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The Zeitgeist Movement

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London, UK / July 25th 2009

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

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In my experience so far in attempting to promote the ideas

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

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tend to ignore the current state of affairs.

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And in a detached manner, they simply criticize the abstracts

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of what our proposed resolutions are

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without ever reflecting on the train of thought

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that was employed to reach those solutions.

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

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

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to get away from our current social practices

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while also showing the logic that the Venus Project employs

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to arrive at the conclusions and ideas that they do.

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

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

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and it has a near empirical basis.

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First there's going to be an overview

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of the movement, the tenets of the Venus Project.

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In Part 1 we're going to elaborate even more

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on the nature of our world monetary system and its consequences

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

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

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Before I begin, please note that it was recommended

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in the emails sent out that people read the Orientation Guide

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or the Activist Video because

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

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

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

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This lecture is actually part of two lectures.

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

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

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

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

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

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the reasoning behind it.

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The term "Zeitgeist" is defined as the intellectual

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moral, cultural climate of an era.

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The term "Movement" simply implies motion or change.

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Therefore, the Zeitgeist Movement is an organization that urges change

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

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specifically to values and practices which would better serve

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

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

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The Zeitgeist Movement in function exists as a communicative representation

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of an organization called The Venus Project

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which is essentially a conceptual and technological set of ideas

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which constitutes the life-long work of industrial designer

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and social engineer, Jacque Fresco.

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

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for decades to establish the technical methods and educational imperatives

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which can transition society away from its current cycles of war

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perpetual poverty and pervasive corruption

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into an improved social design based on environmental alignment

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practicality, peak efficiency, and most critically

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

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

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The ultimate materialization of these ideas

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is in the form of a new social design

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

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a "Resource-Based Economy" (RBE).

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In the words of Mr. Fresco

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"We call for a straight forward redesign of our culture

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

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and unnecessary human suffering are viewed as not only avoidable

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but also as totally unacceptable.

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Anything less simply results in a continuation

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

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

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All goods and services are available without the use of currency

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

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The aim of this new social design is to free humanity

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from the repetitive, mundane and arbitrary occupational roles

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which hold no true relevance to social development

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while also encouraging a new incentive system

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that is focused on self-fulfillment, education

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social awareness and creativity, as opposed

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

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of wealth, property and power which are dominant today.

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The enabling foundation of this concept is the realization

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that through the intelligent management of the earth's resources

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along with the liberal application of modern technology and science

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

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and thus escape the detrimental consequences generated

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

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This reality can provably create a high quality of life for

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the entire world population many times over.

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

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in our modern, financially driven world

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the fundamental building blocks of society

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

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intellectual and physical well-being.

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All social systems regardless of political philosophy, religious beliefs

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or social customs ultimately depend upon natural resources

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as the initial step towards social functionality.

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Concurrently, society itself is a culture machine.

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In other words, it's a natural consequence

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

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

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In other words, a society reaps what it sows.

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If your society's foundation inherently supports self-interest

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elitism, greed and dishonesty

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

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continuously fall into the extremity of murder

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financial corruption or indifferent, selfish gain.

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

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

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It should be no wonder that government perpetuates

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nationalistic and patriotic values.

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

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

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that humans are born into sin

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otherwise, people might not show up to be saved.

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And it should be no wonder

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every major city on this planet is cloaked with corporate advertising

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working to force materialism and inadequacy. Why?

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

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and not contribute to the profit and perpetuation

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of a corporation or an economy.

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

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to the vast psychological implications that have developed

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due to the system of monetary finance.

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

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

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

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in society, when natural resources

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and the mechanisms of creation are scarce.

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

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for their skills in exchange for their servitude

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which can thus be used as a medium of exchange

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for those supposed scarce resources.

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

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

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any other possibility for our social functionality.

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

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by being conditioned to think that money represents choice.

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That money somehow has something to do with democracy.

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

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While money has indeed served

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a positive role overall on the course of our social evolution

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adaptation and change and improvement is still unstoppable.

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

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

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due to the dramatic advancement of science and technology.

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

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

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such as perpetual war, human exploitation, poverty

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and environmental destruction are no longer tolerable.

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

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as dictated not by a person or group's opinion

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but by statistics, trends, basic inference and extrapolation

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all deduced by the scientific method.

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Unfortunately, regardless of how logical, clear and obvious

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new ideas may seem, the public still remains

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

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This is largely due to propaganda indoctrination

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which has been pushed upon them by the established powers

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which of course prefer to maintain their power.

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

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In fact, it really isn't the technical understandings

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and implementations of the physical attributes

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

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

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The analysis has been extrapolated.

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

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The cultural values and the education barriers of our conditioned culture

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is the most difficult aspect to consider

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

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

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This is where the Zeitgeist movement comes in!

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

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We're here to spread statistical information

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and socially positive value identifications

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in hope of bringing people into an awareness

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of the incredibly positive possibilities the future can hold.

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Once these understandings are fully realized

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

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

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will become simply unacceptable, motivating change.

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There are countless well-intentioned people

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

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

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

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about the rampant problems and injustices in our world.

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

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

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within the context of the current established system.

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Very little regard seems to be given to the root structure

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of our social design.

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The Venus Project and hence the Zeitgeist Movement is different.

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Our fundamental focus is finding

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the foundational sources of our social problems

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and working from that lowest common denominator to create solutions.

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

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

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

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of some particular company, some nefarious elite group

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or some government legislation.

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These are symptoms of the foundational problems.

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And this is the ultimate realization when it comes to

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how you look at the problems of the world today.

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There is a massive superstitious basis out there:

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It's us against them. That is

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extremely poisonous to the development

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because people are constantly looking for someone else to blame

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when it's really themselves because they continue to perpetuate

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the system that creates these things.

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The real issue is human behavior.

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And human behavior which will be addressed in this presentation specifically

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

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as necessitated by the social system of a period.

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We are products of our society, and the fact is

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it is very foundation of our socio-economic system

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and environmental condition which has created

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the sick culture you see around you.

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Our current system is based almost exclusively upon human exploitation

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resource abuse and abundant waste.

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It is simply what our system does.

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As far as the infamous "they"

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it is simply another social distortion

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culminated and reinforced by our environment.

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There is no singular "they".

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

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to the effect of a specific niche of economics

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

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Banks have been running things forever

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

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We are dealing with negative tendencies.

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The "they" syndrome is absolutely obsolete

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and next time you hear anybody talking about "they"

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please try to correct them. It's a religious mentality:

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dualities, good and evil.

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The bottom line is that we can spend the rest of our existences

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stomping on the ants that mysteriously wander out from underneath the refrigerator

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setting traps or laws

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or we can get rid of the spoiled food behind it

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which is causing the infestation to begin with.

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This leads us to Part I: Monetary Dynamics and Its Consequences.

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Here's an email I received from a PhD in economics

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soon after the release of Zeitgeist Addendum.

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"Dear Filmmakers, my son presented me

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the first half of your film last weekend and asked me my opinion

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on the opening section about the Fractional Reserve lending practices.

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I'm a PhD certified economist of 12 years and teach macro-economics.

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While I always was cognizant of the creation of money

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and the sale of government bonds, I had never stepped back far enough

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to see the larger issue your film presented.

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I find it tremendously disturbing that the creation of value through debt

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00:14:15,273 --> 00:14:19,399
is indeed by all formal logic, an imposed condition of deficiency

251
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and an instigator of public servitude.

252
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I'm not sure what shocked me more

253
00:14:24,411 --> 00:14:27,477
the fact that this is true, or the fact that after the many years of education

254
00:14:27,617 --> 00:14:32,060
I have on the subject of economics this reality never even occurred to me."

255
00:14:32,472 --> 00:14:35,008
While it seems counter intuitive to think that a person who should

256
00:14:35,148 --> 00:14:37,652
by all social standards be an expert in a given field

257
00:14:37,802 --> 00:14:39,977
due to their awards and credentials

258
00:14:40,127 --> 00:14:43,953
very often especially in the purely intellectual arena

259
00:14:44,096 --> 00:14:47,531
such exposure to set established curriculum

260
00:14:47,682 --> 00:14:51,773
can really hinder someone's openness in a very powerful way.

261
00:14:51,917 --> 00:14:56,200
You become cognitively blocked from new ideas and realizations

262
00:14:56,342 --> 00:14:59,511
which, if you're outside of the existing framework that you understand

263
00:14:59,648 --> 00:15:01,931
then you have no chance of even realizing it.

264
00:15:02,075 --> 00:15:04,590
It has restricted your perception.

265
00:15:04,727 --> 00:15:07,447
Jacque Fresco, who dropped out of school at the age of 14

266
00:15:07,587 --> 00:15:11,154
has a great example regarding this perceptual point.

267
00:15:11,448 --> 00:15:14,777
During the time that the Wright brothers were building a machine that could fly

268
00:15:14,921 --> 00:15:17,633
expert physicists and engineers were busy writing books

269
00:15:17,773 --> 00:15:21,417
about how it was impossible for man to ever fly in any meaningful way.

270
00:15:21,554 --> 00:15:23,920
Apparently, the Wright brothers, who were bicycle mechanics

271
00:15:24,060 --> 00:15:26,410
didn't read those books.

272
00:15:27,268 --> 00:15:31,882
In other words, creativity will always serve you better than just book smarts.

273
00:15:32,307 --> 00:15:36,253
With that in mind, let's step back and pose a very simple question

274
00:15:36,393 --> 00:15:39,524
about the economic structure we all live in.

275
00:15:40,270 --> 00:15:42,264
What are the lowest common denominators

276
00:15:42,404 --> 00:15:45,254
required to perpetuate a market economy?

277
00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:50,137
(1) Human labor must be sold as a commodity in the open market.

278
00:15:50,659 --> 00:15:53,308
Outside of investment and inheritance nearly all money is obtained

279
00:15:53,448 --> 00:15:56,209
through income, and income is derived from wages or profit

280
00:15:56,365 --> 00:15:58,367
in some form of employment.

281
00:15:58,499 --> 00:16:01,410
Therefore, there must always exist a demand for jobs

282
00:16:01,556 --> 00:16:04,265
or the economy cannot operate.

283
00:16:04,972 --> 00:16:08,154
(2) Money must be continuously transferred

284
00:16:08,298 --> 00:16:12,534
from one party to another in order to sustain so-called economic growth.

285
00:16:12,676 --> 00:16:16,154
This is done through constant or cyclical consumption

286
00:16:16,298 --> 00:16:18,362
by virtually everyone in society.

287
00:16:18,493 --> 00:16:23,186
Jobs are entirely contingent upon demand for production in some form.

288
00:16:23,330 --> 00:16:25,687
If there's no demand for goods and services

289
00:16:25,827 --> 00:16:27,697
there will be no demand for labor

290
00:16:27,837 --> 00:16:30,037
and hence financial circulation would stop.

291
00:16:30,177 --> 00:16:32,542
Needless to say these two aspects of the system

292
00:16:32,682 --> 00:16:36,214
which are intimately connected, are absolutely paramount

293
00:16:36,358 --> 00:16:39,192
to the functionality of the financial system.

294
00:16:39,937 --> 00:16:42,320
If either one of them were substantially hindered

295
00:16:42,449 --> 00:16:44,992
the integrity of the economy would be seriously compromised

296
00:16:45,132 --> 00:16:48,232
or possibly be made entirely obsolete.

297
00:16:48,827 --> 00:16:50,860
So given this reality

298
00:16:51,007 --> 00:16:53,044
let's now hypothetically consider some variables

299
00:16:53,184 --> 00:16:56,028
which could put these mechanisms in jeopardy.

300
00:16:56,197 --> 00:17:00,698
In the first point, labor [is] sold as a commodity in exchange for money.

