1 00:00:00,670 --> 00:00:04,170 Let's begin with the rising tensions between Israel and Iran. 2 00:00:04,290 --> 00:00:07,958 Sanctions put into place by the United States and the European Union 3 00:00:08,098 --> 00:00:11,138 are starting to hurt the people of Iran in a major way 4 00:00:11,239 --> 00:00:14,409 with access to food and other imports blocked. 5 00:00:14,620 --> 00:00:17,207 The West hopes that the pain will bring Iran 6 00:00:17,307 --> 00:00:20,490 back to the bargaining table, in terms of its nuclear program. 7 00:00:20,620 --> 00:00:22,880 In the meantime, Israel is stepping up its threats 8 00:00:23,020 --> 00:00:25,590 that an attack on Iran may be imminent 9 00:00:25,730 --> 00:00:29,480 with Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak drawing a line in the sand. 10 00:00:29,620 --> 00:00:31,550 He calls it the 'zone of immunity' 11 00:00:31,690 --> 00:00:35,408 the point at which Israel could no longer put off taking action. 12 00:00:35,661 --> 00:00:38,432 In the West's efforts to isolate Iran 13 00:00:38,532 --> 00:00:41,345 India has announced it will send a delegation into Iran 14 00:00:41,485 --> 00:00:45,680 and has now emerged as Number 1 customer of Iranian oil. 15 00:00:45,860 --> 00:00:48,779 There are new indications China also will send in officials 16 00:00:48,930 --> 00:00:51,248 and this global chess match looks like it may be 17 00:00:51,388 --> 00:00:53,716 a messy one and a long one. 18 00:00:53,856 --> 00:00:56,460 Peter Joseph is the founder of The Zeitgeist Movement. 19 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,230 His group works to tackle some of the toughest issues: 20 00:00:59,370 --> 00:01:03,520 global economic crises, diplomatic issues, and a lot more. 21 00:01:03,660 --> 00:01:05,570 He just returned from Israel. 22 00:01:06,894 --> 00:01:09,194 - Hey there, Peter. I know you spent about a week there. 23 00:01:09,295 --> 00:01:12,854 Talk to me a little bit about your impressions of Israel 24 00:01:12,979 --> 00:01:16,040 of the people you spoke to, and what's going on there. 25 00:01:16,981 --> 00:01:19,080 - Thank you Kristine for having me. 26 00:01:19,250 --> 00:01:21,326 Israel is in a very complex state. 27 00:01:21,466 --> 00:01:24,050 On one side you have a very intelligent public 28 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:26,780 that is not representative of the state 29 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,735 that's causing all of these general war-like interests: 30 00:01:29,875 --> 00:01:32,850 interest in the occupation, the prisons of the West Bank and Gaza 31 00:01:32,990 --> 00:01:36,430 and everything else that I'm sure we've talked at length, to death about. 32 00:01:36,570 --> 00:01:39,321 It's important to initially point out that 33 00:01:39,461 --> 00:01:43,110 there's an incredible culture there that does not represent the state. 34 00:01:43,350 --> 00:01:45,787 In the speech that I gave to a sold-out audience 35 00:01:45,887 --> 00:01:47,980 full of not only Israelis but Palestinians 36 00:01:48,150 --> 00:01:51,486 there is a general interest to want to see all of these problems STOP. 37 00:01:51,626 --> 00:01:54,080 The Zeitgeist Movement's attempt, broadly speaking 38 00:01:54,180 --> 00:01:57,120 is to get the world to come together with the general foundation 39 00:01:57,260 --> 00:02:00,190 that these issues have to find resolution holistically 40 00:02:00,350 --> 00:02:03,261 or we're going to have some very caustic problems in the future 41 00:02:03,401 --> 00:02:05,350 World War III the first to mention. 42 00:02:05,490 --> 00:02:07,892 - When you say these issues, as you say 43 00:02:08,032 --> 00:02:12,112 war is one of these issues, and it's not just as simple as: 44 00:02:12,252 --> 00:02:14,640 Should we have war or shouldn't we? I mean, there is 45 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:20,210 number one, a huge defense industry, both in the US and Israel 46 00:02:20,970 --> 00:02:25,170 that, a lot of people say, may have an interest in war. 47 00:02:25,310 --> 00:02:29,340 I know you've written about in the past, as far as consequences of war 48 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:31,720 that it benefits the upper class 49 00:02:31,860 --> 00:02:34,860 and it results in the denigration of the lower class. 