He has been labeled as a genius, a prophet, a visionary
and sometimes, as an eccentric, and dismissed as a Utopian dreamer.
But in the end, no matter what they say
he's Jacque Fresco, the creator and the mind behind The Venus Project
a monumental work of several fields of knowledge
that unifies the concept, a new future for the human civilization.
Fresco's entire life is perhaps the definition of a second chance
a new opportunity for social progress
in harmony with our planet and technology.
Mr. Fresco, thank you for being with us today. - Thanks for the privilege.
- Can you give us a brief description of what is The Venus Project?
- The Venus Project is an attempt to bring world peace
and all the nations together.
If you don't want war, killing, most crimes
you have to redesign the way society works.
You have to declare all the earth's resources
as the common heritage of all the world's people.
Then, we have to remove the money system, which is basically corrupt.
After that we have to gradually outgrow the need
for all the artificial boundaries that separate people.
So we have one world working cooperatively
toward preserving the environment and all life as we know it.
- And what is the single most important aspect of this project?
A Resource-Based Economy to declare all the resources
the common heritage of all the world's people.
- Can you explain the distinction between a money-based economy
and a resource-based economy?
- A money based economy produces incentive
but it also produces incentive for corruption
payoffs, paying off Senators
various corporations "buying" Senators.
It's never been a democracy.
We've never had a democracy; no nations ever had it.
If you don't have equal purchasing power, you can't have a democracy.
- How does The Venus Project compare with communism?
Communism uses money. It has social stratification.
It has banks. It has armies and navies
prisons and police. We don't have any of those.
- Now let's talk about society. In many of your lectures, you imply
that we are conditioned to think in a certain way. Is that correct?
- Well, if you were raised by the headhunters of the Amazon as a baby
and you never saw anything else, you would be a headhunter.
If you were raised in Nazi Germany, where all you see is
"Heil Hitler, Deutschland über alles!"
You'd be a German. So, I think all people
are perfectly well adjusted where they're coming from.
There is no such thing as good or bad people.
You're taught to hate certain people.
But where they're coming from is normal.
If you're brought up in the South, uneducated region
you might become a member of the Klu Klux Klan.
You speak with a Southern accent. Where do you get that from?
The environment. Where do you get:
"I'm gon' get me a nigga, and I'm gon' kick his ass!"?
You get that from the environment. It's not that people are good or bad.
They are raised in an aberrated, or twisted environment.
- Do you feel that we live in a world of damaged communications
that sometimes restrict the language and expression of emotions
as well as thinking. Is that correct? -Yes.
Today, our language is hundreds of years old.
That makes it extremely difficult to talk to one another.
We talk at each other. That means
sometimes a person will say "Have a nice weekend!"
Why don't they say "Have a nice life?" Why just a weekend?
Because our language is so old, it's automatic and has no meaning.
There has to be a language that's not subject to interpretation.
When you read the Bible, you say "Jesus meant this...," and he says
"No, he meant that," and another person..."He meant this."
So you have the Lutheran, the Seventh Day Adventist
because it's subject to interpretation.
A language that is not subject to interpretation
mathematics, engineering, chemistry
physics, structural engineering...not subject to interpretation.
You couldn't build a bridge if one engineer says:
"I think he meant this." The other says, "No, he meant that..."
It's possible to develop a language, not subject to interpretation.
- And how do you feel about the term 'democracy'?
- Democracy is a 'con game'. It's a word invented to placate people
to make them accept a given institution.
All institutions sing "We are free!"
The minute you hear, 'freedom and democracy', watch out!
Because in a truly free nation
no one has to tell you you're free.
- I heard that you said that as powerful systems start to collapse
they tend to defend themselves with fascism
in order to defend the 'status quo'.
Is that the situation that we live right now?
- Well, this system right now is moving toward fascism.
cutting back on the freedoms, what little freedoms we had.
We never had complete freedom
because the word 'freedom' has no meaning.
When an Arab comes to this country with 10 wives
they say you can only come in with one. So don't use the word freedom.
Say, there's a certain range of behavior we permit in this society
and this is what it is. Don't use the word 'freedom'!
