1 00:00:00,763 --> 00:00:04,674 He has been labeled as a genius, a prophet, a visionary 2 00:00:04,824 --> 00:00:09,460 and sometimes, as an eccentric, and dismissed as a Utopian dreamer. 3 00:00:09,604 --> 00:00:11,813 But in the end, no matter what they say 4 00:00:11,963 --> 00:00:16,416 he's Jacque Fresco, the creator and the mind behind The Venus Project 5 00:00:16,562 --> 00:00:19,346 a monumental work of several fields of knowledge 6 00:00:19,484 --> 00:00:23,787 that unifies the concept, a new future for the human civilization. 7 00:00:23,928 --> 00:00:28,785 Fresco's entire life is perhaps the definition of a second chance 8 00:00:28,930 --> 00:00:31,245 a new opportunity for social progress 9 00:00:31,389 --> 00:00:34,475 in harmony with our planet and technology. 10 00:00:34,619 --> 00:00:39,011 Mr. Fresco, thank you for being with us today. - Thanks for the privilege. 11 00:00:39,155 --> 00:00:43,180 - Can you give us a brief description of what is The Venus Project? 12 00:00:43,323 --> 00:00:46,815 - The Venus Project is an attempt to bring world peace 13 00:00:46,965 --> 00:00:49,104 and all the nations together. 14 00:00:49,261 --> 00:00:53,840 If you don't want war, killing, most crimes 15 00:00:53,984 --> 00:00:56,937 you have to redesign the way society works. 16 00:00:57,075 --> 00:00:59,855 You have to declare all the earth's resources 17 00:00:59,993 --> 00:01:03,459 as the common heritage of all the world's people. 18 00:01:03,606 --> 00:01:08,516 Then, we have to remove the money system, which is basically corrupt. 19 00:01:08,659 --> 00:01:12,061 After that we have to gradually outgrow the need 20 00:01:12,205 --> 00:01:15,993 for all the artificial boundaries that separate people. 21 00:01:16,144 --> 00:01:18,916 So we have one world working cooperatively 22 00:01:19,072 --> 00:01:23,483 toward preserving the environment and all life as we know it. 23 00:01:23,620 --> 00:01:28,019 - And what is the single most important aspect of this project? 24 00:01:28,162 --> 00:01:32,135 A Resource-Based Economy to declare all the resources 25 00:01:32,279 --> 00:01:34,931 the common heritage of all the world's people. 26 00:01:35,075 --> 00:01:38,349 - Can you explain the distinction between a money-based economy 27 00:01:38,486 --> 00:01:40,657 and a resource-based economy? 28 00:01:40,795 --> 00:01:43,798 - A money based economy produces incentive 29 00:01:43,954 --> 00:01:46,732 but it also produces incentive for corruption 30 00:01:46,876 --> 00:01:49,453 payoffs, paying off Senators 31 00:01:49,582 --> 00:01:52,522 various corporations "buying" Senators. 32 00:01:52,660 --> 00:01:55,656 It's never been a democracy. 33 00:01:55,800 --> 00:02:00,361 We've never had a democracy; no nations ever had it. 34 00:02:00,505 --> 00:02:04,646 If you don't have equal purchasing power, you can't have a democracy. 35 00:02:04,790 --> 00:02:08,443 - How does The Venus Project compare with communism? 36 00:02:08,587 --> 00:02:12,756 Communism uses money. It has social stratification. 37 00:02:12,900 --> 00:02:16,272 It has banks. It has armies and navies 38 00:02:16,416 --> 00:02:19,685 prisons and police. We don't have any of those. 39 00:02:19,826 --> 00:02:23,480 - Now let's talk about society. In many of your lectures, you imply 40 00:02:23,624 --> 00:02:27,925 that we are conditioned to think in a certain way. Is that correct? 41 00:02:28,063 --> 00:02:32,204 - Well, if you were raised by the headhunters of the Amazon as a baby 42 00:02:32,348 --> 00:02:35,433 and you never saw anything else, you would be a headhunter. 43 00:02:35,570 --> 00:02:38,413 If you were raised in Nazi Germany, where all you see is 44 00:02:38,557 --> 00:02:41,135 "Heil Hitler, Deutschland über alles!" 45 00:02:41,279 --> 00:02:44,242 You'd be a German. So, I think all people 46 00:02:44,380 --> 00:02:47,383 are perfectly well adjusted where they're coming from. 47 00:02:47,533 --> 00:02:50,061 There is no such thing as good or bad people. 48 00:02:50,205 --> 00:02:52,195 You're taught to hate certain people. 49 00:02:52,332 --> 00:02:54,713 But where they're coming from is normal. 