50 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,960 Talk to me about this divide as it relates to war 51 00:02:38,100 --> 00:02:40,206 and if you think there's an undercurrent of something else here 52 00:02:40,306 --> 00:02:42,701 other than a legitimate threat. 53 00:02:43,256 --> 00:02:46,137 - We often hear the term geopolitics; 54 00:02:46,277 --> 00:02:49,322 the correct term is geo-economics. 55 00:02:49,534 --> 00:02:51,640 If you go down to the foundation of the state: 56 00:02:51,750 --> 00:02:54,013 Neolithic Revolution 10,000 years ago 57 00:02:54,153 --> 00:02:57,848 suddenly we went from hunter-gatherer type of nomadic societies 58 00:02:57,948 --> 00:02:59,468 to fixed cities, Mesopotamia 59 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:02,478 suddenly the introduction of the permanent military. 60 00:03:02,730 --> 00:03:04,865 You ended up with this sort of corporate approach 61 00:03:05,105 --> 00:03:07,860 to economic management, defined as 'the state' 62 00:03:07,990 --> 00:03:10,950 which invariably generates imbalance and conflict 63 00:03:11,090 --> 00:03:13,860 and the necessity to override the interests of other states. 64 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,614 Very similar by the way to how our economic principles work 65 00:03:16,754 --> 00:03:18,885 across the world, through the corporate enterprise and the 66 00:03:19,025 --> 00:03:21,130 'free-for-all' market as I often refer to it. 67 00:03:21,270 --> 00:03:24,925 It's a competitive, war-like system. In the broadest scope 68 00:03:25,065 --> 00:03:27,410 what do we expect when the states begin to behave this way? 69 00:03:27,510 --> 00:03:30,424 If you were to look at a map of all the territorial disputes 70 00:03:30,564 --> 00:03:34,740 all the resource acquisitions, all the annexations gone through history 71 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:39,606 it's one massive affair of warfare! Thousands and thousands of wars 72 00:03:39,746 --> 00:03:42,610 that have existed for the past 5000 years that have been noted. 73 00:03:42,750 --> 00:03:44,900 The problem is much more underlying. 74 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:47,790 We can talk about the specifics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 75 00:03:47,890 --> 00:03:52,230 We can talk about the Chinese, Russian and Iranian issue 76 00:03:52,330 --> 00:03:54,863 with respect to power development against US 77 00:03:55,103 --> 00:03:57,160 Israel, Canadian and Western interests 78 00:03:57,300 --> 00:03:59,200 which is very terrifying by the way 79 00:03:59,300 --> 00:04:01,650 especially given the financial burden and collapse 80 00:04:01,750 --> 00:04:03,763 we're seeing across the world, which is always 81 00:04:03,903 --> 00:04:06,070 a characteristic of warfare on the horizon. 82 00:04:06,210 --> 00:04:08,920 Underneath the whole thing is the economic premise 83 00:04:09,060 --> 00:04:11,096 and until we find economic resolution 84 00:04:11,236 --> 00:04:13,310 until we begin to learn how to share our resources 85 00:04:13,430 --> 00:04:15,521 speaking poetically, but very literally: 86 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:20,252 Until we can define a new level of what we see as peace 87 00:04:20,392 --> 00:04:22,320 meaning a collaborative effort 88 00:04:22,460 --> 00:04:25,510 not state entities seeking their own advantage over each other 89 00:04:25,650 --> 00:04:28,325 but something new, which I can talk at length 90 00:04:28,465 --> 00:04:30,870 we're not going to see any resolution to any of these issues. 