Review - Zeitgeist – Moving Forward

Following on the heels of two previous documentaries and spawning a growing fan base and expanding awareness/activist movement – the official premier of Peter Joseph’s Zeitgeist – Moving Forward screened in Nelson - New Zealand’s  - Volutionary Cinema - Saturday 15th of January 2011-01-16

Review - one woman’s perspective

Zeitgeist – Moving Forward 

Having seen and been impressed by the previous zeitgeist films ability to convey large chunks of vital and often suppressed information to the worlds masses I was a bit curious as to whether this one would really focus on solutions as its title – ‘Moving forward’ suggested.

I was disappointed.

Focusing on three distinct but crucially interlocking themes that stand as the foundation upon which our current paradigm is built upon “Moving Forward’ starts with....

1) Human Behavior

Here the ‘experts’ tell us what was already known in psychological circles thirty or more years ago – that human emotions affect an indwelling fetus – the stresses that the mother is under whether this is by her partner or the outer world is paramount in dictating what hormones get released and how they affect us in later life.

The film quotes several studies. This information and that of new born and premature babies craving human touch as an essential for growth maybe lost to the current generation whose ability to mother and parent has been replaced by the necessity to work and to farm children off to day-care. Nevertheless it was a good place to start and to alert a wider audience to the effect of stress on a pregnant woman in whose body grows a human being.

Everything starts from here

The film continues to show how environmental factors such as parents not being emotionally present with their children can result in anti social behavior that affects all aspects of our society – This emotional unavailability is a common occurrence in today’s fast paced computer addicted society . In this sense Emotional unavailability could be seen to be another form of child abuse having unseen repercussions in later life.

And that I think was the films point – it certainly made me think .

Although the film opens with this crucial stage of human development it never acknowledges the role of parenting.; or the actual role of mothering.

The essential role of mothering has never been given much value and yet it is the most valuable role of all fundamental to the healthy growth of a society as a whole. Yet the film never once speaks of supporting mothers/parents as the foundation upon which society is grown

It never speaks about how society forces most mothers into the workforce away from this vital role. Here in NZ solo parents  have always been the countries scapegoats.  Moves have been underway for years to get these bludging parents back into the workforce where their true value counts -  It’s a global trend.

The film did however make a distinction which is fast becoming a given in human psychology – that we are not at the mercy of our gene’s.

This will be an eye opener for many – however latest research not mentioned in the film does revel that we may not be genetically predisposed to our parents genes as such rather we do inherent an energy pattern of emotions that we carry from them via our DNA – this is paradigm breaking stuff – if your interested in this see the work of Bruce Lipton PhD

The second part of the film focused or should I say rehashed the obvious flaws in our current monetary system and the way the free market (sic) calls for endless growth in a finite system – its un sustainability obvious.

2) Monetary Economics

“The propaganda money mangers” -  talked about the obvious way the system is set up to make money off illness, disasters, crime/jail and the like –this has been said before; The recent oil spill in the gulf created a huge upsurge for some business all added to the GDP of the country – never mind how many people are now sick with toxic poisoning and who have since died.  Actually the sicker you are the more you add to the GDP through visits to your GP who only ever treats symptoms thus you become their cash cow - your wellness would put a stop to this huge chunk of GDP

However the movie did point out in a very graphic way that the more unemployment the more the economy will collapse due to the inability of people to have the money to consume.

I wonder if the free marketers of ACT and National and their buddies the Business’s Roundtable have actually given any serious thought to this. Growth is unsustainable in a finite system like this one.

There were little in the way of ideas or suggestions on how you could change your consuming habits, Indeed the utopian vision seemed to suggest that you didn’t need to - but more on that further on

Colin Campbell and Michael Rupert voiced their considerable experience regarding the reality of peak oil and how there is NO plan B that is sustainable at present despite all the think-big projects . New Zealand is also behind the 8 ball on this one as it is bound to not act until consent is given by the various corporations that now rule the politicians and hence the world. Which is why there is NO hemp industry in this country

Again - There were no real ways forward offered here either.

3) Applied Science

Here the Saviour of contemporary man was showcased. Revealing how technological advances and automation has taken over mundane jobs creating mass unemployment – Science can now save the world with amazing technology like 3D modeling for building our houses!   Actually i found this quite interesting.

Of course I understand what a monumental task the title implies in ‘moving forward’ and I understand the makers would have had some tough choices on what to include and what to leave out but…….

