A friend of mine forwarded me this link, and thus sparked an interesting conversation between myself and my better/shorter half. The video is about one and a hald hours long, but it isn't necessary to watch so much as listen to the clip.
- The economic and environmental state of the world is in a state of emergency and in decline.
- This is because of money driven society (the reasons are complex but very sound. Listen early in the video to get the arguments for this).
- Things don't have to keep going as they are, since we actually aboundant resources when coupled with existant and emerging technology.
- Some people have a plan, which involves no one ever having to work anymore, a gigantic supercomputer that replaces government, and some smart and self sacrificing people in the background who make sure the computer works and keep it updated.
They had be at the first point. I absoultely agree that a money driven society, capitalist or otherwise, promots the rich/poor gap, shody consumer goods, and practices that needlessly deplete the Earth's resources. And when we're faced with emerging problems, like a lack of energy or clean water, the solutions proposed are shot down not because they're impractical but because they aren't going to make anyone any money in the short run. (Solar, tidal, and wind power are examples - the technology is expensive right now, and will continue to be expensive until someone phylanthropically donates money to research to make it cheaper.)
I absolutely agree that things shouldn't continue like this. I don't think it is too long before the Earth is past that ominus "doomsday" point, or the economy passes into the final point of the recession to end it all. And I think that we do have the resources and inmagination to come up with something better.
And before I launch into my loose critique, I should say that this is an amazing and inspiring vision, and I hope they can do even a fraction of what they propose. They're sort of like a large scale securlar technical version of
Shane Claiborne's vision at the Simple Way.
I don't think that the answer lies in supercomputers and "dreaming of societies so perfect that no one needs to be good". The problems we found were actually addressed by the video, but I think they were rather naieve or dismissive about some important points. They don't believe in human nature or original sin, and believe that all of our behavioural problems can be solved by proper education and environment.
The root of their dismissal of human nature seems to be a weird lack of scientific evidence surounding it. They say that just because almost every society through history has exhibited characteristics of "evil", like greed, jealousy, etc., that doesn't mean that people have to continue behaving the same way. In this view the overwhelming tendency is created by the environmental conditions, in this case a situation of "abundant scarcity", which drives some people to hoard what is scarce and thereby drive others to "evil" acts.
Firstly, I object to their reasoning. There have been enough societies, like some of the Natives in the Canadian west coastal region, who barely had to work for food and had almost everything in abundance, yet continued to exhibit "evil" that should, having no cause, not exist. I'm sure there are objections to my counterpoint, but if they've gone so far as to dismiss nearly all of history, I'm sure they can come up with enough restrictions on what they mean to make my example look too narrow and not meet the requirements of what they're talking about. And anyway, my goal here isn't to argue systematically with them - I don't have the time or the space for it here.
As to original sin, I only have to look to myself to see it's existence. Not every sin is economic in nature - some are based in coveting your neighbour's wife (unless they suggest comunal sex partners, which has been suggested before.) Some sins, like sloth, arise not because we are in need, or are protecting our goods, but have more obscure beginnings. Some sins, like pride at being a better person, have nothing to do with how much money we have, but how much better looking we are, or how much nicer, or how much more intelligent, or whatever quality we have that the person next to us doesn't. Yes, pride can be tied to money, but I suffer from my own pride often, though I lack money and cars and a condo downtown.
Finally, when seeing their utopian dream, I writhe inside for the loss of the great beautiful cities of the world that are too old and too inefficient to survive their vision of "Circle Cities". I wonder what the 95% of the population with no work and no need to work will do. I wonder about the lessons lost because we can't teach our children about the value of hard work. Basically I wonder if this specific vision is the answer, or whether this carfully designed system will actually doom us to a host of different problems even while it erases poverty and starvation and depleeting resources.
Anyway, I truly hope that the Zeitgeist project and others like it continue to grow and develop, and that they mature in their understanding of the human creature they're trying to save. All in all, I don't say it's a bad start, but it needs heavy revision. Keep up the good work.