301
00:17:00,842 --> 00:17:03,377
What if the human labor market became unnecessary

302
00:17:03,517 --> 00:17:05,550
for the production of goods and services?

303
00:17:05,707 --> 00:17:09,211
More specifically, what if automation technology and artificial intelligence

304
00:17:09,351 --> 00:17:12,539
became advanced enough to allow for the replacement of perhaps

305
00:17:12,679 --> 00:17:17,447
40%, 50%, 60% of the human labor force?

306
00:17:17,691 --> 00:17:20,770
At what point would such displacement, less employment

307
00:17:20,910 --> 00:17:23,730
be considered too much for the system's integrity

308
00:17:23,870 --> 00:17:26,341
and put it into question?

309
00:17:28,605 --> 00:17:31,237
As far as the second point, the need for cyclical consumption

310
00:17:31,377 --> 00:17:35,104
what if conditions arose where the circulation of money was severely stifled?

311
00:17:35,241 --> 00:17:37,503
In other words, what if people simply did not

312
00:17:37,643 --> 00:17:39,954
need to continually buy things?

313
00:17:40,098 --> 00:17:42,618
What if, hypothetically, it was discovered that through

314
00:17:42,743 --> 00:17:46,589
optimized techniques and resource management design and production

315
00:17:46,739 --> 00:17:49,275
the most commonly purchased goods could either be made obsolete

316
00:17:49,415 --> 00:17:51,577
by larger order renovations

317
00:17:51,723 --> 00:17:54,884
or could have such extreme product efficiency

318
00:17:55,356 --> 00:17:57,934
longevity, and near maintenance-free durability

319
00:17:58,072 --> 00:18:02,532
that most items could last a lifetime without replacement or major repair.

320
00:18:03,127 --> 00:18:06,218
Of course, this exact idea couldn't be applied to perishable items

321
00:18:06,358 --> 00:18:08,809
such as food, but following the same train of thought

322
00:18:08,953 --> 00:18:13,072
what if the cultivation and production of food was in such ease and abundance

323
00:18:13,205 --> 00:18:16,525
through technology, obviously, that the supply and demand equation

324
00:18:16,665 --> 00:18:20,371
made the value of such items utterly negligible.

325
00:18:20,928 --> 00:18:24,791
To put these points in a different way, let's consider the classic economic

326
00:18:24,928 --> 00:18:27,725
concept of "theory of value".

327
00:18:27,947 --> 00:18:30,397
Everything in society, theoretically, is given a value

328
00:18:30,537 --> 00:18:32,640
based on two considerations.

329
00:18:32,790 --> 00:18:36,687
The scarcity or availability of the materials used

330
00:18:36,853 --> 00:18:41,376
and the amount of human labor required to produce a good or service.

331
00:18:41,701 --> 00:18:45,545
If material scarcity, both in terms of resource availability

332
00:18:45,676 --> 00:18:47,766
and quality was not the issue

333
00:18:47,910 --> 00:18:52,949
and human labor was not required to create a good or administer a service

334
00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:56,115
then there would technically be no value.

335
00:18:57,594 --> 00:19:01,220
As most of you in this room probably already understand

336
00:19:01,376 --> 00:19:04,949
one of the greatest realizations of Jacque Fresco and the Venus Project

337
00:19:05,078 --> 00:19:07,424
which should be one of the greatest realizations

338
00:19:07,564 --> 00:19:10,442
for the whole of humanity at this point in time

339
00:19:10,585 --> 00:19:13,866
is that neither of the scenarios presented are hypothetical.

340
00:19:14,010 --> 00:19:16,872
Human beings are indeed being replaced

341
00:19:17,016 --> 00:19:19,948
[or] becoming obsolete in the labor force

342
00:19:20,088 --> 00:19:22,722
due to advancements in production technology.

343
00:19:22,872 --> 00:19:26,616
Likewise, powerful new design advancements in production efficiency

344
00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,337
and resource management reveal the profound possibility

345
00:19:29,477 --> 00:19:33,107
of relative global abundance and peek product efficiency.

346
00:19:33,345 --> 00:19:35,544
This can be proven through statistical analysis

347
00:19:35,684 --> 00:19:39,046
and the inferential extrapolation of historical trends.

348
00:19:39,188 --> 00:19:41,684
Obviously the corporations aren't out there telling you this.

349
00:19:41,824 --> 00:19:45,468
You have to dig much deeper to find this information.

350
00:19:45,993 --> 00:19:49,888
When it comes to production automation capabilities, today specifically

351
00:19:50,044 --> 00:19:52,293
the first thing to consider is a statistical evaluation

352
00:19:52,433 --> 00:19:55,799
of a phenomenon called technological unemployment.

353
00:19:55,950 --> 00:19:58,758
Technological unemployment, which is the unemployment

354
00:19:58,898 --> 00:20:02,499
caused by the use of machines as vehicles of labor

355
00:20:02,636 --> 00:20:05,427
has continually and systematically forced relevant numbers of people

356
00:20:05,567 --> 00:20:09,735
out of every single new emerging sector for the past 300 years.

357
00:20:18,910 --> 00:20:23,356
Our current employment market is basically broken into three sectors:

358
00:20:23,518 --> 00:20:26,011
Agriculture (including mining and fishing)

359
00:20:26,149 --> 00:20:30,200
Manufacturing (tangible goods) and Service (intangible goods).

360
00:20:30,354 --> 00:20:32,660
As a near universal social progression

361
00:20:32,804 --> 00:20:36,265
all societies tend to follow the same developmental path

362
00:20:36,422 --> 00:20:39,910
which takes them from a reliance on agriculture and extraction

363
00:20:40,054 --> 00:20:42,562
towards the development of manufacturing, which is automobiles

364
00:20:42,702 --> 00:20:45,036
textiles, ship building, steel

365
00:20:45,175 --> 00:20:49,085
and finally towards a more service-based system.

366
00:20:49,322 --> 00:20:52,518
Naturally, the only reason some countries are farther behind

367
00:20:52,658 --> 00:20:55,395
in this process than others has to do with the affordability

368
00:20:55,535 --> 00:20:59,304
of the technology required to make it move to the next level.

369
00:20:59,447 --> 00:21:01,913
It's irrespective of social system or political disposition

370
00:21:02,053 --> 00:21:04,605
as a scientific progression.

371
00:21:05,981 --> 00:21:10,694
Let's consider this phenomenon using the United States as a proxy.

372
00:21:10,896 --> 00:21:13,676
The United States is where a lot of my data comes from

373
00:21:13,816 --> 00:21:17,607
but please note that this can be applied to any economy.

374
00:21:18,577 --> 00:21:22,969
In 1860, 60% of Americans worked in the agricultural sector.

375
00:21:23,225 --> 00:21:27,477
However today, due to advancements in machinery and automation, less than 1% [do].

376
00:21:27,621 --> 00:21:30,290
Fortunately those technological advancements also gave a rise

377
00:21:30,430 --> 00:21:32,346
to an emerging Industrial Revolution

378
00:21:32,486 --> 00:21:37,460
and by 1950, 33% were employed in the factory-based manufacturing sector.

379
00:21:37,660 --> 00:21:40,787
As of now, due to continual advancements in machine automation

380
00:21:40,927 --> 00:21:43,655
it is less than 8%.

381
00:21:43,835 --> 00:21:46,810
So considering that only roughly 9%...

382
00:21:46,954 --> 00:21:50,481
(there's probably a few percent leeway depending on the analysis you use)

383
00:21:50,625 --> 00:21:54,330
There's only 9% of Americans working in agriculture and manufacturing now.

384
00:21:54,487 --> 00:21:58,159
Where did everybody else go? [They went to] the service sector.

385
00:21:58,893 --> 00:22:02,256
The only thing that has saved the US labor market after the technological renovation

386
00:22:02,396 --> 00:22:06,311
of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors is flight to the service industry.

387
00:22:06,455 --> 00:22:08,798
From 1950 to 2002

388
00:22:08,948 --> 00:22:13,924
US employment in the service sector went from 59% to 82%.

389
00:22:15,228 --> 00:22:18,223
The service sector is the dominant employer of Americans today

390
00:22:18,363 --> 00:22:20,638
along with all industrialized countries.

391
00:22:20,775 --> 00:22:23,040
Of course, this begs the question:

392
00:22:23,165 --> 00:22:27,353
Is this sector insusceptible to the wrath of technological unemployment?

393
00:22:27,510 --> 00:22:29,123
Of course [it is] not.

394
00:22:29,261 --> 00:22:32,029
With the advent and increasing of versatile computer technologies

395
00:22:32,166 --> 00:22:36,411
we are seeing job displacement once again. This time in all service industries.

396
00:22:36,561 --> 00:22:39,479
The replacement of tellers and cashiers with kiosks

397
00:22:39,623 --> 00:22:42,096
the use of automated voice systems for phone service...

398
00:22:42,236 --> 00:22:44,552
The Internet has completely redefined retail

399
00:22:44,692 --> 00:22:48,167
not to mention full kiosk systems in physical market places

400
00:22:48,307 --> 00:22:52,493
advanced food-prep machines, and even research done by automation these days.

401
00:22:53,542 --> 00:22:56,562
As economist Steven Roach has warned "The service sector has lost

402
00:22:56,706 --> 00:23:00,759
its role as America's unbridled engine of job creation."

403
00:23:01,735 --> 00:23:05,391
As a unique example, in Germany, the first completely automated restaurant

404
00:23:05,531 --> 00:23:08,967
is in operation. It uses kiosks for ordering and payment.

405
00:23:09,117 --> 00:23:12,232
The food is served by a fully mechanized system.

406
00:23:12,376 --> 00:23:14,882
There is zero wait staff.

407
00:23:15,095 --> 00:23:17,907
There's no reason that this idea

408
00:23:18,044 --> 00:23:22,408
could not be done with every single eating establishment in the world.

409
00:23:22,559 --> 00:23:26,754
In fact, if one was to think creatively about the application of technology...

410
00:23:26,904 --> 00:23:29,287
In isolation, you see pockets of things

411
00:23:29,427 --> 00:23:31,741
where you see a news report about a certain technology

412
00:23:31,885 --> 00:23:34,835
that can do certain things. If you were to apply those creatively

413
00:23:34,966 --> 00:23:37,937
I don't see how 90% of the entire service industry

414
00:23:38,077 --> 00:23:40,786
couldn't be wiped out tomorrow.

415
00:23:41,261 --> 00:23:43,859
The only reason it hasn't been done is because the focus of society

416
00:23:43,999 --> 00:23:46,561
is backwards when it comes to social progress.

417
00:23:46,714 --> 00:23:48,929
To illustrate this point more so

418
00:23:49,079 --> 00:23:52,339
let's stop thinking about technology in terms of unemployment

419
00:23:52,479 --> 00:23:55,391
and consider it from the angle of productivity.

420
00:23:56,110 --> 00:23:58,195
The most incredible relationship of all of this

421
00:23:58,335 --> 00:24:01,544
is that the more technological unemployment increases

422
00:24:01,688 --> 00:24:04,030
the more productive things become.

423
00:24:04,174 --> 00:24:06,459
In the G-7 advanced industrialized countries

424
00:24:06,599 --> 00:24:08,853
employment in manufacturing has been dropping

425
00:24:08,993 --> 00:24:11,951
but manufacturing output has been rising. Here's the chart.

426
00:24:12,091 --> 00:24:14,691
I think it's quite profound.

427
00:24:15,185 --> 00:24:17,653
I love this:

428
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:20,907
"The truth is that the US manufacturing is doing quite well

429
00:24:21,047 --> 00:24:23,519
in every way except the number of people it employs.