However credit where credit is due and big credit must go to 94 year old Jacque Fresco whose astute observations of society over the past 70 odd years is given full voice.

However his Venus Project vision of a futuristic utopia – dubbed technotopia by many - a word that on further thought seemed so very appropriate – his world was not the accepted way forward for many  who attended our viewing

Power for these futuristic cities would come from wave, solar and wind – all three themselves unsustainable in the long term as their materials would result in yet more environmental degradation – and the consequences and impact of planting thousands upon thousands of solar mirrors and turbines throughout the world is unknown.

It was Einstein that once said that change can not happen with the same mind set that created the mess in the first place - and for me – acres and acres of wind turbines are a good example of ‘man’ trying to answer his needs with the same consciousness that created the need in the first place - it is in fact mechanical man thinking.

There was no evidence that this crew had the faintest idea of any free energy device that could power their technotopia – there was no mention of the Swedish ML machine nor anything of Nicola Tesla – so no real way forward here – although to be fair – Tesla was mentioned briefly

In many of Fresco’s futuristic type cities water would replace traditional soil and skyscraper type farms would over shadow the environment – no mention was made of animal farming so perhaps the way forward is that we all become vegetarians – that’s a nice thought

The way forward in this film revolved around a ‘Resource based economy’

Here we would live in techontopia, where science could advance our lives for us and we could continue on as before.  In this world our resources would all be monitored by satellites feeding through to computers – there was never any mention of coming solar flare cycles that can play havoc with all our tech toys - a warning to heed perhaps.

All of it – at least to my mind – totally misses the point - and worse – to be a continuation of the patriarchal (for want of a better word) way of living that exists now.

We already have satellites tracking our resource intake. This may not be a centralized data base as such but they know where ALL the worlds oil is for instance and no doubt big bussine$$ knows who to bribe/kill/over take to get the stuff they need, all via satellite of course.

There was never any mention on curbing our uses of resources, just managing them better which is a sort of cop-out given the largely unsustainable way consuming is promoted these days.

This resource based economical system - the film theorizes - would enable an equality for all that in one fell swoop would eliminate mans inhumanity to man – eliminate and equalize the class structured system and take away all forms of racism – over time of course – it supposes that its just money that makes all this so .

That is simplistic thinking at its worst and so typical of an andocentric model that purports to be cutting edge civilization when in fact, its killing the land base it needs to survive and creating monstrous justifications  as it goes.

Zeitgeist – the way forward didn’t do it for me – being a long term greenie and social commentator – the ways forward proposed in this film were just another way of continuing the same old same old

As a woman, a mother of three and a grandmother of 4 I noticed that this way forward continues to devalue the role of motherhood while promoting a utopia that relies heavily on the old technology/science will save us mantra.

I say this because it’s the role of motherhood, from conception to birth and beyond that is the key to the type of ‘civilization’ we human beings will create next. It sits at the foundation of everything and its not being given a voice.

It’s the rise of the feminine principal - primarily emboided by women but exists within the masculine as well,  that is the way forward now.  Within that are the values that have never been given real acknowledgment, funding or support. Hence our degrading environment and the chaos of our times.

Do I have a better way forward i hear you ask – a vision of how our world might be - how we as human beings can be in a world in peace in prosperity ?

Yes I do -  but to remind you - we already have a model of life that has worked for thousands upon thousands of years – it was called the tribe – and from there humanity grew …….

However all that said – If you are new to these concepts than I do recommend you see the film – it does have some interesting points – and it will move you forward a tiny bit if only to open your consciousness – and the world needs more of that in order to actually move forward.

We are the change we need to make – and movies like this – no matter if they miss the mark are still helping people to see what’s really going on in the world and start questioning and that simply can only be a good thing.

It is a long movie however – but it didn’t bore me – it held my attention even if I was disappointed.

Resource Based Economy (the way forward) The concise "Zeitgeist: The Summary"


NOTE: The film had a 1 to over 10 ratio of male to female voices a trend I am noticing in many movies in this genre – I was not the only one to notice this by the way - it continues the cycle of invisibility of the feminine voice for change. Without belabouring the point – and probably better suited to another discussion – the reason I found this so disturbing was that women quite often bring to the table a different point of view – when this view is not included an imbalance or an incompleteness occurs – and since we live very much in a patriarchal defined world where all our systems are patriarchal  based -  it is important as we move forward in any discussion to bring in the feminine point of view which can only enhance and expand the current consciousness.  Balance is needed