91 00:04:31,010 --> 00:04:33,331 That's a fundamental premise, in part, of the type of 92 00:04:33,431 --> 00:04:36,000 economic reforms The Zeitgeist Movement pushes forward with. 93 00:04:36,100 --> 00:04:38,730 - What was your reasoning, Peter, for taking this movement? 94 00:04:38,830 --> 00:04:41,380 I know you've got a lot of followers from around the world. 95 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:44,990 What was your reasoning for going physically to Israel 96 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:46,903 and speaking there? 97 00:04:48,225 --> 00:04:51,700 - Well, because it is the hotbed of a great deal of tension in the world 98 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:54,316 it's seen as one of the most pivotal crises and 99 00:04:54,630 --> 00:04:57,630 positions of destabilization in the world. 100 00:04:57,870 --> 00:05:01,060 It was symbolic to go there and to speak on the issue of war. 101 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:04,320 The lecture that I gave was on the broad definition of the state: 102 00:05:04,456 --> 00:05:07,870 its evolution as I mentioned just a moment ago 103 00:05:08,010 --> 00:05:10,030 and how we really can resolve this issue. 104 00:05:10,140 --> 00:05:12,353 I went there for symbolic reasons, but also 105 00:05:12,493 --> 00:05:14,689 obviously, because of the growing tensions 106 00:05:15,154 --> 00:05:17,314 between these massive superpowers 107 00:05:17,414 --> 00:05:19,722 that are now dividing themselves 108 00:05:19,855 --> 00:05:22,100 that can very easily trigger another world war, which is 109 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:25,872 what terrifies all of us. Those are a few levels [of] why I was there. 110 00:05:26,012 --> 00:05:28,160 - You've laid out some of these problems 111 00:05:28,300 --> 00:05:31,850 and I think that they're, for anyone who is following what's going on 112 00:05:31,950 --> 00:05:34,810 keeping their hand on a pulse of geopolitics 113 00:05:34,910 --> 00:05:36,883 or as you say geo-economics 114 00:05:37,622 --> 00:05:42,210 these issues are out there. But, are there solutions available 115 00:05:43,450 --> 00:05:48,550 or do you just think war is inevitable between Iran and the West? 116 00:05:49,980 --> 00:05:53,233 I'm not a prophet, but I will say that generally speaking 117 00:05:53,333 --> 00:05:55,790 war has been inevitable for a long time 118 00:05:55,930 --> 00:05:58,990 based on the very nature of the structures that have been installed 119 00:05:59,130 --> 00:06:01,517 and the very dynamic of our economic system. 120 00:06:01,757 --> 00:06:04,100 Are there solutions that can be had in the meantime? Yes 121 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:05,837 but I don't think they're going to come from 122 00:06:05,977 --> 00:06:08,010 'speaking truth to power' as they say. 123 00:06:08,150 --> 00:06:11,891 I am in deep support of a large, grassroots, global movement 124 00:06:11,991 --> 00:06:16,241 that unifies humanity to step up against this rather sick distortion 125 00:06:16,380 --> 00:06:18,889 that has emerged throughout power across the board. 126 00:06:19,029 --> 00:06:21,399 We can talk about the neuroses of the US Empire 127 00:06:21,500 --> 00:06:25,990 ...about the neuroses of various Arabic states, of Israel as well. 128 00:06:26,090 --> 00:06:29,090 We can talk about all of these things to death as far as the specifics 129 00:06:29,293 --> 00:06:33,030 but at the very core of this comes a deep social change 130 00:06:33,130 --> 00:06:36,080 that's required, and it's going to take a grassroots movement 131 00:06:36,180 --> 00:06:38,492 to move this forward; I have little faith in the change 132 00:06:38,593 --> 00:06:40,430 coming from the state empires. 133 00:06:40,570 --> 00:06:43,220 - We understand that you'll be working on it in the meantime. 134 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:46,755 Peter Joseph, founder of The Zeitgeist Movement.