430
00:24:23,659 --> 00:24:26,096
Furthermore, a few economists would judge the health or sickness

431
00:24:26,236 --> 00:24:29,137
of any industry based solely on employment.

432
00:24:29,281 --> 00:24:32,188
By that standard, agriculture has been the sickest industry of all

433
00:24:32,328 --> 00:24:34,596
for decades because employment has declined.

434
00:24:34,736 --> 00:24:37,908
Although farm productivity rose dramatically in the past century.

435
00:24:38,048 --> 00:24:40,157
Industrial health is better measured by output

436
00:24:40,297 --> 00:24:42,663
productivity, profitability and wages."

437
00:24:42,813 --> 00:24:45,477
The person is completely forgetting one universal thing:

438
00:24:45,617 --> 00:24:50,106
If human laborers are displaced, they cannot obtain purchasing power.

439
00:24:50,474 --> 00:24:52,532
If they cannot obtain purchasing power they cannot

440
00:24:52,670 --> 00:24:54,759
fuel the economy by consumption.

441
00:24:54,914 --> 00:24:58,407
On that level it doesn't matter how productive we are.

442
00:24:58,557 --> 00:25:01,429
No one can buy anything.

443
00:25:02,403 --> 00:25:05,047
The phenomenon has been termed by some theorists as

444
00:25:05,187 --> 00:25:07,415
"the contradiction of capitalism"

445
00:25:07,561 --> 00:25:11,371
for not only is the obsolescence of the human labor force

446
00:25:11,515 --> 00:25:14,518
the obsolescence of the consumer

447
00:25:14,890 --> 00:25:18,887
the high level of output generated by technological efficiency

448
00:25:19,050 --> 00:25:24,327
makes the corporate motivation to pursue such advanced means very strong.

449
00:25:24,584 --> 00:25:27,666
Even though it is economically self-defeating over time.

450
00:25:27,806 --> 00:25:30,315
In other words, regardless of the level of productivity

451
00:25:30,455 --> 00:25:33,212
if people don't have jobs, they can't buy anything.

452
00:25:33,352 --> 00:25:38,661
This very fact alone that productivity is inverse to employment

453
00:25:38,814 --> 00:25:41,063
in all sectors, should be enough to want

454
00:25:41,203 --> 00:25:44,302
a deliberate shift from the focus of human labor to a system

455
00:25:44,442 --> 00:25:47,099
where technology is given the highest priority.

456
00:25:47,239 --> 00:25:51,281
The system is literally denying peak production.

457
00:25:51,425 --> 00:25:53,772
In a world where one billion are starving

458
00:25:53,912 --> 00:25:56,737
I think that's extremely despotic

459
00:25:59,379 --> 00:26:03,465
and this brings us to one of the most profound points of this talk:

460
00:26:03,615 --> 00:26:05,977
the social intent.

461
00:26:06,971 --> 00:26:11,056
Should the focus of society be to create and preserve jobs

462
00:26:11,746 --> 00:26:15,909
or should the focus of society be to maximize production

463
00:26:16,057 --> 00:26:18,434
and create abundance?

464
00:26:18,578 --> 00:26:22,523
It is either one direction or the other. You can't have both.

465
00:26:22,936 --> 00:26:26,067
Sadly, what you are seeing in the world today is

466
00:26:26,218 --> 00:26:29,733
the deliberate withholding of social efficiency

467
00:26:29,883 --> 00:26:32,589
for the sake of preserving the status quo.

468
00:26:32,742 --> 00:26:35,096
I say that again because I want you guys to use that:

469
00:26:35,234 --> 00:26:37,997
The deliberate withholding of social efficiency

470
00:26:38,137 --> 00:26:40,569
is what our system does.

471
00:26:41,184 --> 00:26:43,890
The main reason outside of employment pressures that you do not see

472
00:26:44,030 --> 00:26:47,099
technology being liberally used for all purposes imaginable

473
00:26:47,236 --> 00:26:50,408
including the generation of food, energy and material abundance

474
00:26:50,548 --> 00:26:53,358
is because our financial system is based entirely

475
00:26:53,498 --> 00:26:56,748
on perpetuation of scarcity and inefficiency.

476
00:26:56,905 --> 00:27:01,225
Why? Because it is most self-preserving and profitable.

477
00:27:01,375 --> 00:27:04,021
If a company makes a car that can last 60 years

478
00:27:04,161 --> 00:27:06,470
without service and also runs

479
00:27:06,608 --> 00:27:10,111
without the need of perpetual refueling for battery power

480
00:27:10,299 --> 00:27:13,296
the after-market value of that car is virtually zero

481
00:27:13,436 --> 00:27:15,845
and billions of dollars would be lost over time

482
00:27:15,985 --> 00:27:21,061
due to the now obsolete consumer, all in auto-service market industry.

483
00:27:21,243 --> 00:27:24,179
This could happen right now, again. Why doesn't it?

484
00:27:24,336 --> 00:27:26,835
Because the economic system literally couldn't work

485
00:27:26,967 --> 00:27:30,637
if it shifted its focus towards optimum efficiency.

486
00:27:32,107 --> 00:27:36,095
Our entire system in an economic sense is based on constriction.

487
00:27:36,552 --> 00:27:40,143
Scarcity and inefficiencies are the movers of money.

488
00:27:40,813 --> 00:27:44,200
The more there is of any one resource, the less you can charge for it.

489
00:27:44,340 --> 00:27:46,742
The more problems there are, the more opportunities

490
00:27:46,882 --> 00:27:51,030
there are to make money. This reality is a social disease

491
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,153
for people can actually gain off the misery of others

492
00:27:54,291 --> 00:27:57,073
and the destruction of the environment. It's called a moral hazard

493
00:27:57,213 --> 00:28:01,224
in the insurance industry. The whole system is moral hazard.

494
00:28:01,699 --> 00:28:04,323
Efficiency, abundance and sustainability are enemies

495
00:28:04,463 --> 00:28:07,332
of our economic structure for they are inverse to the mechanics

496
00:28:07,482 --> 00:28:10,344
required to perpetuate consumption.

497
00:28:12,274 --> 00:28:15,335
This is profoundly critical to understand for once you put this together

498
00:28:15,475 --> 00:28:19,405
you begin to see that the one billion people

499
00:28:19,555 --> 00:28:21,477
currently starving on this planet

500
00:28:21,894 --> 00:28:24,726
the endless slums of the poor, and all the horrors

501
00:28:24,866 --> 00:28:29,190
in the culture due to poverty and depravity are not natural phenomena

502
00:28:29,335 --> 00:28:33,210
due to some natural human order or lack of earthly resources.

503
00:28:33,379 --> 00:28:37,136
They are products of the creation, perpetuation

504
00:28:37,292 --> 00:28:41,974
and preservation of artificial scarcity and inefficiency.

505
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:47,191
To add insult to injury, this scarcity is not only perpetuated

506
00:28:47,331 --> 00:28:49,776
in the markets of consumer goods and services

507
00:28:49,916 --> 00:28:51,967
but also manifests in a way which influences

508
00:28:52,107 --> 00:28:54,541
the behavior of the whole of society

509
00:28:54,679 --> 00:28:57,428
through making sure that even money itself

510
00:28:57,578 --> 00:29:00,078
is perpetually limited in supply.

511
00:29:00,228 --> 00:29:02,867
As denoted in Zeitgeist Addendum, the Central Banks of the world

512
00:29:03,007 --> 00:29:05,832
almost all create money out of debt, through loans.

513
00:29:05,972 --> 00:29:08,275
These loans are produced with interest

514
00:29:08,419 --> 00:29:11,619
yet only the principal is created in the money supply

515
00:29:11,767 --> 00:29:14,461
creating a perpetual deficit in supply.

516
00:29:14,611 --> 00:29:16,858
The debts generated by these loans

517
00:29:16,998 --> 00:29:20,203
serve as virtual prison cells for the average citizen

518
00:29:20,347 --> 00:29:22,245
keeping them willing to work off their debt

519
00:29:22,385 --> 00:29:25,363
putting them in a perpetual state of obligation.

520
00:29:25,507 --> 00:29:29,726
There's a word for that. It's called slavery, debt slavery.

521
00:29:30,077 --> 00:29:32,981
The money isn't real. The interest sure isn't real.

522
00:29:33,121 --> 00:29:36,874
The debt is not real. The whole thing is an illusion.

523
00:29:37,006 --> 00:29:39,325
The whole world today is now stuck in the illusion

524
00:29:39,465 --> 00:29:43,290
that there isn't enough money to do this or that.

525
00:29:43,428 --> 00:29:45,492
98% of the countries in the world

526
00:29:45,632 --> 00:29:48,724
are actually in debt to other countries and banks.

527
00:29:48,879 --> 00:29:51,544
As of 2009, it's been confirmed that the world

528
00:29:51,684 --> 00:29:54,333
is in a state of recession, which basically means

529
00:29:54,473 --> 00:29:56,544
massive monetary contraction.

530
00:29:56,694 --> 00:30:00,111
In other words, the whole world is somehow short on cash.

531
00:30:00,249 --> 00:30:03,764
Am I the only one who finds this absolutely unbelievable?

532
00:30:05,732 --> 00:30:08,957
This stupidity is not only unbelievable, it's deadly.

533
00:30:09,095 --> 00:30:11,748
The market and financial system as we know it

534
00:30:11,888 --> 00:30:14,786
is diametrically opposed to development of peak efficiency

535
00:30:14,926 --> 00:30:17,848
in order to perpetuate profit in the established order.

536
00:30:17,985 --> 00:30:19,997
What is peak efficiency?

537
00:30:20,147 --> 00:30:23,888
The highest form of technical efficiency known at a time.

538
00:30:24,026 --> 00:30:27,033
Not the highest form of efficiency that is affordable

539
00:30:27,177 --> 00:30:31,297
but the highest form of efficiency that is actually possible.

540
00:30:31,553 --> 00:30:34,834
The question has never been "Do we have the money?"

541
00:30:34,966 --> 00:30:37,647
The question has always been "Do we have the resources

542
00:30:37,787 --> 00:30:40,241
and technical understandings to make it happen?"

543
00:30:40,381 --> 00:30:43,510
That is all that has ever mattered.

544
00:30:43,660 --> 00:30:46,323
Now, given all of this

545
00:30:46,460 --> 00:30:48,951
it's easy to see how the public today finds it difficult

546
00:30:49,082 --> 00:30:52,885
to assume that technology can provide abundance and peak efficiency

547
00:30:53,048 --> 00:30:56,985
for there's very little in their day-to-day life that clearly illustrates this point.

548
00:30:57,235 --> 00:30:59,709
Everything around them reinforces the idea

549
00:30:59,849 --> 00:31:02,276
that scarcity in the world today is a natural problem.

550
00:31:02,420 --> 00:31:06,703
Why? Because the pursuit of profit by industry always inherently limits

551
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,451
the quality of design for the sake of monetary preservation.

552
00:31:10,614 --> 00:31:12,747
If a company wants to be competitive in the marketplace

553
00:31:12,887 --> 00:31:15,756
they must find a balance between quality and cost

554
00:31:15,900 --> 00:31:18,009
invariably denying quality.

555
00:31:18,159 --> 00:31:20,917
It is impossible for a company to produce a product

556
00:31:21,057 --> 00:31:24,297
with peak efficiency by the very nature of the game.

557
00:31:24,437 --> 00:31:27,508
It would be too expensive to afford.

558
00:31:30,548 --> 00:31:32,879
This is one reason why there is so much unhealthy food

559
00:31:33,019 --> 00:31:35,008
and trash goods in our system.

