Debating Zeitgeist Moving Forward

The third of the Zeitgeist movies was recently released online.

I sent out the link to a lot of people I know, not because I agree with the contents of the film, just because its intellectually an interesting film. Zeitgeist, the first film, had a phenomenal impact with young people who had the itch, that itch that says - this ain't right, something ain't right with the world. After dealing with organised religion and the monetary system, many felt their itch very well scratched, and with that, a 'cult' (and I am using that word very carefully and in the usual context) following developed, including the Zeitgeist Movement. ZMV talks more about society's problems and how our current system is, well, rubbish. Peter Joesph then goes on to elaborate on the solution in more detail than ever.

An interesting debate developed after Stefan Molyneux posted a response on his YouTube channel.

This was followed up by Peter Joesph himself, releasing the following response.



Stefan than released another response which as far as I am aware of has not been replied to yet.



And here's my review of all these reviews, and a perspective on the debate. Stefan's first video I felt was rather condescending and his points would have much better received if he hadn't been laughing at his own jokes all the time. For a philosopher its all a bit strange, you'd have thought he would have been more, well, wise. He did also use some fairly weak circumstantial examples to criticise ZMV with. I think this did a lot to agitate Peter Joesph and shape his tone of reply. However in Stefan's reply to the reply, his tone gets more serious, as he probably realises his earlier mistakes.

I tend to agree with Stefan's overall philosophy and also assessment of ZMV. The Zeitgeist solution involving the resource-based economy and central planning is a scary concept and no matter how well intentioned this system might be, it is still a system, and systems need to be run by someone. That opens the small problem of power being available, power corrupting - which it always has and always will do, not least because psychopaths drift towards positions of power whilst the rest of us stand by and watch because, well, we're too nice. Stefan challenges Peter to agree to a non-aggression means of implementing the Zeitgeist solution and its an interesting point that goes unmentioned by PJ in his films. What about people who don't want to be part of the new system...what happens to them? We can't help but look at history for examples.