in the crawl of many is the fact that ZEITGEIST Addendum is NOT promoting CAPITALISM either. In fact, ZEITGEIST Addendum is giving reasons why Adam Smith's arguments are flawed. As further discussed in my article, TOO BIG TO FAIL - Why Bailouts Promote Consolidation, Adam Smith's arguments ARE flawed hence Smithian CAPITALISM is a flawed system: just as Marxist Communism and Nazi Fascism are flawed systems. Capitalism DID serve a purpose in the past however it's now irrelevant, if not destructive to the world emerging. The practices of PROFIT, COMPETITION and SCARCITY can be shown to be the major elements in CAPITALISM -- as well as Communism, Socialism and Fascism -- that are no longer workable. Indeed, the PROFIT-motive depends on SCARCITY and scarcity promotes COMPETITION which ultimately results in crime, poverty, unbridled capitalism, war, imprisonment, debt and a host of other destructive practices. Competition, which DID serve in an earlier era, is no longer a viable methodology when compared to the potential of COOPERATION and TECHNOLOGY, which can and will eventually make law and governments obsolete. The movie further explains the reasoning behind these claims.(1)
The premise that the world's resources should be owned by all humans equally makes sense given technology helps us manage them. This is NOT Communism, an assumption some might jump to for the movie does NOT imply any sort of centralized control group or state. This is a difficult concept for many to get their minds around as there are no analogs in world governance, however there ARE analogs I will discuss later. Communism is when the state owns ALL OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION and everyone works for the state. In such as system Adam Smith says there is little incentive to produce as there is no personal ownership. Adam Smith IS correct on this and this IS why Communism, and its sister system, Socialism, are failed systems. But in a world where "just" the resources are collectively owned by all people, but the other means of production and all finished products are owned by individuals (as the movie implies), you have crafted a blend of the best elements of previously piloted systems into a workable planetary management system supplemented by AI. Nevertheless, as the cost of products and the necessities of life are reduced to zero through nanofacturing and AI, the concept of "ownership" will become obsolete thus discussion as to whether such a system is Marxist or not will be academic. Do you worry about who owns the air or do you worry about how this resource is protected? No one owns the air or the oceans or the Internet, yet we all benefit from these DISTRIBUTED resources, thus we all seek to protect them. And given that the universe has UNLIMITED resources, it is preposterous to think of economic systems in the quaint terms used in past centuries.
NO ONE GOVERNS THE INTERNET YET IT IS A DISTRIBUTED NETWORK OF INTELLIGENCE THAT WORKS AS AN EMERGENT PROPERTY OF SELF-ORGANIZATION. THE INTERNET IS THUS PROOF THAT A WORLD WITHOUT CENTRALIZED INTELLIGENCE WORKS. THE INTERNET IS THUS PROOF THAT A WORLD WITHOUT CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT WORKS. THE INTERNET IS THUS PROOF THAT A WORLD WITHOUT A CENTRALIZED MONETARY SYSTEM WORKS. WE ALL OWN THE RESOURCE KNOWN AS THE INTERNET AND WE ALL COLLECTIVELY MANAGE IT. OUR COOPERATION IN THIS NETWORK CAUSES AN EMERGENT PROPERTY OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATION THAT TODAY DISTRIBUTES INFORMATION IN THE FORM OF BITS BUT TOMORROW WILL DISTRIBUTE INFORMATION IN THE FORM OF ACTUAL MATTER -- FOR THE TECHNOLOGY OF TELEPORTATION IS REAL AND IS DISCUSSED IN THE LITERATURE OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN AND OTHER PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS. If you are not up to date on these technologies, maybe you should be.
Past century centralized management or government does NOT work as we saw from the former Soviet Empire and we can see from the current U.S. Empire. Distributed management or government DOES work. The FREE MARKET is a distributed network that DOES WORK so long as it is NOT perverted by regulation of any kind, including the regulation of MONEY. THE USE OF MONEY TO KEEP SCORE IN A DISTRIBUTED RESOURCE WORLD OF ABUNDANCE IS COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE.
The INCENTIVE to produce a greater abundance of quality products should NOT be based on profit -- how much money I can get out of you -- but based on the other incentives such as the joy of accomplishment, love, freedom of exchange, desire for knowledge, experimentation, curiosity. The desire to be compensated for our labor, creativity and products is a natural one but to reduce such compensation to just the realm of money is a serious limitation to motivation. Indeed, it could be said that all productivity is motivated, directly or indirectly, by the desire for sex. The human male KNOWS how motivated he can become when a beautiful woman asks for something to be done. Money, compared to such motivation, is indeed anemic, and I would venture to say actually plays a much smaller part than any economic system would allow its adherents to believe. But in general the world runs on a system known as MONETARISM whether such money is backed by love, sex, gold or oil.