560
00:31:35,149 --> 00:31:39,361
When you consider the majority of people in society today

561
00:31:39,513 --> 00:31:43,624
our lower middle class and below, you realize that the corporations

562
00:31:43,768 --> 00:31:47,072
must reduce their production costs to meet the terms

563
00:31:47,216 --> 00:31:52,080
of the affordability of the predominant demographic of the culture.

564
00:31:52,656 --> 00:31:56,207
I live in Brooklyn, New York, in an area that is very very poor.

565
00:31:56,357 --> 00:31:59,029
Within a six-block radius of my apartment

566
00:31:59,173 --> 00:32:02,692
there are five of these 99-cent stores.

567
00:32:03,537 --> 00:32:07,267
These are stores which sell products from the cheapest possible materials

568
00:32:07,407 --> 00:32:11,880
and lowest possible efficiency that could ever be manufactured.

569
00:32:12,356 --> 00:32:16,115
It's junk! Stuff that should have never been created to begin with.

570
00:32:16,256 --> 00:32:17,892
Why is it there?

571
00:32:18,030 --> 00:32:21,104
Because the people can't afford anything else.

572
00:32:21,266 --> 00:32:24,965
Why can't they afford anything else? Because the market system also creates

573
00:32:25,105 --> 00:32:27,736
and perpetuates social stratification

574
00:32:27,883 --> 00:32:31,693
and the poor must exist in order for the rich to exist.

575
00:32:32,994 --> 00:32:36,120
Therefore, the level of product efficiency today

576
00:32:36,257 --> 00:32:38,807
is artificially and directly proportional

577
00:32:38,947 --> 00:32:42,532
to the purchasing power of a target demographic.

578
00:32:42,808 --> 00:32:45,632
Therefore, generally speaking, one's perception of quality

579
00:32:45,772 --> 00:32:49,282
is often only as good as their socio-economic status.

580
00:32:49,639 --> 00:32:54,232
The quality of goods are stratified, just as the social classes are.

581
00:32:54,408 --> 00:32:58,460
The result is outrageous amounts of resource waste.

582
00:33:00,005 --> 00:33:02,263
In the world that claims to be growing more and more concerned

583
00:33:02,403 --> 00:33:05,150
about environmental issues, resource supplies

584
00:33:05,292 --> 00:33:08,404
man-made atmospheric changes and pollution, I find it fascinating

585
00:33:08,544 --> 00:33:12,473
that no one is talking about the most consistent destroyer of ecology

586
00:33:12,612 --> 00:33:16,010
and the most continuous waster of natural resources there is:

587
00:33:16,154 --> 00:33:18,491
the pursuit of profit.

588
00:33:18,629 --> 00:33:21,262
Capitalism is based on the free-pursuit of profit

589
00:33:21,402 --> 00:33:24,074
by whatever means necessary.

590
00:33:24,393 --> 00:33:27,685
I was in a cab coming here and the cab-driver made a great comment.

591
00:33:27,822 --> 00:33:31,621
He was describing something along the lines of business he was conducting.

592
00:33:31,761 --> 00:33:34,354
He said "Yeah, there's no friends in business."

593
00:33:34,494 --> 00:33:37,674
And he's absolutely right. I'm going to be using that one too.

594
00:33:37,814 --> 00:33:40,470
Capitalism is based entirely on the free pursuit of profit

595
00:33:40,610 --> 00:33:42,976
by whatever means necessary. It is a gaming strategy

596
00:33:43,116 --> 00:33:46,810
and nothing more. The irresponsibility it enables

597
00:33:46,954 --> 00:33:50,141
by its central philosophy of self-interest is profound.

598
00:33:50,292 --> 00:33:53,765
And while there are many angles at this, let's stay with the point at hand:

599
00:33:53,905 --> 00:33:56,626
The deliberate production of inferior products.

600
00:33:56,766 --> 00:34:01,094
Think about it. It is as environmentally illogical as it can be.

601
00:34:01,257 --> 00:34:05,628
There is no reason to ever create a product that is deliberately low in efficiency.

602
00:34:05,771 --> 00:34:09,222
This simply means faster break down, faster obsolescence

603
00:34:09,372 --> 00:34:12,512
more duplicate production and many times more waste and pollution

604
00:34:12,652 --> 00:34:16,199
than would be required if the goal was to simply optimize products

605
00:34:16,339 --> 00:34:20,449
based on the most current technological awareness of the day.

606
00:34:22,693 --> 00:34:27,567
And this leads us to the final topic of this section: Market Mythology.

607
00:34:27,749 --> 00:34:31,402
So far we've talked about the structural mechanics of the system

608
00:34:31,542 --> 00:34:34,220
pointing out the inherent contradictions and problems.

609
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,347
As of now, through the overpowering growth in science and technology

610
00:34:37,487 --> 00:34:41,229
the monetary system can be considered structurally obsolete

611
00:34:41,380 --> 00:34:45,339
serving only as a paralyzing hindrance of social progress

612
00:34:45,977 --> 00:34:49,610
not to mention a destroyer of trust, human trust in the environment.

613
00:34:49,750 --> 00:34:52,674
That's a whole different topic in and of itself.

614
00:34:52,950 --> 00:34:56,510
Unfortunately, the social indoctrination within the market system

615
00:34:56,650 --> 00:35:00,730
has created a mentality which blindly supports the social dogma

616
00:35:00,886 --> 00:35:03,320
regardless of what we have touched upon.

617
00:35:03,460 --> 00:35:05,693
The identity relationships are simply too strong.

618
00:35:05,833 --> 00:35:09,717
In many ways, it's like a religion. Taking away the belief

619
00:35:09,862 --> 00:35:12,885
in the market system is like taking away someone's belief in God

620
00:35:13,025 --> 00:35:15,452
for it challenges who they are.

621
00:35:15,603 --> 00:35:19,673
When you're a little kid, you pull on your mother's pants.

622
00:35:19,810 --> 00:35:22,295
You want candy and she might say: "No, we can't afford that".

623
00:35:22,435 --> 00:35:25,301
It's this instant indoctrination of the monetary system

624
00:35:25,441 --> 00:35:27,428
from the earliest form of life because obviously

625
00:35:27,568 --> 00:35:29,847
your parents are always struggling to a certain degree.

626
00:35:29,987 --> 00:35:33,453
It becomes absolutely built in to your psychology

627
00:35:35,266 --> 00:35:38,864
not to mention that those that have successfully acquired

628
00:35:39,004 --> 00:35:40,457
a great deal of wealth...

629
00:35:40,597 --> 00:35:42,940
You'll find that those that are in fact very wealthy

630
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:47,655
They will almost always be inclined to tell you that "the system is great!".

631
00:35:47,988 --> 00:35:51,866
That's just the nature of behavioral reinforcement.

632
00:35:53,034 --> 00:35:55,732
The three most dominant of these psychological indoctrinations

633
00:35:55,872 --> 00:35:58,495
that I want to talk about are the notions of property

634
00:35:58,635 --> 00:36:02,672
incentive and associations with freedom of choice.

635
00:36:03,931 --> 00:36:06,091
Starting with property:

636
00:36:06,273 --> 00:36:10,949
The capitalist economy is founded on the very idea of exchanging property

637
00:36:11,098 --> 00:36:14,736
in the markets. Even your labor is a form of property in a sense.

638
00:36:14,905 --> 00:36:19,075
The world that we know is so bound up in the process of buying and selling

639
00:36:19,219 --> 00:36:22,823
that most of us can't imagine any other way of functioning human affairs.

640
00:36:22,973 --> 00:36:26,767
Property is often associated with so-called "rights" as well.

641
00:36:26,905 --> 00:36:29,867
We use a legal system to protect our property

642
00:36:30,011 --> 00:36:32,546
and if anyone interferes with what is mine

643
00:36:32,686 --> 00:36:35,248
their freedom can possibly be taken away.

644
00:36:35,398 --> 00:36:39,097
In fact, there's even an entire industry which is there to tell you

645
00:36:39,237 --> 00:36:43,487
what the best property there is to own. It's called advertising, of course.

646
00:36:43,713 --> 00:36:47,407
Yet, with all of this obsession over property, very few ask the question:

647
00:36:47,547 --> 00:36:50,592
"Why do we have property to begin with?"

648
00:36:50,775 --> 00:36:53,614
The answer is simple: It's scarcity.

649
00:36:54,019 --> 00:36:56,087
Property is an outgrowth of scarcity.

650
00:36:56,227 --> 00:36:59,330
The farther we go back in time the more difficult and time-consuming it was

651
00:36:59,470 --> 00:37:02,677
for people to create tools or extract a resource.

652
00:37:02,828 --> 00:37:06,217
They, in turn, protected it because it had an immense value relative

653
00:37:06,357 --> 00:37:10,109
to the labor entailed along with the possible scarcity associated.

654
00:37:10,249 --> 00:37:14,290
People claim ownership because it is a legal form of protection.

655
00:37:14,443 --> 00:37:18,348
Property is not an American or free-enterprise or capitalist idea.

656
00:37:18,497 --> 00:37:23,381
It is an ancient mental perspective necessitated from generations of scarcity.

657
00:37:23,744 --> 00:37:26,473
If there isn't scarcity, rationale for property

658
00:37:26,611 --> 00:37:28,951
becomes an irrelevant issue.

659
00:37:31,922 --> 00:37:34,610
Let's move on to the idea of incentive.

660
00:37:34,750 --> 00:37:39,118
As the theory goes, the need profit provides a person or organization

661
00:37:39,269 --> 00:37:42,319
with a motivation to work on new ideas and products

662
00:37:42,466 --> 00:37:44,951
that would sell on the market place.

663
00:37:45,107 --> 00:37:47,845
In other words, the assumption is that if technology replaced humans

664
00:37:47,985 --> 00:37:50,508
in the workforce and abundance could be created

665
00:37:50,648 --> 00:37:55,466
then people would just have no motivation to do anything socially relevant.

666
00:37:55,967 --> 00:37:59,436
"No monetary incentive, no progress" is the idea.

667
00:37:59,592 --> 00:38:02,267
There are two glaring issues with this assumption:

668
00:38:02,423 --> 00:38:06,499
The first is that it's entirely based on projected values

669
00:38:06,818 --> 00:38:09,993
and the values are almost entirely based on culture.

670
00:38:10,143 --> 00:38:13,700
Nikola Tesla, Louis Pasteur, Charles Darwin, and The Wright Brothers

671
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:17,608
Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton did not make their massive contributions

672
00:38:17,748 --> 00:38:21,244
to society because of material self-interest.

673
00:38:21,624 --> 00:38:24,946
Did Martin Luther King walk down the street in Birmingham, Alabama

674
00:38:25,086 --> 00:38:27,315
while a bunch of racists threw rocks at his head

675
00:38:27,455 --> 00:38:30,733
because he was on his way to cash a check?

676
00:38:32,732 --> 00:38:35,970
If the incentive motivation theory held true

677
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:39,794
then you would see no volunteerism in the world today.

678
00:38:40,758 --> 00:38:45,692
Amazingly, in the 1992 US Gallup Poll, it was found that more than 50%

679
00:38:45,836 --> 00:38:50,653
of American adults volunteered time with no pay for social causes

680
00:38:50,792 --> 00:38:54,386
on an average of 4.2 hours a week

681
00:38:54,529 --> 00:38:57,681
for a total of 20.5 billion hours a year.

682
00:38:57,830 --> 00:39:00,744
This is pretty amazing, especially with a lack of social capital

683
00:39:00,884 --> 00:39:05,135
in a place like the United States which is the most powerful free-market

684
00:39:05,285 --> 00:39:07,637
country there is. The ideology is the most ingrained.

685
00:39:07,777 --> 00:39:10,678
I find that to be pretty incredible.