50 00:02:54,857 --> 00:02:58,118 If you're brought up in the South, uneducated region 51 00:02:58,262 --> 00:03:00,760 you might become a member of the Klu Klux Klan. 52 00:03:00,904 --> 00:03:03,576 You speak with a Southern accent. Where do you get that from? 53 00:03:03,726 --> 00:03:05,785 The environment. Where do you get: 54 00:03:05,923 --> 00:03:08,582 "I'm gon' get me a nigga, and I'm gon' kick his ass!"? 55 00:03:08,726 --> 00:03:12,561 You get that from the environment. It's not that people are good or bad. 56 00:03:12,711 --> 00:03:16,466 They are raised in an aberrated, or twisted environment. 57 00:03:16,616 --> 00:03:19,989 - Do you feel that we live in a world of damaged communications 58 00:03:20,133 --> 00:03:24,434 that sometimes restrict the language and expression of emotions 59 00:03:24,578 --> 00:03:27,834 as well as thinking. Is that correct? -Yes. 60 00:03:27,978 --> 00:03:31,243 Today, our language is hundreds of years old. 61 00:03:31,381 --> 00:03:34,942 That makes it extremely difficult to talk to one another. 62 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,855 We talk at each other. That means 63 00:03:37,999 --> 00:03:40,750 sometimes a person will say "Have a nice weekend!" 64 00:03:40,894 --> 00:03:44,399 Why don't they say "Have a nice life?" Why just a weekend? 65 00:03:44,549 --> 00:03:49,132 Because our language is so old, it's automatic and has no meaning. 66 00:03:49,276 --> 00:03:53,426 There has to be a language that's not subject to interpretation. 67 00:03:53,570 --> 00:03:56,812 When you read the Bible, you say "Jesus meant this...," and he says 68 00:03:56,950 --> 00:03:59,243 "No, he meant that," and another person..."He meant this." 69 00:03:59,387 --> 00:04:01,766 So you have the Lutheran, the Seventh Day Adventist 70 00:04:01,904 --> 00:04:05,035 because it's subject to interpretation. 71 00:04:05,179 --> 00:04:07,895 A language that is not subject to interpretation 72 00:04:08,032 --> 00:04:11,768 mathematics, engineering, chemistry 73 00:04:11,911 --> 00:04:16,160 physics, structural engineering...not subject to interpretation. 74 00:04:16,303 --> 00:04:18,755 You couldn't build a bridge if one engineer says: 75 00:04:18,868 --> 00:04:21,783 "I think he meant this." The other says, "No, he meant that..." 76 00:04:21,921 --> 00:04:26,731 It's possible to develop a language, not subject to interpretation. 77 00:04:26,875 --> 00:04:29,796 - And how do you feel about the term 'democracy'? 78 00:04:29,940 --> 00:04:35,087 - Democracy is a 'con game'. It's a word invented to placate people 79 00:04:35,314 --> 00:04:38,472 to make them accept a given institution. 80 00:04:38,616 --> 00:04:41,923 All institutions sing "We are free!" 81 00:04:42,060 --> 00:04:45,639 The minute you hear, 'freedom and democracy', watch out! 82 00:04:45,789 --> 00:04:48,615 Because in a truly free nation 83 00:04:49,121 --> 00:04:50,980 no one has to tell you you're free. 84 00:04:51,117 --> 00:04:54,675 - I heard that you said that as powerful systems start to collapse 85 00:04:54,819 --> 00:04:57,590 they tend to defend themselves with fascism 86 00:04:57,734 --> 00:04:59,761 in order to defend the 'status quo'. 87 00:04:59,905 --> 00:05:02,222 Is that the situation that we live right now? 88 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,669 - Well, this system right now is moving toward fascism. 89 00:05:05,820 --> 00:05:09,643 cutting back on the freedoms, what little freedoms we had. 90 00:05:09,780 --> 00:05:12,039 We never had complete freedom 91 00:05:12,183 --> 00:05:14,366 because the word 'freedom' has no meaning. 92 00:05:14,510 --> 00:05:17,651 When an Arab comes to this country with 10 wives 93 00:05:17,795 --> 00:05:21,493 they say you can only come in with one. So don't use the word freedom. 94 00:05:21,637 --> 00:05:25,495 Say, there's a certain range of behavior we permit in this society 95 00:05:25,639 --> 00:05:28,348 and this is what it is. Don't use the word 'freedom'! 96 00:05:28,492 --> 00:05:32,240 - How do you feel about the recent economic crisis in the United States 97 00:05:32,384 --> 00:05:36,082 and the global recession? Is that a lesson to be learned? 