All past failed systems -- Communism, Socialism, Fascism and Capitalism -- had money, profit and scarcity in common. All have failed: as we can see from the CORPORATOCRACY that now controls the U.S. Congress, the Fed, the IMF/World bank and the fascist globalization that's now attempting to infest the world.
Some say government and force-based systems are the root of the problem. Actually these are only a symptom of the problem for it's money, profit and scarcity that keep these entities in power. As the old saying goes, 'an army marches on its stomach," the gargantuan empire we have today cannot grow or function unless it keeps millions of people enslaved in the debt system of fiat and fractional money. Fiat and fractional money fuel the monster. The highest levels of government and the corporatocracy are staffed by the same people in an endless revolving door financed by lobbyists working for the plutocracy. The corporatocracy uses government to configure the laws the way it wants. The government uses the corporatocracy and banking system to carry out its deeds. Lending money to resource-rich nations, watching them default on debt service and then forcing them to turn over their resources or make concessions (such as the privatizing of public utilities, accepting military bases or voting a certain way in the UN) is standard operating procedure of the IMF/World bank as John Perkins and Anne Wilkinson have been pointing out for decades. The Fed is the alter ego of the IMF/World Bank and it's using fiat and fractional money to literally build a covert global empire. Whether the target country of the IMF/World Bank is democratic or Marxist is irrelevant, the goal is the same: commandeer all the country's resources and bring them under the domination of the U.S.-based corporatocracy.
Today, unlike Nazi Germany where the state merged corporate power into its ranks, the U.S. corporatocracy is merging state power in to the profit-infested world we now call "Globalization" -- Adam Smith run amok in "free" trade. Congressmen are bought and paid for by multinational corporations, non-People entities, that have little regard for democracy. As ZEITGEIST Addendum states: DEMOCRACY IS IMPOSSIBLE IN A PROFIT-BASED ECONOMIC SYSTEM BECAUSE THE PLUTOCRATS HAVE PURCHASED THE CONGRESS AND PRESIDENT.
ZEITGEIST Addendum explains why we are all debt slaves, forced to submit to employment and forced to pay interest on BOGUS fiat money with REAL human effort. In a world where the profit-motive reigns supreme, ethic and morals are impossible. We are all chiseling off each other to make a buck, as the movie explains in detail. We are all greatly or slightly misrepresenting our products and services in order to "out compete" our fellows and "profit." We are all corrupt because we are all trying to maintain some Establishment we have been born into or some Establishment we have been indoctrinated into believing is the best "system" whether such system is our "nation," our "religion," "political," "economic" or "social" system. We are all guilty.
"There is no such think as independence in nature, the whole of nature is a unified system of independent variables each a cause and a reaction existing as a concentrated whole." the narrator explains. Given this universality, we are not allowing ourselves to break free of the myopic self-preservation systems that we have come to rely on for way too long. We are in fear and we thus CLING to irrelevant socio-political and economic systems that are now destroying our planet and enslaving billions of people in poverty and debt.
For people, corporations or governments to lay claim to the planet's resources is a dead-end economy and must change. The profit-motive is a destructive motive. ZEITGEIST Addendum fully explicates this claim and so far no one has given a valid counter-argument. Most of my science- and technology-challenged friends and associates have little or no comprehension of what ZEITGEIST Addendum is thus saying. Unless one is up-to-date on science and technology, they will be hard-pressed to relate to what ZEITGEIST Addendum is talking about. Its premise will thus be unreal to them. Solutions proposed in ZEITGEIST Addendum should NOT be construed to be the same technocratic deus ex machina previous regimes have used to rally support. We are clearly at the inflection point of an exponential curve that did not exist in the previous century. The past does NOT equal the future, and unfortunately history is no longer any guide. See STARING INTO THE SINGULARITY if you are unclear on this statement.
I recommend one watch ZEITGEIST Addendum at least three (3) times. This movie pushes so many buttons it's almost impossible for one to stay in "present time" while watching it. One will think the movie is saying A when it's saying B, or saying B when it's saying C. It will drive you crazy. You will hate this movie one minute and then love it the next. You MUST however suspend all your BELIEF SYSTEMS and WORLD VIEWS to get this movie. Don't worry, if your belief system and worldview is valid, you will remember it after watching the movie.