686
00:39:10,924 --> 00:39:14,999
Even with the sickness of self-interest, generated by the monetary system

687
00:39:15,174 --> 00:39:18,586
even with this sickness, humans still strive to help each other

688
00:39:18,730 --> 00:39:20,773
and give to society without reward.

689
00:39:20,910 --> 00:39:23,609
What's even more amazing is that the poor and the middle class

690
00:39:23,749 --> 00:39:26,698
are more likely to volunteer than the wealthy.

691
00:39:26,848 --> 00:39:31,185
Think about that. These are the people that have the least amount of money.

692
00:39:31,404 --> 00:39:34,857
It makes you understand the cultural and psychological nuances

693
00:39:34,997 --> 00:39:37,903
that are created: The more money you get, the more diseased

694
00:39:38,043 --> 00:39:41,949
you might possibly become. It's a fascinating phenomenon.

695
00:39:43,017 --> 00:39:45,577
The second thing to consider is that while it is true

696
00:39:45,717 --> 00:39:48,009
that useful inventions and methods do come

697
00:39:48,149 --> 00:39:52,604
from the motivation for personal gain, the intent behind those creations

698
00:39:52,767 --> 00:39:55,583
has nothing to do with human or social concern

699
00:39:55,723 --> 00:40:00,389
for the incentive goal is not to improve humanity but to make money.

700
00:40:00,990 --> 00:40:04,847
There is a massive disconnect, and as we have denoted thoroughly

701
00:40:04,988 --> 00:40:07,970
the very means by which money is obtained in our system

702
00:40:08,110 --> 00:40:11,015
is counter to social progress fundamentally

703
00:40:11,155 --> 00:40:14,562
for it is based on the deliberate withholding of efficiency.

704
00:40:14,702 --> 00:40:18,724
And, by the way, I haven't even addressed the traditional corruption

705
00:40:18,864 --> 00:40:21,497
that we see occurring on a daily basis based and derived

706
00:40:21,637 --> 00:40:25,919
from this incentive for income which spreads like a malignant cancer

707
00:40:26,135 --> 00:40:28,421
of an indifferent self-interest

708
00:40:28,571 --> 00:40:31,607
from product dishonesty, murder, fraud, theft, slave labor

709
00:40:31,747 --> 00:40:35,139
outsourcing, price fixing, monopolistic collusion, redundant waste

710
00:40:35,279 --> 00:40:38,269
environmental exploitation, illegal taxation

711
00:40:38,460 --> 00:40:41,877
institutional theft, societal indifference, imposed psychological distortions

712
00:40:42,017 --> 00:40:44,936
or advertising, and of course, the sickest monetary incentive

713
00:40:45,076 --> 00:40:47,476
ever created, war!

714
00:40:47,676 --> 00:40:50,941
That is the reality of the monetary incentive.

715
00:40:52,074 --> 00:40:55,673
And the final myth for now: The Freedom of Choice.

716
00:40:56,299 --> 00:40:58,859
The free market is very persuasive for most people

717
00:40:58,999 --> 00:41:01,702
because it appears that the possibilities are endless

718
00:41:01,842 --> 00:41:04,802
and that they, the individuals, have limitless choices.

719
00:41:04,942 --> 00:41:08,055
People witness the vast stratification of goods and services

720
00:41:08,199 --> 00:41:11,113
portrayed by the media and advertising and think that since

721
00:41:11,253 --> 00:41:13,555
the options just exist in abstraction

722
00:41:13,695 --> 00:41:17,552
it has some form of relevance to the freedom of the individual.

723
00:41:17,783 --> 00:41:21,014
They can walk into a store and choose between 25 kinds of detergent

724
00:41:21,154 --> 00:41:24,051
and 75 kinds of sugar-coated cereal

725
00:41:24,195 --> 00:41:27,104
yet they turn a blind eye with the fact that their lives are managed by

726
00:41:27,244 --> 00:41:29,727
on average, two political parties.

727
00:41:29,870 --> 00:41:32,401
They pay no attention to the reality that 40%

728
00:41:32,541 --> 00:41:36,065
of the world's wealth is owned by 1% of the population

729
00:41:36,209 --> 00:41:40,174
and thus 99% of the world's people will never obtain

730
00:41:40,312 --> 00:41:43,171
the luxuries afforded by the 1%.

731
00:41:43,409 --> 00:41:47,187
More specifically, everyone seems oblivious to the reality

732
00:41:47,356 --> 00:41:51,046
that nearly every day of your life, you are forced by the obligation

733
00:41:51,186 --> 00:41:54,286
of mere survival and, of course, debt which is imposed

734
00:41:54,466 --> 00:41:56,985
into a private dictatorship

735
00:41:57,129 --> 00:41:59,931
where most of your decisions are controlled by those on the next

736
00:42:00,071 --> 00:42:02,732
artificially created hierarchical degree

737
00:42:02,876 --> 00:42:06,108
the next larger hierarchical degree.

738
00:42:06,958 --> 00:42:09,863
It's amazing to me when you talk to economists

739
00:42:10,010 --> 00:42:13,098
and they say "Well, people have a choice of where they work."

740
00:42:13,251 --> 00:42:16,095
They only have a choice of where they work within a specific frame

741
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:19,775
that is allowable based on their demographic of education.

742
00:42:19,915 --> 00:42:23,565
And of course, there's so many friend orientations in business.

743
00:42:23,741 --> 00:42:27,294
Their ultimate fantasy is that anyone can be a President in the United States.

744
00:42:27,434 --> 00:42:29,679
This is something that has been perpetuated.

745
00:42:29,828 --> 00:42:33,418
These are groups that perpetuate themselves: elitism.

746
00:42:33,561 --> 00:42:36,954
Elitism works in the same way in the corporate world.

747
00:42:37,098 --> 00:42:39,200
You are absolutely restricted.

748
00:42:39,354 --> 00:42:43,139
You have no freedom because you are forced to do the work as it is.

749
00:42:43,283 --> 00:42:47,416
It's amazing to me and I get this argument a lot from high-end economists.

750
00:42:47,556 --> 00:42:50,133
They say "You have freedom of choice. You can choose where you work".

751
00:42:50,273 --> 00:42:52,328
No, you really can't.

752
00:42:53,329 --> 00:42:55,840
When you get out of college there's this wall of jobs.

753
00:42:55,984 --> 00:42:59,572
You can find your slot. And that's about it. That's your choice.

754
00:42:59,725 --> 00:43:02,359
It's preset choice.

755
00:43:03,385 --> 00:43:06,949
So I ask you: What freedoms are we talking about?

756
00:43:07,088 --> 00:43:10,826
You are only as free as your purchasing power will allow you to be.

757
00:43:10,966 --> 00:43:15,773
And the statistics have proven that the socio-economic rank you are born into

758
00:43:15,917 --> 00:43:18,476
tends to persist for the rest of your life.

759
00:43:18,616 --> 00:43:20,787
If you are born poor, you will likely remain poor.

760
00:43:20,927 --> 00:43:23,458
Why? Because all the odds are against you.

761
00:43:23,607 --> 00:43:26,078
If you are rich, you will likely remain rich. Why?

762
00:43:26,218 --> 00:43:29,852
Because all the odds are in favor. It is the nature of the system.

763
00:43:29,992 --> 00:43:33,263
For example, if you have one million dollars and put it into a CD

764
00:43:33,403 --> 00:43:37,312
at 5% interest you are going to generate 50,000 dollars a year

765
00:43:37,452 --> 00:43:41,714
simply for that deposit. You are making money off money itself:

766
00:43:41,990 --> 00:43:45,082
paper being made on top of paper, nothing more.

767
00:43:45,222 --> 00:43:48,964
No invention. No contribution to society. No nothing.

768
00:43:49,108 --> 00:43:51,801
That being denoted, if you were lower to middle class

769
00:43:51,941 --> 00:43:55,619
who is limited in funds and must get interest-based loans

770
00:43:55,759 --> 00:43:57,963
to buy your home or use credit cards

771
00:43:58,103 --> 00:44:00,519
then you are paying interest into the bank

772
00:44:00,659 --> 00:44:04,241
which the bank is then using, in theory, to pay the person's return

773
00:44:04,381 --> 00:44:06,968
with the 5% CD.

774
00:44:07,115 --> 00:44:10,724
Not only is this equation outrageously offensive due to the use of usury

775
00:44:10,864 --> 00:44:13,674
or interest to "steal from the poor and give to the rich"

776
00:44:13,814 --> 00:44:17,505
but also perpetuates class-stratification by its very design:

777
00:44:17,655 --> 00:44:20,546
keeping the lower classes poor, under the constant burden of debt

778
00:44:20,686 --> 00:44:24,161
and servitude, while keeping the upper classes rich

779
00:44:24,393 --> 00:44:28,658
with the means to simply turn excess money into more money.

780
00:44:28,802 --> 00:44:32,765
The very idea that you can take money and turn it into more money

781
00:44:32,912 --> 00:44:35,030
is absolutely hilarious

782
00:44:36,963 --> 00:44:38,940
and corrupt.

783
00:44:39,090 --> 00:44:41,832
Likewise, it should be no surprise

784
00:44:41,976 --> 00:44:45,270
that the world is run by cartels and government collusion

785
00:44:45,410 --> 00:44:49,503
for competition is based on nothing more than a gaming strategy

786
00:44:49,647 --> 00:44:52,877
as we have said. In other words, competition breeds corruption.

787
00:44:53,017 --> 00:44:55,207
It's another one of those economist things where they say

788
00:44:55,347 --> 00:44:58,140
"Oh, the free-market used to be great, but something happened

789
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:00,514
and now we have all these cartels." No.

790
00:45:00,695 --> 00:45:04,969
Monopoly is the final stage of success in a competitive environment.

791
00:45:05,175 --> 00:45:09,015
It is incredible how people don't realize this.

792
00:45:10,671 --> 00:45:14,016
It doesn't matter how much legislation you have to combat

793
00:45:14,156 --> 00:45:17,434
sector or industry dominance. It will keep occurring.

794
00:45:17,572 --> 00:45:20,261
Even more powerfully, government coercion

795
00:45:20,404 --> 00:45:22,920
by big business is also unstoppable.

796
00:45:23,076 --> 00:45:25,216
It is a natural progression of market strategy

797
00:45:25,356 --> 00:45:27,740
to get government on your side.

798
00:45:27,890 --> 00:45:30,235
In fact, the true propensity of our world economic system

799
00:45:30,375 --> 00:45:33,818
continually, year by year, approaches one thing

800
00:45:34,142 --> 00:45:38,398
fascism. Or more specifically, inverted fascism.

801
00:45:38,567 --> 00:45:43,277
This is the condition where corporations covertly control government policy.

802
00:45:43,464 --> 00:45:45,532
This is the natural gravitation.

803
00:45:45,672 --> 00:45:48,421
So, as time continues to move forward and you keep looking back

804
00:45:48,561 --> 00:45:52,279
it seems like things always get worse. And they do.

805
00:45:54,100 --> 00:45:58,378
And this leads me to Part 2: Culture and the Bio-Social Imperative.

806
00:45:58,847 --> 00:46:02,009
This is a detour now. I hope that first section...

807
00:46:02,149 --> 00:46:06,139
If you have any questions, keep them in mind, as we go to the Q&A.

808
00:46:06,558 --> 00:46:09,736
In this section we're going to address some issues

809
00:46:09,892 --> 00:46:12,263
regarding our physical and social selves.

810
00:46:12,403 --> 00:46:16,583
This is very relevant to me, and I think very relevant to the whole argument

811
00:46:16,721 --> 00:46:19,821
and unfortunately most never think of this subject at all.

