The Zeitgeist Movement: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{Short description|movementMovement that emerged from the Zeitgeist movie series}}

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{{Infobox organization

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| region_served = International

| key_people = [[Peter Joseph]]

| website = {{URL|thezeitgeistmovement.com|TheZeitgeistMovement.com}}

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'''The Zeitgeist Movement''' is an activist movement established in the [[United States]] in 2008 by [[Peter Joseph]]. The group is critical of market [[capitalism]], describing it as structurally corrupt and wasteful of resources. According to ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', the group dismisses historic religious concepts as misleading, and embraces sustainable [[ecology]] and scientific administration of society.<ref>McElroy, Danien. June 17, 2012. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/9337209/Forest-boy-inspired-by-Zeitgeist-movement.html Forest boy 'inspired by Zeitgeist movement']. ''The Telegraph.'' Retrieved November 14, 2018.</ref><ref name="pia14">{{cite journal|author=Resnick, Jan|date=February 25, 2009|title=The Zeitgeist Movement|url=http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=543809933974722;res=IELHEA|journal=Psychotherapy in Australia|volume=15|issue=2|issn=1323-0921}}</ref><ref>Quotations and citations in this Wikipedia article are based on the translation from Hebrew to English of [http://www.themarker.com/markerweek/1.1620957 The Filmmaker Who Helped Recruit Millions for the Global Protests of the Bottom 99%], original Hebrew article by Asher Schechter, [[TheMarker]] (Israel), January 19, 2012.</ref><ref>Quotations and citations in this Wikipedia article are based on the translation from Hebrew to English of [http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000547764 Imagine, original Hebrew article by Tzaela Kotler], [[Globes (newspaper)|Globes]] (Israel), March 18, 2010.</ref>

''VC Reporter's'' Shane Cohn summarized the movement's charter as: "Our greatest social problems are the direct results of our economic system".<ref>{{cite web|author=Cohn, Shane|title=New world re-order|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/travis-walter-donovan/the-zeitgeist-movement-en_b_501517.html|publisher=VCReporter|date=May 12, 2011|accessdateaccess-date=November 14, 2018}}</ref>

==History==

The Zeitgeist Movement was formed in 2008 by Joseph shortly after the late 2008 release of ''[[Zeitgeist: Addendum]]'', the second film in the [[Zeitgeist (film series)|''Zeitgeist'' film series]].<ref name=o3/><ref name=v2>{{cite web|last1=Cohn|first1=Shane|title=New world re-order|url=http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/new_world_re_order/8838/|publisher=VCReporter|accessdatedate=May 12, 2011|access-date=May 28, 2015|archive-date=October 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006110044/http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/new_world_re_order/8838/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Zeitgeist was first linked to [[the Venus Project]], which had been founded by [[Jacque Fresco#The Venus Project and later career|theJacque Venus ProjectFresco]] in 1985. In April 2011, partnership between the two groups ended in an apparent power struggle, with Joseph commenting, "Without [the Zeitgeist Movement], [the Venus Project] doesn’t exist – it has nothing but ideas and has no viable method to bring it to light."<ref name=o3>{{cite journal|author=Gore, Jeff|url=https://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/the-view-from-venus/Content?oid=2248863|title=The view from Venus Jacque Fresco designed a society without politics, poverty and war. Will it ever leave the drawing board?|journal=Orlando Weekly|date=October 12, 2011|accessdateaccess-date=September 17, 2015}}</ref>

The first Zeitgeist documentary which predates the organization Zeitgeist movement, borrowed from the works of [[Eustace Mullins]], [[Lyndon LaRouche]], and radio host [[Alex Jones]].<ref name="Goldberg" /> Much of its footage was taken directly from Alex Jones documentaries.<ref name="Goldberg" />

The group holds an annual event, Z-Day (or Zeitgeist Day), an "educational forum" held in March. ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported on the second Z-Day held at [[Manhattan Community College]] in New York in 2009 which included lectures by Peter Joseph and Jacque Fresco.<ref name="Feuer" /> This event sold out with 900 people paying $10 each to attend. The event's organizers said that 450 connected events in 70 countries around the globe also took place.<ref name="Feuer" />

==Reactions==

An article in the ''[[Journal of Contemporary Religion]]'' describes the movement as an example of a "[[conspirituality]]", a synthesis of [[New Age]] spirituality and [[conspiracy theory]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Ward, Charlotte|author2=Voas, David|year=2011|title=The Emergence of Conspirituality|journal=Journal of Contemporary Religion|volume=26|issue=1|pages=109–111|doi=10.1080/13537903.2011.539846|s2cid=143742975}}</ref>

[[Michelle Goldberg]] of ''[[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet Magazine]]'' called the movement "the world's first Internet-based apocalyptic cult, with members who parrot the party line with cheerful, rote fidelity."<ref name="Goldberg">{{cite web|url=http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/57732/brave-new-world|title=Brave New World|author=Goldberg, Michelle|date=February 2, 2011|work=[[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]]|accessdateaccess-date=November 14, 2018}}</ref> In her opinion, the movement is "devoted to a kind of sci-fi planetary communism", and the [[Zeitgeist (film series)#Zeitgeist: The Movie|2007 documentary]] that "sparked" the movement was "steeped in far-right, isolationist, and covertly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories."<ref name="Goldberg" />

Alan Feuer of ''[[The New York Times]]'' said the movement was like "a utopian presentation of a money-free and computer-driven vision of the future, a wholesale reimagination of civilization, as if Karl Marx and Carl Sagan had hired John Lennon from his "Imagine" days to do no less than redesign the underlying structures of planetary life."<ref name="Feuer">{{cite news|last=Feuer|first=Alan|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/nyregion/17zeitgeist.html|title=They’veThey've Seen the Future and Dislike the Present|work=The New York Times|date=March 17, 2009<!--"A version of this article appeared in print on March 17, 2009, on page A24 of the New York edition." -->|access-date=November 14, 2018}}</ref>

==See also==

{{div col|colwidth=40em}}

* [[Anti-consumerism]]

* [[Criticism of capitalism]]

* [[Environmental movement]]

* [[Environmentalism]]

* [[Money Free Party]]

* [[Post-growth]]

* [[Post-scarcity economy]]

* [[Structural fix]]

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* [[Technological utopianism]]

* [[Yellow socialism]]

{{div col end}}

==References==

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==External links==

* {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeitgeist Movement}}

[[Category:Environmental organizations established in 2008]]▼

[[Category:The Zeitgeist Movement| ]]

[[Category:Anti-consumerist groups]]

▲[[Category:Environmental organizations established in 2008]]

[[Category:International sustainability organizations]]