An eclectic zeitgeist

"Zeitgeist: The Movie" was a sensation on the web five years ago, but (of course!) I missed all the fun. The film, made by Peter Joseph, is an eclectic rehash of various conspiracy theories. Or alternative worldviews, if you're more appreciative.

Often, the message sounds suspiciously similar to that of the John Birch Society: the Federal Reserve is a conspiracy, the Federal Income Tax is illegal, our money are debt-based fiat currency not backed by gold, the U.S. should have stayed out of both world wars and the Vietnam war, LBJ colluded with the Russians and VC's, public schools make students dumber and are probably a conspiracy as well, the U.S. elite wants a One World Government, etc.

A very different kind of conspiracy theorist, Lyndon LaRouche, is briefly featured. A whole section of "Zeitgeist" is devoted to the claims of the politically amorphous Truth Movement. Our old friend David Ray Griffin is shown. Curiously, the film starts with an extended attack on Christianity, an attack based on the ideas of Acharya S, Gerald Massey and Jordan Maxwell. Peter Joseph believes that Christianity is a fraud, separating man from the world, thereby serving the establishment and being the psychological soil for other (secular) myths.

But what is the point of the exercise? It turns out that Joseph is the leader of a group called the Zeitgeist Movement, which calls for international communism! According to Wikipedia "The Zeitgeist Movement is a global nonprofit organization founded in 2008. It advocates the abolition of money and private property and promotes a global socioeconomic system in which all resources would be equally shared. According to the movement, such a system would increase social equality and sustainability. The Zeitgeist Movement also believes resource allocation can be managed by computerized systems and most manual labor can be fully automated".

But why would such a group be so heavily dependent on right-wing conspiracy theory (or right-wing truths, if you're a conservative libertarian)? For instance, why would a left-wing group criticize FDR or the abolition of the gold standard, claim that LBJ colluded with the reds, and criticize public schools, not just for educational failure, but for simply being public?

My guess is that "Zeitgeist: The Movie" is deliberately eclectic, since its intended audience consists of young, politically raw seekers who treat all "alternative" and "anti-establishment" sources as equally interesting or veracious. Hence the attempts to combine ideas which are really incompatible - 20 or 30 years ago, a film like "Zeitgeist" would have been roundly condemned as "fascist", and that would have been the end of it. Today, this potpourri of conspiracy theories, or at the very least widely divergent alternative ideas, becomes an instant viral hit.

Well, I suppose that *is* the spirit of the times...

"Zeitgeist" does have obvious similarities with Foster Gamble's "Thrive". Indeed, "Thrive" might have been inspired by the success surrounding the earlier film. Gamble attempts to combine libertarianism with left-liberalism, and has said that he would like to see Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinic as running mates for the presidency! However, "Thrive" is at bottom somewhat less eclectic than "Zeitgeist", perhaps because Gamble is more consistently libertarian. It's also more overtly spiritual than "Zeitgeist", which sounds non-religious or even anti-religious, despite featuring the Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

I award "Zeitgeist: The Movie" two stars. It's not bad as a film production. But no, this is not really my cup of tea. Nor, apparently, my zeitgeist.

Originally posted in 2012. Today, "Zeitgeist" *would* be condemned as "fascist" and quickly suppressed, showing how fast the zeitgeist can change, at least in cyberspace...