812
00:46:19,968 --> 00:46:22,686
In order for us to consider routes of social change

813
00:46:22,823 --> 00:46:25,573
we must also have a clear understanding of conditioning

814
00:46:25,713 --> 00:46:29,246
our biology, and our relationship to the environment.

815
00:46:29,733 --> 00:46:33,328
As denoted before, when it comes to the pursuits of social change

816
00:46:33,468 --> 00:46:37,089
the most profound hurdle is overcoming the traditional ideology

817
00:46:37,229 --> 00:46:41,420
identifications and dogmas, which have been set in stone as final

818
00:46:41,565 --> 00:46:43,723
by the established culture.

819
00:46:43,867 --> 00:46:46,786
Of these ideas, a consistent one that comes up

820
00:46:46,936 --> 00:46:51,136
has to do with the conclusion that the human being is a rigid

821
00:46:51,293 --> 00:46:55,961
fixed nature, whereas certain behaviors are simply immutable.

822
00:46:56,162 --> 00:47:00,949
Therefore, as the logic goes, social structures are locked into a set pattern

823
00:47:01,105 --> 00:47:05,175
which cannot be overcome due to the very nature of the species.

824
00:47:05,882 --> 00:47:08,755
In order to address this claim we need to first consider the ramifications

825
00:47:08,895 --> 00:47:11,216
of culture itself.

826
00:47:15,615 --> 00:47:20,015
The word culture, in a social sense, is defined as a set of shared attributes

827
00:47:20,526 --> 00:47:23,445
values, goals and practices

828
00:47:23,608 --> 00:47:27,415
that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

829
00:47:27,659 --> 00:47:32,708
The most obvious, yet often overlooked example of the mechanics of culture

830
00:47:32,877 --> 00:47:37,585
is the fact that we are provably shaped by the sort of society we live in.

831
00:47:37,741 --> 00:47:41,641
The language we use, the gaming strategies you execute for survival

832
00:47:42,042 --> 00:47:45,359
the perception of beauty you lust for, the familial patterns

833
00:47:45,499 --> 00:47:49,408
and traditions that you perpetuate and the deeply held theology:

834
00:47:49,548 --> 00:47:52,827
myths and urban legends that define your broadest view

835
00:47:52,971 --> 00:47:56,115
are all examples of the qualities you might absorb

836
00:47:56,253 --> 00:48:00,045
arbitrarily, in the culture you have been born into.

837
00:48:00,244 --> 00:48:02,475
In fact, if you dig deeper, you find

838
00:48:02,615 --> 00:48:06,405
that there's really nothing that we cognitively think and believe

839
00:48:06,552 --> 00:48:10,268
which isn't first presented to us in some environmental form.

840
00:48:10,412 --> 00:48:14,768
An insulted man who pulls out a gun and shoots somebody had to learn

841
00:48:14,912 --> 00:48:18,260
at some point of his life, what a gun was, how to pull the trigger

842
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:22,385
along with what he was to find insulting to begin with.

843
00:48:22,626 --> 00:48:25,164
Every word that I'm saying has been learned one way or another.

844
00:48:25,304 --> 00:48:30,041
Every concept relayed is a collective accumulation of experience.

845
00:48:30,404 --> 00:48:34,251
A Chinese baby taken at the birth and raised in a British family in England

846
00:48:34,391 --> 00:48:37,254
will develop the language, dialect, mannerisms

847
00:48:37,394 --> 00:48:40,860
traditions and accent of the British culture.

848
00:48:42,092 --> 00:48:46,136
Needless to say, it is obvious the profound effect the environment has on behavior.

849
00:48:46,276 --> 00:48:48,204
But that's only part of the equation

850
00:48:48,344 --> 00:48:51,344
for we are obviously biologically defined as well.

851
00:48:51,487 --> 00:48:53,512
Doesn't matter how much time I try to condition a cat

852
00:48:53,652 --> 00:48:56,631
to learn to speak English, it simply can't.

853
00:48:56,775 --> 00:49:01,743
Simply due to limitations of its evolutionarily derived biological state.

854
00:49:01,890 --> 00:49:05,973
Those limitations are basically defined by genes.

855
00:49:09,377 --> 00:49:13,371
Genes are a fairly recent discovery and there's been a great deal of speculation

856
00:49:13,515 --> 00:49:16,200
as to the spectrum that genes hold.

857
00:49:16,344 --> 00:49:18,949
The spectrum of relevance that genes hold.

858
00:49:19,088 --> 00:49:23,144
The most contentious is in the realm of behavioral biology.

859
00:49:23,313 --> 00:49:27,474
This is a field dedicated to understanding how genetics influences behavior.

860
00:49:27,614 --> 00:49:31,821
The idea that genetics are the possible source of various behaviors

861
00:49:32,008 --> 00:49:34,941
became popular in about the 19th century.

862
00:49:35,098 --> 00:49:37,870
One of the first pursuits that emerged was the idea

863
00:49:38,010 --> 00:49:40,951
that the aberrancies of the human behavior, such as criminality

864
00:49:41,091 --> 00:49:45,730
could be explained by the person's genes. The old "criminal gene" idea.

865
00:49:46,143 --> 00:49:50,197
Sickly enough, even eugenics operations in the form of sterilization

866
00:49:50,335 --> 00:49:53,620
took place many years ago in an attempt to rid society

867
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:57,585
of "criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists".

868
00:49:58,989 --> 00:50:01,830
The implications is that certain people are naturally

869
00:50:01,970 --> 00:50:04,916
"bad people" due to their genetics.

870
00:50:05,060 --> 00:50:08,064
You see this rhetoric everywhere. Someone might say "He has bad blood."

871
00:50:08,204 --> 00:50:10,792
or "She's just a evil person."

872
00:50:11,048 --> 00:50:14,033
As an aside, I find it fascinating that this simplistic

873
00:50:14,173 --> 00:50:16,807
social fall back to explain a person's behavior

874
00:50:16,951 --> 00:50:21,015
is in full accord with the primitive superstitious duality postulated

875
00:50:21,155 --> 00:50:25,250
by nearly all established religions: Good and Evil.

876
00:50:25,453 --> 00:50:27,790
The gene in this case has replaced

877
00:50:27,932 --> 00:50:30,688
the satanic demon that once possessed the person

878
00:50:30,828 --> 00:50:34,051
and thus the person has no control over their evil actions.

879
00:50:34,191 --> 00:50:36,991
In other words, they are slaves to their genes.

880
00:50:37,135 --> 00:50:41,041
As research has progressed, it has been found that genes do nothing at the sort.

881
00:50:41,185 --> 00:50:44,529
Genes are stretches of DNA that produce proteins

882
00:50:44,673 --> 00:50:47,422
which, of course, are vital to the operation of the brain

883
00:50:47,562 --> 00:50:50,471
the nervous system and the whole body.

884
00:50:51,950 --> 00:50:55,855
However, they are not autonomous initiators of commands.

885
00:50:56,105 --> 00:51:00,521
They do not cause behaviors in any real sense of the idea.

886
00:51:00,809 --> 00:51:04,923
In the words of professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University

887
00:51:05,067 --> 00:51:09,178
a well-known anthropologist as well, Dr. Robert Sapolsky

888
00:51:09,697 --> 00:51:12,971
"Genes are rarely about inevitability especially when it comes to humans

889
00:51:13,115 --> 00:51:15,740
the brain and behavior. They're about vulnerability

890
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:17,950
propensities and tendencies."

891
00:51:20,015 --> 00:51:23,325
As it turns out, the determining factor of genetic propensities

892
00:51:23,475 --> 00:51:26,376
particularly in the realm of behavior is the environment

893
00:51:26,516 --> 00:51:28,419
that the organism resides in.

894
00:51:28,559 --> 00:51:32,563
For example, recent research has shown that a gene could exist for depression.

895
00:51:32,719 --> 00:51:34,511
However, just because you have that gene

896
00:51:34,651 --> 00:51:36,934
does not mean you're going to get depressed.

897
00:51:37,074 --> 00:51:39,957
It takes some form of dramatic environmental stress

898
00:51:40,097 --> 00:51:43,382
to trigger the genetic response such as a sudden death of a loved one

899
00:51:43,522 --> 00:51:45,257
or something very severe.

900
00:51:45,397 --> 00:51:50,188
In other words, the environment triggers the existing genetic propensity.

901
00:51:50,325 --> 00:51:52,640
Even with the genetic predisposition to particular illness

902
00:51:52,790 --> 00:51:54,586
there's no guarantee you're going to get it.

903
00:51:54,706 --> 00:51:58,955
A chair with a broken leg is not dangerous if you never sit on it.

904
00:51:59,362 --> 00:52:02,258
As a variation of this, it is interesting to know

905
00:52:02,396 --> 00:52:06,665
how the environment even affects broad physiological attributes

906
00:52:06,816 --> 00:52:10,810
a realm traditionally left for the genetic side of the nature and nurture debate.

907
00:52:10,950 --> 00:52:14,060
A study was done a few years ago at the Miami School of Medicine

908
00:52:14,200 --> 00:52:17,906
with premature infants in neonatology wards

909
00:52:19,055 --> 00:52:23,321
where they decided to simply touch a section of the infants in the wards

910
00:52:23,465 --> 00:52:27,616
a few times a day, while the other section was not touched.

911
00:52:27,779 --> 00:52:31,605
All feeding patterns remained alike, everything else equal.

912
00:52:31,793 --> 00:52:36,255
As it turned out, the infants that were touched grew 50% faster

913
00:52:36,422 --> 00:52:39,385
and were noticeably more healthy.

914
00:52:40,117 --> 00:52:42,610
They were released from the hospital a week early.

915
00:52:42,754 --> 00:52:45,264
When compared months later, these same kids showed better health

916
00:52:45,404 --> 00:52:48,448
and agility than those that were not touched. It's incredible.

917
00:52:48,598 --> 00:52:51,466
It's a dramatic finding on many levels, for it shows

918
00:52:51,606 --> 00:52:55,163
that the genetically prescribed growth hormone release

919
00:52:55,363 --> 00:52:57,485
can be profoundly influenced by a simple

920
00:52:57,625 --> 00:53:00,819
and subtle environmental experience.

921
00:53:02,046 --> 00:53:05,486
Further more, the environment can not only trigger genetic propensities

922
00:53:05,626 --> 00:53:10,241
or influence their extent, it can over-ride them to a certain degree.

923
00:53:10,441 --> 00:53:12,976
A couple of years ago, another study was done in Princeton University

924
00:53:13,116 --> 00:53:15,483
where scientists were able to genetically engineer mice

925
00:53:15,802 --> 00:53:20,184
removing a key gene relevant to their neurotransmitter system

926
00:53:20,363 --> 00:53:23,741
selectively targeting learning and memory.

927
00:53:23,883 --> 00:53:25,939
As a result, the cultivated mice were poor

928
00:53:26,079 --> 00:53:28,865
at various memory and learning exercises.

929
00:53:29,003 --> 00:53:31,291
They had trouble recognizing simple objects.

930
00:53:31,431 --> 00:53:34,545
Their accuracy of smell was poor and they were unable to learn well

931
00:53:34,685 --> 00:53:38,987
in many ways which otherwise would be normal to an average mouse.

932
00:53:39,679 --> 00:53:42,213
Once their disability was confirmed and established

933
00:53:42,353 --> 00:53:45,604
the scientists then put the cognitively dim mice as adults

934
00:53:45,744 --> 00:53:47,960
in an enriched, stimulating environment.

935
00:53:48,100 --> 00:53:50,714
And over time it was found that many of the genetically engineered

936
00:53:50,854 --> 00:53:55,093
learning disabilities were actually overcome by the simple exposure

937
00:53:55,243 --> 00:53:57,703
to an intellectually nurturing environment.