98 00:05:36,226 --> 00:05:40,182 - No, because it takes a recession, loss of job 99 00:05:40,326 --> 00:05:44,074 and loss of respect for your elected leaders. 100 00:05:44,218 --> 00:05:46,940 When that happens, you get social change. 101 00:05:47,084 --> 00:05:51,045 Social change cannot come about due to intellect. 102 00:05:51,189 --> 00:05:53,866 It comes about by people suffering; 103 00:05:54,016 --> 00:05:57,440 and the more people that are laid off, the more they lose respect 104 00:05:57,584 --> 00:06:01,667 for an existing government, they will seek another direction. 105 00:06:01,805 --> 00:06:04,435 If there are too many people seeking a new direction 106 00:06:04,579 --> 00:06:07,848 then the existing government calls upon the military and police 107 00:06:07,992 --> 00:06:10,739 to manage society. That's called fascism. 108 00:06:10,883 --> 00:06:14,098 - Now let's talk about war and technology. In 1961 109 00:06:14,242 --> 00:06:18,986 President Eisenhower advised against the military complex. 110 00:06:19,129 --> 00:06:24,237 Is this a prophecy to be taken care right now, at this point in time? 111 00:06:24,556 --> 00:06:27,529 - Well, I would say that he didn't push it enough 112 00:06:27,673 --> 00:06:30,620 He should have explained it from many points of view. 113 00:06:30,763 --> 00:06:35,484 Just saying "Beware of the industrial-military complex" is not enough 114 00:06:35,628 --> 00:06:38,141 because people don't know what that means exactly. 115 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:41,201 - Yes, but we have seen the images of the Twin Towers 116 00:06:41,345 --> 00:06:43,847 being collapsed to the ground on 9-11. 117 00:06:43,991 --> 00:06:47,326 We also have seen the bombs going into the ground 118 00:06:47,458 --> 00:06:51,305 of these Middle Eastern Countries, like Afganistan and Iraq. 119 00:06:51,449 --> 00:06:55,274 How do you feel about this, and what's your perception of the future 120 00:06:55,418 --> 00:06:59,205 in the war? - Each system wants to perpetuate itself. 121 00:06:59,568 --> 00:07:02,765 We don't go to another country to bring democracy. 122 00:07:02,909 --> 00:07:07,506 We go there for their resources: oil, metals, cheap labor. 123 00:07:07,650 --> 00:07:11,771 We don't go there to bring democracy. We took this land from the Indians. 124 00:07:11,933 --> 00:07:14,593 We stole it. After we took the land 125 00:07:14,733 --> 00:07:17,457 we took New Mexico from Mexico. 126 00:07:17,601 --> 00:07:19,628 Then we took California from Spain. 127 00:07:19,778 --> 00:07:23,740 After we stole all the land we need, we put up the sign: 128 00:07:23,903 --> 00:07:26,012 "Thou shalt not steal." 129 00:07:26,155 --> 00:07:28,685 All nations are corrupt. All of them. 130 00:07:28,828 --> 00:07:30,839 Not one nation 131 00:07:30,989 --> 00:07:34,846 knows enough about ecology to handle the problems. 132 00:07:35,008 --> 00:07:38,512 All politicians are basically ignorant men. 133 00:07:38,663 --> 00:07:43,282 All of them. All the way back in history. Our problems are not political. 134 00:07:43,426 --> 00:07:47,327 They were good a hundred years ago, but today they are technical: 135 00:07:47,467 --> 00:07:50,619 safe transportation, production of an abundance 136 00:07:50,763 --> 00:07:54,208 making things available for people without the use of money. 137 00:07:54,352 --> 00:07:57,074 As long as money exists, you are going to have corruption 138 00:07:57,212 --> 00:08:01,134 no matter how many treaties you sign, no matter how many laws you make. 139 00:08:01,278 --> 00:08:05,068 90% of man-made laws are irrelevant. 140 00:08:05,206 --> 00:08:07,190 It isn't laws that we need. 141 00:08:07,327 --> 00:08:10,462 People need access to the necessities of life; 142 00:08:10,605 --> 00:08:12,945 when that's arranged, they don't steal. 143 00:08:13,089 --> 00:08:17,563 - Some people say that always, always come back: ambition, violence 144 00:08:17,707 --> 00:08:20,847 hatred. What do you think about that? - There is no such thing 145 00:08:20,991 --> 00:08:24,595 as human nature. Otherwise, we'd still be living in caves 146 00:08:24,733 --> 00:08:27,487 if human nature couldn't be changed. It's learned. 