- How do you feel about the recent economic crisis in the United States
and the global recession? Is that a lesson to be learned?
- No, because it takes a recession, loss of job
and loss of respect for your elected leaders.
When that happens, you get social change.
Social change cannot come about due to intellect.
It comes about by people suffering;
and the more people that are laid off, the more they lose respect
for an existing government, they will seek another direction.
If there are too many people seeking a new direction
then the existing government calls upon the military and police
to manage society. That's called fascism.
- Now let's talk about war and technology. In 1961
President Eisenhower advised against the military complex.
Is this a prophecy to be taken care right now, at this point in time?
- Well, I would say that he didn't push it enough
He should have explained it from many points of view.
Just saying "Beware of the industrial-military complex" is not enough
because people don't know what that means exactly.
- Yes, but we have seen the images of the Twin Towers
being collapsed to the ground on 9-11.
We also have seen the bombs going into the ground
of these Middle Eastern Countries, like Afganistan and Iraq.
How do you feel about this, and what's your perception of the future
in the war? - Each system wants to perpetuate itself.
We don't go to another country to bring democracy.
We go there for their resources: oil, metals, cheap labor.
We don't go there to bring democracy. We took this land from the Indians.
We stole it. After we took the land
we took New Mexico from Mexico.
Then we took California from Spain.
After we stole all the land we need, we put up the sign:
"Thou shalt not steal."
All nations are corrupt. All of them.
Not one nation
knows enough about ecology to handle the problems.
All politicians are basically ignorant men.
All of them. All the way back in history. Our problems are not political.
They were good a hundred years ago, but today they are technical:
safe transportation, production of an abundance
making things available for people without the use of money.
As long as money exists, you are going to have corruption
no matter how many treaties you sign, no matter how many laws you make.
90% of man-made laws are irrelevant.
It isn't laws that we need.
People need access to the necessities of life;
when that's arranged, they don't steal.
- Some people say that always, always come back: ambition, violence
hatred. What do you think about that? - There is no such thing
as human nature. Otherwise, we'd still be living in caves
if human nature couldn't be changed. It's learned.
When your mother says "You're a Lutheran.
You don't play with that little Catholic boy."
So, parents indoctrinate their children.
In the future, parents will be educated in how to raise children.
You have to raise children, because children can learn
anything at all. They can learn geology, physics, chemistry.
But we give them garbage! We have Mickey Mouse Clubs in America.
How shameful! We have children, and we read to them
'Dickey Dare and his sheep. On the way he met a cow.'
"Moo moo", said the cow. That's no way to raise children.
- Do you know? They won't listen to you.
So, why persist on these ideals?
- Well, because they are brought up not to. They're brought up to:
"What's the greatest country in the world? The USA!"
"What's the most inventive country in the world? The USA."
But they don't tell us where the printing press came from
that all the foreigners that came to this country
brought with them language, religion, ideas, technology...
So we owe so much...For example, if you don't know this
an Arab, named Al-Jabr, gave us algebra.
The great museum in Egypt, years ago
had a library of world knowledge.
So we owe so much to so many nations.
The separation of nations is dangerous, wrong
and the failure of nations to work together, that's what war is.
War is a supreme failure of bridging the difference
between nations. There'll be no military in the future.
There'll be people who will learn.
See, soldiers are killing machines. You teach them to kill.
And the other nation teaches its soldiers to kill.
What I would do is teach soldiers
send them back to school free of charge
to learn to become problem solvers.
How do you bridge the difference between Saudi Arabia and this country?
How do you bridge the difference between Venezuela
and another country? That's what's needed.
Science applied to government.
So far we have opinions from
politicians that know nothing about ecology, safety, engineering
increasing the agricultural yield. They are totally incapable.
And the future will look back, the children of the future will say:
"Couldn't you see that the money system had people paid off?"
"Couldn't you see, wasn't it obvious to you?"
You say "Well, no, we were brought up in it. We didn't know the difference."
Kids will not understand that in the future.
- Mr Fresco, I want to thank you for your time.
I'm sure our viewers enjoyed our conversation
as much as I did. Thank you. - Thank you for the privilege.