938
00:53:57,843 --> 00:54:01,592
In other words, the environment is actually able to re-establish

939
00:54:01,739 --> 00:54:06,050
neurological pathways that seemed not to exist.

940
00:54:06,727 --> 00:54:08,971
Again, this is a powerful testament to the power of the environment

941
00:54:09,111 --> 00:54:11,338
when it comes to brain and hence behavior.

942
00:54:11,489 --> 00:54:16,116
We're perpetually molded and shaped by what's around us

943
00:54:16,260 --> 00:54:19,212
and it has an extremely direct effect on our genes

944
00:54:19,352 --> 00:54:23,912
our genes and what might be inherent to us. It's very important.

945
00:54:24,564 --> 00:54:26,939
The reason this is being brought up is to illustrate the fact

946
00:54:27,079 --> 00:54:30,047
that our environment is provably the most important determinant

947
00:54:30,187 --> 00:54:32,294
in our functionality.

948
00:54:33,224 --> 00:54:36,793
Nurture, in many ways, dictates nature.

949
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:41,437
On many levels, ranging from behavior to psychology, excuse me, to physiology.

950
00:54:41,579 --> 00:54:44,447
(psychology wouldn't have a relevance) but to physiology

951
00:54:44,597 --> 00:54:47,697
and health. Consequently, it is incorrect to think

952
00:54:47,852 --> 00:54:50,517
that the human being is a slave to his biology.

953
00:54:50,657 --> 00:54:53,021
Especially when it comes to his or her actions.

954
00:54:53,161 --> 00:54:57,365
This is a powerful myth which needs to be dispelled and debunked

955
00:54:57,521 --> 00:55:00,225
for when we realize the importance of our environment

956
00:55:00,365 --> 00:55:04,534
we'll be much more prone to changing it. That's why I'm talking about this.

957
00:55:04,950 --> 00:55:07,521
In isolation, it might seem that these are abstractions

958
00:55:07,659 --> 00:55:12,486
but we have to learn that biologically, we are only as relevant

959
00:55:12,643 --> 00:55:16,315
as the environment which interacts with our biology.

960
00:55:18,254 --> 00:55:21,949
However, as one final example worth considering

961
00:55:22,093 --> 00:55:24,958
which, from my perspective, summarizes the overwhelming power

962
00:55:25,083 --> 00:55:28,152
and relevance of our environmental culture we're exposed to

963
00:55:28,292 --> 00:55:31,912
let's consider the implications of feral children.

964
00:55:33,892 --> 00:55:36,761
A feral child is a human child which has lived

965
00:55:36,911 --> 00:55:39,401
isolated from human contact from a very young age.

966
00:55:39,551 --> 00:55:42,251
Isolated from society or human society.

967
00:55:42,395 --> 00:55:44,667
Historical examples of this range from children

968
00:55:44,805 --> 00:55:47,128
that have been locked in rooms by their parents for years

969
00:55:47,264 --> 00:55:50,090
to children who have been abandoned in the wild and raised, so to speak

970
00:55:50,230 --> 00:55:52,563
by animals.

971
00:55:53,584 --> 00:55:57,891
This is Genie. She was discovered in 1970

972
00:55:58,041 --> 00:56:01,441
having been locked in a single room virtually alone for ten years.

973
00:56:01,583 --> 00:56:04,490
When they found her at 13 years old, she could barely understand language

974
00:56:04,630 --> 00:56:08,447
and she knew only a few words. She was 54 inches tall.

975
00:56:08,597 --> 00:56:11,243
Her eyes could not focus beyond 12 feet

976
00:56:11,387 --> 00:56:13,658
and she walked in an awkward, hunched manner

977
00:56:13,798 --> 00:56:15,822
and she could not chew solid food.

978
00:56:15,962 --> 00:56:18,734
Once rescued, psychologists and scientists immediately began working

979
00:56:18,874 --> 00:56:23,137
to rehabilitate Genie, creating a nurturing environment

980
00:56:24,609 --> 00:56:28,148
and she quickly began to overcome a great amount of the problems

981
00:56:28,288 --> 00:56:30,914
that she had had, but due to the severe mental scars

982
00:56:31,054 --> 00:56:33,746
that she went through, something very specific stuck out

983
00:56:33,886 --> 00:56:36,703
which has a specific relevance to the point I'm trying to make

984
00:56:36,843 --> 00:56:39,482
and that was her inability to learn language.

985
00:56:39,622 --> 00:56:43,372
While humans obviously have a genetic predisposition for language

986
00:56:43,534 --> 00:56:47,085
it is cases like this that show how the environment does not...

987
00:56:47,403 --> 00:56:49,695
If the environment does not engage those propensities

988
00:56:49,826 --> 00:56:52,009
at a certain point in time

989
00:56:52,153 --> 00:56:55,891
then those language capabilities will not form.

990
00:56:56,285 --> 00:56:59,139
It requires the environment to stimulate the effect.

991
00:56:59,279 --> 00:57:02,939
That's a very important thing, and I may keep reiterating that.

992
00:57:03,079 --> 00:57:07,441
This young girl was rescued in May of this year in Russia.

993
00:57:07,788 --> 00:57:11,664
She was locked in a room with dogs and cats for several years

994
00:57:11,877 --> 00:57:14,326
causing her to behave like an animal. She could not speak.

995
00:57:14,466 --> 00:57:17,914
She lapped up her food, drank with her tongue and she walked on all fours.

996
00:57:18,054 --> 00:57:20,790
She was five years old when they found her, but her physical size was only

997
00:57:20,930 --> 00:57:22,797
that of a two-year old.

998
00:57:22,941 --> 00:57:26,429
This is fascinating, apart from being horrific.

999
00:57:26,898 --> 00:57:30,184
It's the fact that feral children can pick up and imitate things

1000
00:57:30,324 --> 00:57:34,289
in their environment that to us would seem absolutely unhuman.

1001
00:57:37,211 --> 00:57:40,201
This is a girl named Oxana Malaya.

1002
00:57:40,351 --> 00:57:42,813
She was also extremely neglected and ended up

1003
00:57:42,953 --> 00:57:45,831
spending the majority of her childhood between the ages of 3 and 8.

1004
00:57:45,971 --> 00:57:49,712
5 years living with dogs in the back of the family home.

1005
00:57:49,931 --> 00:57:53,184
She actually slept in the kennel with the dogs for 5 years

1006
00:57:53,328 --> 00:57:56,864
and when rescued, she had adopted incredible canine mannerisms

1007
00:57:57,004 --> 00:58:01,782
including barking, a higher than average sense of smell and hearing.

1008
00:58:01,925 --> 00:58:06,996
She ate raw meat. She walked on all fours and knew virtually no language.

1009
00:58:08,482 --> 00:58:12,450
It is sociological examples like this that should really make one step back

1010
00:58:12,590 --> 00:58:14,780
and question the lowest common denominator

1011
00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:18,242
of what is supposed to be "human nature".

1012
00:58:18,764 --> 00:58:21,567
Please understand that there is no denial

1013
00:58:21,711 --> 00:58:24,623
that we human beings are "wired" in a particular way.

1014
00:58:24,761 --> 00:58:27,890
However, the fact is we obviously, especially at a young age

1015
00:58:28,030 --> 00:58:31,987
have an incredible ability to adapt to our environment.

1016
00:58:35,398 --> 00:58:37,716
We are exceptionally malleable

1017
00:58:37,860 --> 00:58:40,726
and as studies have shown, we'll adapt based on what is supported

1018
00:58:40,866 --> 00:58:44,410
and reinforced by the social condition we inhabit.

1019
00:58:44,648 --> 00:58:48,445
If the known propensities of human beings such as walking upright

1020
00:58:48,590 --> 00:58:51,124
learning language and the like are not triggered

1021
00:58:51,274 --> 00:58:55,702
and supported by the environment, then they might not manifest.

1022
00:58:57,260 --> 00:59:01,677
Therefore again, the human being is very much a cultivated organism.

1023
00:59:01,821 --> 00:59:04,352
The quality of a person's health and behaviors

1024
00:59:04,492 --> 00:59:07,220
really comes down to the quality of the environment

1025
00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:11,246
culture and social influences they are exposed to.

1026
00:59:11,816 --> 00:59:16,318
This is critical that society fully understand this and adjust accordingly.

1027
00:59:16,481 --> 00:59:18,589
It should be no wonder the world we live in

1028
00:59:18,727 --> 00:59:22,671
when we examine the system, the environment that creates us.

1029
00:59:25,442 --> 00:59:27,544
And this is the point:

1030
00:59:28,019 --> 00:59:30,090
We, as so-called individuals

1031
00:59:30,228 --> 00:59:33,076
are running composites of our life experiences.

1032
00:59:33,231 --> 00:59:36,339
We are walking expressions and cultivations of the environments

1033
00:59:36,483 --> 00:59:39,517
we have passed through up until this very moment.

1034
00:59:39,674 --> 00:59:43,096
And when it comes to survival, only those behavioral attributes

1035
00:59:43,236 --> 00:59:45,670
that have served a function in your environment

1036
00:59:45,810 --> 00:59:48,529
are reinforced and made dominant.

1037
00:59:48,673 --> 00:59:50,945
Once you understand this, the corrupt world around you

1038
00:59:51,085 --> 00:59:53,487
suddenly makes perfect sense.

1039
00:59:53,985 --> 00:59:56,653
Human beings are not inherently greedy

1040
00:59:56,797 --> 00:59:59,934
or inherently competitive or inherently corrupt.

1041
01:00:00,260 --> 01:00:03,410
It is the social system. It's the environment that creates us.

1042
01:00:03,560 --> 01:00:07,499
Just as a young girl will choose to walk on all fours

1043
01:00:07,642 --> 01:00:11,110
and bark because that's what the environment makes similar to her

1044
01:00:11,253 --> 01:00:14,804
we become corrupt, and we become self-interested

1045
01:00:14,950 --> 01:00:18,868
because that's what our culture has created and put upon us.

1046
01:00:20,397 --> 01:00:24,101
The social imperative that emerges on all of this in the long run

1047
01:00:24,245 --> 01:00:26,964
is that there is a great deal of care which needs to be taken

1048
01:00:27,104 --> 01:00:29,045
in regard to our social environment.

1049
01:00:29,185 --> 01:00:32,838
We must alter the system in such a way so it does not create

1050
01:00:32,988 --> 01:00:36,745
support or reinforce those behaviors which are socially harmful.

1051
01:00:36,895 --> 01:00:40,233
And that's what social design is about.

1052
01:00:40,489 --> 01:00:43,183
It's interesting to point out

1053
01:00:43,777 --> 01:00:46,239
and this takes me to a sub-section of this:

1054
01:00:46,383 --> 01:00:50,359
It's interesting to point out that competition and hierarchy

1055
01:00:50,547 --> 01:00:52,968
which seem dominant today

1056
01:00:53,112 --> 01:00:55,406
have not been the dominant ethos of human society

1057
01:00:55,546 --> 01:00:58,627
for the majority of our time on this planet.

1058
01:00:58,790 --> 01:01:01,512
Before the agricultural or neolithic revolution

1059
01:01:01,652 --> 01:01:05,712
which occurred about 10,000 years ago, hunter-gatherer societies

1060
01:01:05,862 --> 01:01:10,204
actually had a non-hierarchical, egalitarian social structure.

1061
01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:13,561
The social values were based essentially on equality

1062
01:01:13,704 --> 01:01:17,923
altruism, sharing and literally forbid

1063
01:01:18,073 --> 01:01:21,949
upstartism, dominance, aggression and egoism.

1064
01:01:22,204 --> 01:01:25,277
We know this because of the anthropological research that has been done

1065
01:01:25,428 --> 01:01:30,101
on remaining hunter-gatherer societies over the course of the past century.