147 00:08:27,637 --> 00:08:29,933 When your mother says "You're a Lutheran. 148 00:08:30,071 --> 00:08:32,442 You don't play with that little Catholic boy." 149 00:08:32,586 --> 00:08:36,140 So, parents indoctrinate their children. 150 00:08:36,284 --> 00:08:40,662 In the future, parents will be educated in how to raise children. 151 00:08:41,269 --> 00:08:44,576 You have to raise children, because children can learn 152 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:48,586 anything at all. They can learn geology, physics, chemistry. 153 00:08:48,743 --> 00:08:52,602 But we give them garbage! We have Mickey Mouse Clubs in America. 154 00:08:52,752 --> 00:08:56,872 How shameful! We have children, and we read to them 155 00:08:57,028 --> 00:09:00,187 'Dickey Dare and his sheep. On the way he met a cow.' 156 00:09:00,331 --> 00:09:03,355 "Moo moo", said the cow. That's no way to raise children. 157 00:09:03,493 --> 00:09:06,056 - Do you know? They won't listen to you. 158 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,309 So, why persist on these ideals? 159 00:09:09,454 --> 00:09:12,929 - Well, because they are brought up not to. They're brought up to: 160 00:09:13,069 --> 00:09:17,268 "What's the greatest country in the world? The USA!" 161 00:09:17,888 --> 00:09:20,867 "What's the most inventive country in the world? The USA." 162 00:09:21,011 --> 00:09:24,629 But they don't tell us where the printing press came from 163 00:09:24,767 --> 00:09:27,482 that all the foreigners that came to this country 164 00:09:27,626 --> 00:09:32,258 brought with them language, religion, ideas, technology... 165 00:09:32,401 --> 00:09:35,931 So we owe so much...For example, if you don't know this 166 00:09:36,075 --> 00:09:39,297 an Arab, named Al-Jabr, gave us algebra. 167 00:09:39,441 --> 00:09:41,822 The great museum in Egypt, years ago 168 00:09:41,966 --> 00:09:44,806 had a library of world knowledge. 169 00:09:44,950 --> 00:09:47,752 So we owe so much to so many nations. 170 00:09:47,896 --> 00:09:51,240 The separation of nations is dangerous, wrong 171 00:09:51,384 --> 00:09:55,744 and the failure of nations to work together, that's what war is. 172 00:09:55,894 --> 00:09:59,461 War is a supreme failure of bridging the difference 173 00:09:59,605 --> 00:10:03,184 between nations. There'll be no military in the future. 174 00:10:03,322 --> 00:10:05,251 There'll be people who will learn. 175 00:10:05,389 --> 00:10:09,124 See, soldiers are killing machines. You teach them to kill. 176 00:10:09,268 --> 00:10:12,065 And the other nation teaches its soldiers to kill. 177 00:10:12,209 --> 00:10:14,473 What I would do is teach soldiers 178 00:10:14,617 --> 00:10:16,590 send them back to school free of charge 179 00:10:16,734 --> 00:10:19,518 to learn to become problem solvers. 180 00:10:19,662 --> 00:10:23,969 How do you bridge the difference between Saudi Arabia and this country? 181 00:10:24,113 --> 00:10:27,001 How do you bridge the difference between Venezuela 182 00:10:27,157 --> 00:10:29,810 and another country? That's what's needed. 183 00:10:29,954 --> 00:10:32,748 Science applied to government. 184 00:10:32,892 --> 00:10:36,139 So far we have opinions from 185 00:10:36,283 --> 00:10:41,012 politicians that know nothing about ecology, safety, engineering 186 00:10:41,162 --> 00:10:45,184 increasing the agricultural yield. They are totally incapable. 187 00:10:45,578 --> 00:10:48,316 And the future will look back, the children of the future will say: 188 00:10:48,459 --> 00:10:52,312 "Couldn't you see that the money system had people paid off?" 189 00:10:52,456 --> 00:10:54,890 "Couldn't you see, wasn't it obvious to you?" 190 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:58,973 You say "Well, no, we were brought up in it. We didn't know the difference." 191 00:10:59,116 --> 00:11:01,782 Kids will not understand that in the future. 192 00:11:01,922 --> 00:11:04,017 - Mr Fresco, I want to thank you for your time. 193 00:11:04,157 --> 00:11:06,548 I'm sure our viewers enjoyed our conversation 194 00:11:06,704 --> 00:11:10,492 as much as I did. Thank you. - Thank you for the privilege.