What is the Zeitgeist Momevent?

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The following except is taken directly from the Zeitgeist Movie Q & A page

The original Zeitgeist was actually not a "film", but a performance piece, which consisted of a vaudevillian style multi-media event using recorded music, live instruments and video. The event was given over a 6-night period in New York City and then, without any interest to professionally release or produce the work, was "tossed" up on the Internet arbitrarily. The work was never designed as a film or even a documentary in a traditional sense - it was designed as a creative, provoking, emotionally driven expression, full of artistic extremity and heavily stylized gestures.

This is the only known cell-phone recording left on the internet of that early performance.

However, once online, an unexpected flood of interest began to generate. Within 6 months over 50 Million views were recorded on Google Video counters (before they were reset for some reason). The current combined estimates put the number of Internet views at over 100 million as of 2009. Suddenly "Zeitgeist" the event, became "Zeitgeist: The Movie".

 WHAT IS 'THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT' AND HOW IS IT RELATED TO THE FILMS?

The Zeitgeist Movement is a grass roots campaign to unify the world through a common ideology based on the fundamentals of life and nature. The Zeitgeist Movement bypasses traditional ideas of politics, religion and the like and instead attempts to communicate how all humans are the same at the fundamental level and how it is time we start to work together on a global scale to end the seemingly perpetual conflict and suffering in our current world society. 

The relationship to the films is mainly in gesture. While the films have served as inspirations for The Movement, the subject matter in the films is not to be confused with the main materials/interests of The Zeitgeist Movement itself, which focus on values, resource economics and sustainability. For example, TZM is not about 9/11, Comparative Religion, Central Banking, Financial Reform or the like. In the world today, many are active in these areas and work to resolve them on a per case basis. TZM is not interested in this - its function is to find the 'source' of problematic social phenomena and act to resolve it at its core. This is why a completely new social system is expressed in the Movement's materials.

 The following statement is taken directly from the Zeitgeist Movement websites About page. The Anti-Society does not necessarily endorse or agree with the following statement.

The Zeitgeist Movement is not a political movement. It does not recognize nations, governments, races, religions, creeds or class. Our understandings conclude that these are false, outdated distinctions which are far from positive factors for true collective human growth and potential. Their basis is in power division and stratification, not unity and equality, which is our goal. While it is important to understand that everything in life is a natural progression, we must also acknowledge the reality that the human species has the ability to drastically slow and paralyze progress, through social structures which are out of date, dogmatic, and hence out of line with nature itself. The world you see today, full of war, corruption, elitism, pollution, poverty, epidemic disease, human rights abuses, inequality and crime is the result of this paralysis. 

This movement is about awareness, in avocation of a fluid evolutionary progress, both personal, social, technological and spiritual. It recognizes that the human species is on a natural path for unification, derived from a communal acknowledgment of fundamental and near empirical understandings of how nature works and how we as humans fit into/are a part of this universal unfolding we call life. While this path does exist, it is unfortunately hindered and not recognized by the great majority of humans, who continue to perpetuate outdated and hence degenerative modes of conduct and association. It is this intellectual irrelevancy which the Zeitgeist Movement hopes to overcome through education and social action. 

The goal is to revise our world society in accord with present day knowledge on all levels, not only creating awareness of social and technological possibilities many have been conditioned to think impossible or against "human nature", but also to provide a means to overcome those elements in society which perpetuate these outdated systems. The movement itself is not a centralized construct. We are not here to lead, but to organize and educate.

To find out more about the Zeutgeist Movement, visit their website at thezeitgeistmovement.com

Don't forget to check out the latest docu-movies in the series entitled Zeitgeist: Moving Forward over on Anti-Society T.V.!

Related articles

• Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (anti-societytv.blogspot.com)
• The Awakening. (anti-societytv.blogspot.com)
• Zeitgeist solutions for the world (rt.com)
• The Zeitgeist Movement RBE? - Veganism Is A Resource-Based Economy! (veganzeitgeist.wordpress.com)
• Project Earth: A Resource-Based Economy Explained (brainpickings.org)
• What's Really Happening On the Streets Of Spain? Raw Video Footage Spanish Riots July 2011 (alternativenewsreport.net)

What is Zeitgeist?