1066
01:01:31,218 --> 01:01:34,881
I find this fascinating, that for the bulk of our existences

1067
01:01:35,182 --> 01:01:38,870
as the human species, 99% of our societies have been virtually

1068
01:01:39,014 --> 01:01:41,241
non-hierarchical, non-materialistic.

1069
01:01:41,381 --> 01:01:45,630
They have had the wisdom to appreciate a minimalist affluence

1070
01:01:45,773 --> 01:01:48,523
as opposed to the dominance-driven, excessive

1071
01:01:48,680 --> 01:01:51,761
and unsatisfied culture we see today.

1072
01:01:52,130 --> 01:01:55,667
Regardless, this historical reality puts into question

1073
01:01:55,811 --> 01:01:59,219
the notion that social hierarchy is a natural human tendency.

1074
01:01:59,359 --> 01:02:02,290
What it is, is a social condition that has been created.

1075
01:02:02,430 --> 01:02:04,218
In the view of Robert Sapolsky:

1076
01:02:04,358 --> 01:02:08,264
"Hunter-gatherers have thousands of wild sources of food to subsist on.

1077
01:02:08,427 --> 01:02:10,345
Agriculture changed all of that

1078
01:02:10,485 --> 01:02:13,835
generating an overwhelming reliance on a few dozen food sources.

1079
01:02:13,975 --> 01:02:17,373
Agriculture allowed for the stockpiling of surplus resources

1080
01:02:17,513 --> 01:02:20,663
and thus, inevitably, the unequal stockpiling of them

1081
01:02:20,904 --> 01:02:24,359
stratification of society and the invention of classes.

1082
01:02:24,521 --> 01:02:28,591
Thus it has also allowed for the invention of poverty."

1083
01:02:29,908 --> 01:02:32,384
The core basis of social hierarchy

1084
01:02:32,527 --> 01:02:35,423
is real, or perceived, scarcity.

1085
01:02:36,049 --> 01:02:40,344
Social hierarchy is a formalized system of inequality

1086
01:02:40,501 --> 01:02:43,629
which serves as a substitute for perpetual conflict

1087
01:02:43,779 --> 01:02:46,335
over scarce resources.

1088
01:02:46,504 --> 01:02:49,683
In view of our Western society which, as we have denoted

1089
01:02:49,823 --> 01:02:52,488
works to literally preserve scarcity

1090
01:02:52,632 --> 01:02:57,303
it's easy to see how our social classes are perpetuated unnecessarily.

1091
01:02:57,853 --> 01:03:01,366
But the problem doesn't stop there. Another consequence

1092
01:03:01,535 --> 01:03:05,660
which is very new, has to do with the chain of causality.

1093
01:03:05,847 --> 01:03:09,554
One that affects everyone of us in a way that is almost hidden

1094
01:03:09,729 --> 01:03:13,668
and that is to do with the effect it has on our health.

1095
01:03:14,150 --> 01:03:17,406
Studies have shown that people of higher socio-economic status

1096
01:03:17,550 --> 01:03:21,435
live longer, enjoy better health and suffer less from disability

1097
01:03:21,607 --> 01:03:24,789
while those of lower socio-economic classes die younger

1098
01:03:24,929 --> 01:03:29,224
and suffer the largest burden of disease and disability.

1099
01:03:31,089 --> 01:03:33,800
This most often comes in the form of a gradient meaning that

1100
01:03:33,940 --> 01:03:36,994
from the highest upper classes, straight down the lowest bottom classes

1101
01:03:37,134 --> 01:03:40,403
each successive step up or down the socio-economic ladder

1102
01:03:40,543 --> 01:03:44,856
constitutes a respective quality change in a person's health on average.

1103
01:03:45,542 --> 01:03:49,415
On the surface this would seem absolutely logical, right? Just makes sense.

1104
01:03:49,555 --> 01:03:53,838
In the sense, lower classes often have poor diets due to lack of purchasing power.

1105
01:03:53,978 --> 01:03:56,293
They're more prone to live in polluted areas.

1106
01:03:56,433 --> 01:03:58,837
They are more likely to get sub-par health care

1107
01:03:58,977 --> 01:04:01,911
and due to lack of education, they might not take care of themselves

1108
01:04:02,051 --> 01:04:04,447
in the best way.

1109
01:04:05,429 --> 01:04:07,807
Now, while these attributes are obviously relevant to health

1110
01:04:07,947 --> 01:04:10,645
new studies have shown that there is something else going on

1111
01:04:10,785 --> 01:04:13,438
that is contributing to the increasingly poor health

1112
01:04:13,578 --> 01:04:16,353
and disease propensities of people

1113
01:04:16,522 --> 01:04:19,578
the lower they go in the social hierarchy.

1114
01:04:20,717 --> 01:04:24,412
One of the most documented studies that has been done on this issue

1115
01:04:24,552 --> 01:04:27,249
has been called "The Whitehall Studies", done here in London

1116
01:04:27,389 --> 01:04:29,795
at the University College of London.

1117
01:04:29,935 --> 01:04:33,154
Using the British Civil Service system as a subject group.

1118
01:04:33,298 --> 01:04:37,051
They found that the gradient of health quality in industrialized societies

1119
01:04:37,191 --> 01:04:39,620
is not simply a manner of poor health

1120
01:04:39,764 --> 01:04:42,717
for the disadvantaged and good health for everyone else.

1121
01:04:42,849 --> 01:04:44,698
Something else was happening.

1122
01:04:44,838 --> 01:04:48,708
Remember this is the UK where health care is socialized

1123
01:04:48,855 --> 01:04:51,764
and theoretically you have equal health care.

1124
01:04:52,190 --> 01:04:55,353
They also found there is a social distribution of disease

1125
01:04:55,497 --> 01:04:58,267
meaning that as you went from the top of the socio-economic status

1126
01:04:58,407 --> 01:05:00,727
to the bottom, the types of the diseases people would get

1127
01:05:00,867 --> 01:05:02,961
would change on average, but they'd be linked.

1128
01:05:03,101 --> 01:05:06,585
For example: The lowest rungs of the hierarchy had a 4-fold increase

1129
01:05:06,725 --> 01:05:10,770
of heart disease-based mortality, compared to the highest rungs.

1130
01:05:10,920 --> 01:05:14,878
I think if I remember correctly, the highest ones were things like melanoma.

1131
01:05:15,028 --> 01:05:17,412
You know, people sitting on their yachts

1132
01:05:17,562 --> 01:05:20,850
which I thought was quite amusing.

1133
01:05:21,019 --> 01:05:24,895
Regardless, this is the pattern and to a certain degree.

1134
01:05:25,033 --> 01:05:27,530
It's irrespective of health care, keep this in mind.

1135
01:05:27,670 --> 01:05:32,223
Disease is being generated irrespective of socialized health care.

1136
01:05:32,367 --> 01:05:34,895
Even in a country with universal health care, the worse

1137
01:05:35,035 --> 01:05:39,045
a person's financial status, the lower they are in the social hierarchy

1138
01:05:39,185 --> 01:05:42,679
the worse their health appears to be getting.

1139
01:05:42,948 --> 01:05:45,834
Why is this? As it turns out

1140
01:05:45,984 --> 01:05:48,827
psychological stress

1141
01:05:49,025 --> 01:05:51,765
generated from social inequality.

1142
01:05:51,902 --> 01:05:54,669
Not the by-products of inequality such as poor nutrition

1143
01:05:54,809 --> 01:05:58,657
health care resources or education for a person's health, but inequality itself:

1144
01:05:58,797 --> 01:06:01,732
psychological subordination.

1145
01:06:01,901 --> 01:06:06,515
Concurrent research, done by Richard Wilkinson at the University of Nottingham

1146
01:06:06,659 --> 01:06:12,417
found that the more income inequality there is in a society

1147
01:06:12,866 --> 01:06:16,459
the worse the gradient of health and mortality rates.

1148
01:06:16,603 --> 01:06:18,787
This is irrespective of absolute income

1149
01:06:18,927 --> 01:06:21,909
and again it has nothing to do with health care or nutrition.

1150
01:06:22,047 --> 01:06:25,703
Evidently, the more income inequality that exists in a society

1151
01:06:25,850 --> 01:06:29,379
or in other words, the more stratified a society is

1152
01:06:29,529 --> 01:06:32,635
the more money that's divided between the culture

1153
01:06:32,792 --> 01:06:35,425
the more health problems that occur in the upper

1154
01:06:35,565 --> 01:06:39,877
and lower classes together. It isn't about money in and of itself.

1155
01:06:40,027 --> 01:06:43,719
It's about the psychological ramifications, the psychological stress

1156
01:06:43,963 --> 01:06:48,552
or "psychosocial stress" generated by the social hierarchy itself.

1157
01:06:51,355 --> 01:06:53,101
Not to mention as an aside

1158
01:06:53,241 --> 01:06:55,917
it is also well documented that the more income inequality

1159
01:06:56,057 --> 01:06:58,434
that exists, the more crime.

1160
01:06:58,575 --> 01:07:02,066
Assault, robbery, murder are probable.

1161
01:07:02,216 --> 01:07:05,015
Not the more poverty and deprivation

1162
01:07:05,165 --> 01:07:08,422
that causes this, the more inequality.

1163
01:07:08,590 --> 01:07:12,175
Does everyone understand that? It's a very interesting point.

1164
01:07:12,313 --> 01:07:14,613
This is easy to exemplify, for the United States

1165
01:07:14,753 --> 01:07:17,408
which has the largest income gap on the planet

1166
01:07:17,548 --> 01:07:19,647
also has the largest crime rate in the world

1167
01:07:19,787 --> 01:07:22,730
the largest prison population in the world and amusingly

1168
01:07:22,880 --> 01:07:27,366
we're also the most aggressive and armed nation in the world.

1169
01:07:27,547 --> 01:07:30,265
Go figure!

1170
01:07:30,566 --> 01:07:34,896
The bottom line is that when it comes to the comparison of hierarchy

1171
01:07:35,040 --> 01:07:39,072
to egalitarianism, in other words, people being equal

1172
01:07:39,216 --> 01:07:42,448
or people being stratified, egalitarianism or equality

1173
01:07:42,588 --> 01:07:45,631
when it comes to psychologically stress-driven health

1174
01:07:45,787 --> 01:07:48,251
trumps stratification

1175
01:07:48,401 --> 01:07:51,717
for the whole of society from crime to disease rates.

1176
01:07:51,965 --> 01:07:55,641
In conclusion to this section, I hope I've made this relatively clear.

1177
01:07:55,781 --> 01:07:58,697
It's a really important point when you think about it.

1178
01:07:58,837 --> 01:08:03,602
Not only are social classes modern inventions of human society

1179
01:08:03,752 --> 01:08:06,768
social classes are scientifically proven

1180
01:08:06,905 --> 01:08:09,892
to be detrimental to the health of everybody

1181
01:08:10,040 --> 01:08:13,387
by the very construct of its creation.

1182
01:08:14,482 --> 01:08:17,808
I think, in conclusion of this formal presentation

1183
01:08:17,958 --> 01:08:22,257
that that is one of the most incredibly compelling motivations to seek alternatives.

1184
01:08:22,440 --> 01:08:24,640
The very fabric of the larger order of society

1185
01:08:24,780 --> 01:08:27,610
is intrinsically and provably, unhealthy.

1186
01:08:27,760 --> 01:08:31,292
And, coupled with everything else that we've talked about

1187
01:08:31,492 --> 01:08:36,243
I think that adds a tremendous weight to moving forward into something new.

1188
01:08:36,391 --> 01:08:39,492
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