Zeitgeist

I watched a short film from WanderingMind which turned up on my Youtube feed last week, questioning the current economic system. I agree with him; I have often wondered why it should be that the same world should go into free fall because an elite set of people suddenly decide to crash the stock market.

In the comments for that video I found references to Zeitgeist the movie, and although I am busy and the film is over two hours long, I made time to watch it, because I thought it might be important.

I like a lot of the movie, I suppose because it reflected a number of things which I believe, about the nature of human beings, and the importance of nurturing children in their early years.  It wasn't radical enough about education for me, but then, few things are.

However, I was very disappointed by the end of the film, the apparent solution to our dysfunctional money market system that currently abuses the planet.  I felt that the film maker spent a lot of time discussing human nature and its need for nurturing, but then ignored a lot of basic human needs - for a place to call their own, and for possessions... for frivolous things which the state is never going to provide.

I looked at Peter Joseph, the film maker, and even before he propounded his communist utopia, thought how like Trotsky he looked.  I don't know if there is anything in reincarnation theory, but he's definitely a candidate for examination.  He looks like Trotsky, and he sounds like him too, in the theories he proposes.

What I was hoping for, was something different, and I suppose more scientific.  There have been successful societies which have used different paradigms for their operation, where there has been considerable equality.  Couldn't we try one of those systems instead?  I feel that any system has to respect human nature, and our need to be diverse, to allow for the fact that one man's meat may be another man's poison.  We don't all like the same stuff or even need the same stuff.  We need to assert our individuality, even when we believe passionately in joining in society to protect the weak or to help those unable to help themselves.

I think the current market-based, money-based economy is a male-centric competitive system and we could be trying the alternative, which is a feminine nurturing system, which values caring and sharing and looking after people, and thinking about them.  Which doesn't count the cost of everything in financial terms, but in costs to individuals, societies, countries, in human terms instead.

I think any system which is going to work will have to consider the nature of being human, and allow for the endless variations which we come in.  Certainly I think a feminine system would make sure that babies and children are looked after well, and particularly children who are removed from their families... currently I think our society takes children from abusive parents and consigns them to abusive institutions which compound the damage.

I will have to think about the information in the film.  But I don't think it is the answer.  Maybe the reported system which obtained in Britain before the arrival of the Romans, or the system reportedly used on the Island of Thera, known as Minoan Akritiri society, seems to have been egalitarian, nurturing system which led to a highly artistic and creative place which thrived.  Why not look back in history to find better ways of doing things?

One thing is for sure... I think a lot of our trouble came when we allowed people to start trading in things which don't exist.  If I were Queen of the World for a day, I'd ban that.  I'd ban trading in futures, in currencies and in derivatives.  And there's an end to a lot of the ills, right there.

One thing I think the film achieves, is to stimulate thought about the sort of world we live in, and the sort of world we want to live in.  That can only be a good thing.