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Since the original public performance of "Zeitgeist" in 2007, there has been an evolution of intent which has manifested into an on-going film expression consisting now of multiple productions. While each film stands on its own with regard to content, the Zeitgeist Film Series as a whole has a dedicated social intent to create awareness about the world we share, the problems we face, along with what we can do to make it better as a collective species.

The original Zeitgeist was not a film, but a performance piece, which consisted of a vaudevillian style multi-media event using recorded music, live instruments and video. The event was given over a 6-night period in New York City and then, without any interest to professionally release or produce the work, was "tossed" up on the Internet arbitrarily. The work was never designed as a film or even a documentary in a traditional sense - it was designed as a creative, provoking, emotionally driven expression, full of artistic extremity and heavily stylized gestures.

However, once online, an unexpected flood of interest began to generate. Within 6 months over 50 Million views were recorded on Google Video counters (before they were reset for some reason). The current combined estimates put the number of Internet views at over 100 million as of 2009. Suddenly "Zeitgeist" the event, became "Zeitgeist: The Movie".

In turn, the decision was made to make a follow up in 2008 entitled "Zeitgeist: Addendum". (www.zeitgeistaddendum.com) Originally this was going to conclude the series, introducing ideas of resolve for some of our ongoing social problems. Yet, this work succeeded in sparking a mass shift of attention, inspiring the development of an activist organization now called The Zeitgeist Movement. This Movement, founded by Peter Joseph in conjunction with Jacque Fresco's "Venus Project", now works globally to spread information about a new social system called a Resource Based Economy. With over 420,000 registrations from nearly all countries as of mid 2010, the development has been dynamic.

However, this is an aside- The Zeitgeist Film Series, while an inspiration for The Movement which shares the term "Zeitgeist", is not to be confused with the content/views of the films in detail. The Zeitgeist Movement is an economic/sustainability movement at its core and its relationship to the Film Series content is not consistent. The Films, while now moving to promote The Movement more so in part, are still intellectual/artistic treatments and are not to be considered a basis for The Movement itself. Please see www.thezeitgeistmovement.com for more information on this important social revolution.

Now, a new production is in the works, the third film of the series, which will be entitled "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward". This work will focus on the state of modern scientific understandings with regard to human behavior, along with advanced technological and organizational methods which could improve our society greatly, reducing the possibility of severe ecological problems for the future and hence working towards true global sustainability for the species itself. More on this work can be found on its website: www.zeitgeistmovingforward.com

As a whole, this Film Project will likely continue given the large audience that has emerged to support it.In other words, a long-term series of films under the title of "Zeitgeist" is underway. As the definition of "Zeitgeist" states, we are dealing with the "intellectual/spiritual/cultural awareness of the time" and it is the goal of this project to explore what makes us who we are, how we relate, what we are doing and what we should be doing if we wish to live in a peaceful, abundant, and healthy global community.

Beyond that, please note that all the films are available for free viewing/download. 5$ DVD with cases are also made available for purchase. This "not-for-profit" price structure, which is essentially 75% less that the average cost of such a DVD product commercially, is presented to the public as a gesture of intent. This isn't about money - it is about getting this important information out there. Likewise, while the films are fully copyright overall to protect from profit oriented piracy, we encourage everyone to duplicate, upload, post and screen at will- just as long as there is no monetary exchange. However, please have no illusions here- this Project is only possible to continue if people do purchase the $5 DVD. So, while you have the option to get everything for free, please respect the fact that money is still the driving mechanism for exchange in our current system and, sadly, each one of us have to "make money" somehow to continue.

If you would like to get a look at the original 2007 Zeitgeist movie then tune into Anti-Society t.v. tomorrow at 10:00 AM!