Zeitgeist- what can we do?

 Updated 6/19/2008. Prior versions of the post can be found here.

I continue to get some search engine hits from phrases similar to Zeitgeist what can we do, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to post specifically towards that question. Zeitgeist- what can we do?

The first thing to understand is that no one can tell you an answer or the answer(s). Including me. You’ll need to figure out what will work best for you in your own situation. What works for me may not for you.

Secondly, seeking answers is the first step towards finding them. So, by coming here via that question, you are already on a path towards your answer. Solutions are everywhere once you start to look for them, but until you begin that process of seeking, you won’t notice them.

Now, to get down to some suggestions. Research and read further on the information contained in the movie. I’ve offered some links which I think are helpful for doing that here. Note that I include “debunking” sites among my list of further reading. Examine the evidence and decide for yourself. Separate the wheat from the chaff; think for yourself. Some (perhaps even many) points in Zeitgeist are very likely to be at least somewhat incorrect. It is, after all a 2 hour film. But is it nonetheless more true than the mainstream media “news”? I suspect so, but you’ll need to decide on that question in your own mind. I challenge you (or anyone) to make a thoroughly researched, better and more accurate feature length film covering the same material as Zeitgeist covers. Put it up on Google video when you’re finished, send me a link and I promise you I’ll watch it.

Watching the last 5 or ten minutes of Zeitgeist again may also be helpful to answer the question “what can we do?” I feel like the author of the movie does his best to point towards what he feels we can do. Realize that we ARE powerful, that we are connected to and part of the whole. Don’t let ourselves become divided into categories. Choose love over fear in each moment to the degree which we are able to do that. More ideas from the movie- move away from the boob tube, start reading more. Educate yourself and others. The media and the government’s ideas of “education” are looking increasingly like “indoctrination” from my point of view.

Peter Joseph, Zeitgeist’s creator, is in the process of making a sequel (due to be released in October- the trailer for that upcoming movie is on YouTube here) which will probably offer additional perspectives on this question. However, I encourage you to be proactive rather than passively waiting until October and to “think for yourself”.

Some more thoughts- debt = slavery, so work towards less debt in your live and in the lives of others that you care for. Give someone the gift of “who you are” instead of something you buy them this year. Just a thought. Look towards how you may be able to simplify your life and thus feel a need to consume less.

Share, cooperate, love. I know, I sound like a broken record from the ’60s, don’t I. And I’ll keep on sounding that way until you get it. Once you get it, I’ll still sound the same, but I won’t sound broken. That’s the only difference. Anyway, check out some of my reducing consumption and solutions category blog posts for more thoughts. I particularly recommend the post I kicked this blog off with over a year ago- some ideas for changing the world, which given the current economic conditions with gas and food may deserve a second look now. Most of these posts I wrote before the release of Zeitgeist, by the way, so it’s not like I’ve only been thinking about these issues for the last month or two. Years, more like. Anyway, that’s my start for you.

Now, part of what I ask from you in return is to consider what I have to say. See what you can find of use in your own life. Secondly, I ask you to become part of a conversation- perhaps here, perhaps elsewhere on the internet, perhaps in your daily life. Make that conversation about something like “what can we do about…” and start brainstorming. Because that’s how it begins. With cooperation, ideas and dialogue. Good luck. We’ll need it. But I have hope that we will be up to this challenge. If not here and now then in another world in another lifetime. We’ll figure it out eventually. It’s just a matter of how many times we need to experience “the ride” before we decide we’ve had enough of the “thrills and chills” we seem to get so much of from mass culture.

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ETA:
Give Cory Doctorow’s book Little Brother a read; I think you’ll find it worthwhile. It’s not necessarily an answer to this question, but it brings up some interesting ideas. The Onion Router for surfing more anonymously, fun with RFID chips, etc. W1n5t0n has a page of instructables which relate to things covered in the book.
Personally, I think it would be great to see some sort of anonymous wikileaks type project develop with tips, links, people’s thoughts and annotations as they read the book, etc. but it would probably get co-opted and trolled to death too quickly to work very well. Ah, well.

One thing which I kept thinking about as I read was celldar and cell phones being used for gait recognition- two things which I’ve blogged (or at least linked towards, I think) about here. How would M1k3y and friends deal with things of that nature given their cell phone dependent lifestyles?

Tags: 9/11, 9/11 Truth, dialogue, Federal Reserve, intentions, lost in confusion, movie, networking, NWO, peace love and understanding, reducing consuption, solutions, video, what can we do, Zeitgeist, Zeitgeist what can we do