The Choice is Ours is a documentary series presented by the Venus Project. Interviews by a variety of scientists, media professionals, and other thinkers explores a variety of issues that are of social, economic, and technical interest.
The Venus Project created this informative documentary to compel the viewer into rethinking what’s possible in our world. To question the values, behaviors, origins and consequences of our social structures is of vital importance to our survival as we look to the future.
Part 1 is introduction and discussion of determinants of behavior.
Part 2 is a breakdown of problems in our present system; an obsolete monetary system. It covers the media as a tool of the established political and economic elite, corruption of all politics in all nations, and environmental challenges.
Part 3 will show solutions and proposals and will depict and illustrate Jacque’s Fresco’s life work to redesign the culture.
Abby Martin‘s speech about the artist’s task in society mixed with awesome music by Explosions in the Sky and a selection of artworks by visionary artists. (Editor’s Note: Unfortunately the video was deleted by the author. Please check out the visionary art resources below.)
All art is a question mark, but only you know the answer to. In the broader picture, the warped value system in which we live has conditioned us to consider art as something unattainable, something unapproachable, as a rich man’s hobby.
Because the “powers that be” know that only through artistic expression and imagination we can envision a better world and work to create one. –Abby Martin
Abby Martin speaks with Peter Joseph, founder to the Zeitgeist Movement about the philosophy behind the organization, the current unsustainable economic system and the model proposed by the movement for a sustainable future that works harmoniously with nature.
Poverty and Structural Violence
If you have inequality, you’re going to have conflict and psycho-social stress caused by relative deprivation. Relative deprivation is insidious and has to do with our social nature and how we perceive ourselves in the social hierarchy. When we see other people doing “better” at a higher class status, it creates tension – unfortunately this is exactly what wealth division is doing in our society.
Take a person and stick them in a poverty-stricken environment, and they develop heart disease which is known to have a direct link to low socioeconomic status. Studies have shown that if you’re just in the existence of low social economic status, the relative deprivation, the way you think about yourself has incredibly inhibiting effects over the way your body and mind works and you will develop high stress levels and cardiac problems.
What if that person with heart disease dies early at 50 because of poverty and low social status? This is a completely avoidable circumstance, which the Zeitgeist movement’s argument.
There’s no reason for anyone to be in poverty, there’s no reason to have massive wealth gaps. This is structural violence, and it has killed more people than any dictator and war combined.
Gandhi agrees, he said “Poverty, is the worst form of violence.”
Constant Consumption
You have all these factors that force economic consumption, which forces resource consumption. The entire façade of market capitalism looks at the earth as one big inventory. At its core philosophical foundation, you can’t have a society of this nature and assume it will ever be sustainable ecologically.
Scarcity and Greed
The economic system we have today is culturally unsustainable because it perpetuates inequality by design. Take a look at the incentive structure: in a scarcity driven world view, narrow self-interest will prevail. If you have a self-interest world view in a scarcity driven society, you’re going to lead to competitive behavior.
Competitive behavior will always develop into power consolidation, like the State, Federal Reserve, or FDA. Massive collusion working for self-interest for small isolated groups of people. If you have these pockets of consolidation and constant interest in competitive advantage, you’re going to have a constant and increasing wealth imbalance.
The market has an inherent propensity to create inequality which people love if you believe in social Darwinism, because everyone walks around reinforced to think that they’re better than everyone else because of all their property and status.
When it comes to public health, inequality is one of the most caustic things a society can generate.