So far the comments I have heard from many people with regards to ZEITGEIST Addendum have been either shallow, nattery, ridiculous and/or misdirected. Again, some have tried to imply that this movie is promoting Marxist views just because it's stating that capitalism and the PROFIT system are unworkable. ZEITGEIST Addendum is saying anything but "Workers of the World Unite." It's actually saying "Let's work together protect our resources and then use technology to make drudgery work obsolete." Again, Zeitgeist Addendum is saying that Communism, Socialism Fascism AND Capitalism are no longer relevant in today's emerging world. I have to agree with this, but unfortunately one will not be able to agree unless they are familiar with the state-of-the-art of technology as related to renewable energy and the potential of nanofacturing. For information on the later, read Dr. Eric Drexler's book, ENGINES OF CREATION, at http://www.e-drexler.com/d/06/00/EOC/EOC_Table_of_Contents.html for free.
In summary: the profit-motive system and money MUST go. The MONEY-MENTALITY is running the planet into the ground. I have been saying this for decades. See a book I wrote around 1985 and published on the Net around 1995 called TEAR DROP IN SPACE. http://www.mecfilms.com/treardrop See my various articles at http://www.jaegerresearchinstitute.org/menu4.htm for explanation why MEAT-HEADS IN SUITS are ruining the planet.
I am not positive what the next best system is, but I reject the current political and economic systems. They are simply unworkable and will NEVER lead to a world without war where able Beings can rise to greater heights.
As AI systems are perfected, planetary management of resources will become more viable. Human labor will eventually be replaced by machine labor freeing humans for more important pursuits. The current financial-banking system will continue to melt down into the nothingness it always was. The hucksters, frauds and freaks that have been promoting and profiteering from the Wall Street Ponzi will be brought to justice by the People on Main Street, People who are becoming more enlightened with each rotation of the planet.
ZEITGEIST Addendum ends with the following "to do" list:
1. Inform the world about the current corrupt system;
2. Declare all the world's resources common heritage;
3. Inform the Peoples of Earth about the true state of technology (such as the fact that we have the ability to remedy ALL energy problems on Earth) and how it can free the world if we cooperate instead of fight wars.
So long as the profit-motivated corporatocracy generates scarcity and inefficiency it renders 2 and 3 impossible.
Please do not write to me to argue the above points unless you have watched ZEITGEIST Addendum at least three (3) times. If you do comment, I will only address SPECIFIC QUOTES TAKEN FROM THE MOVIE. In other words: what sentence do you disagree with and why? NO GENERALITIES AND OVERALL IMPRESSIONS PLEASE. And please don't write and tell me how sacrilegious the movie is or I will write you and tell you how science- and technology-challenged YOU are. Thanks.
ZEITGEIST Addendum can be screened for free at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912&ei=5bgDScOSJonGqQKq0OAD&q=Zeitgeist+Addendum&hl=en
Unless you are a mOron, this 2-hour movie can't possibly be comprehended upon one screening, or even two.(2)
Originated: 25 October 2008
Revised: 26 October 2008
------------------
(1) I covered most of the subjects in ZEITGEIST in my 1986 book, "TEAR DROP IN SPACE -- A Prolegomena to any past Prolegomena" such at http://www.mecfilms.com/teardrop Also see FIAT EMPIRE at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531&q=FIAT+EMPIRE&hl=en available in DVD at http://www.FiatEmpire.com(2) My father died at 11:05PM shortly after I originated this article. Thus this article will forever represent a turning point in my life. He was a rare dad.
Please forward this to your mailing list if you agree with even 51% of this article. The mainstream media will probably not address this subject because they have conflicts of interest with their advertisers, stockholders and the political candidates they send campaign contributions to. Thus it's up to responsible citizens like you to disseminate important issues so that a healthy public discourse can be initiated and continued. Permission is hereby granted to excerpt and publish all or part of this article provided nothing is taken out of context and the source URL is cited.
Any responses to this article, email or otherwise, may be mass-disseminated in order to stimulate a public discourse. Unless you are okay with this, please do not respond. We will make every effort to remove names, emails and personal data before disseminating anything you should proffer.
Don't forget to watch FIAT EMPIRE - Why the Federal Reserve Violates the U.S. Constitution so you will have a better understanding of what we believe fuels most of the problems under study by the Jaeger Research Institute. Also, if you support a constitutional republic engaged in free-market capitalism, you might be interested in watching the progress of our current film production, ORIGINAL INTENT, at http://www.OriginalIntentUSA.org or http://www.FiatEmpire.com/producers
If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, go to http://www.jaegerresearchinstitute.org/mission.htm however, before you do, please be certain you are not suffering from Spamaphobia as addressed at http://home.att.net/~cyberfilms/Journel2.html.
Source URL: http://www.jaegerresearchinstitute.org
| FIAT EMPIRE | ORIGINAL INTENT |
Mission | Full-Spectrum News | Books by James Jaeger | Host |
Jaeger Research Institute