Review: Zeitgeist Addendum

by Jack

April 3, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Tagged: , , , ,

I’ve been watching the Zeitgeist films (or as they self-identify, “The Zeitgeist Movement”).

The first film is heavy on conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods that caricature legitimate dissent — I recommend not watching it. It’s value to me lay in putting a name to a face, Bill Hicks, Prophet Most High:

The second film, aside from a couple of references back to the first one, is a lot better. When I drop truth bombs like, “the fractional-reserve banking system makes us all capitalist oppressors of each other“, or, “employment is slavery“, I kinda just assume you all share my background in finance and economics (or that you’re good at Wikipedia) and that it doesn’t come off as a maladjusted rant.

The first hour of the second film, Zeitgeist Addendum, explains what I mean in pretty graphs, well-defined lay terminology, and rampant mindfuck paranoia. The second hour goes into Utopian technological post-scarcity economics. Watch the film free off Google video; or head through the link, download it, and watch it big.

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  1. Jack

    on April 3, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    Note to self: post-scarcity will never be 100% because of positional goods. A post-scarcity micro economy would need to out-compete capitalism, never an easy task.

  2. Jared

    on April 7, 2009 at 2:55 pm

    I have so much trouble believing that Zeitgeist Addendum isn’t made of crazy that I can’t bring myself to watch it. :(

  3. Jack

    on April 7, 2009 at 11:02 pm

    Yeah, it’s pure Emmanuel Goldstein. By conflating the problems in the banking system with Astrology and conspiracy theories they delegitimize dissent.

  4. Jack

    on April 7, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    Here’s the slice I’m talking about. These are the bits with minimal crazy:

    ~6:59 – ~19:28: Fractional Reserve Banking.
    ~6:59 – ~24:00: The “slavery” argument as a whole.

    Seventeen minutes to freedom.

    Fractional reserve banking is why Ron Paul wants to go back to the gold standard. It might also be what Cheney was talking about when he said, “deficits don’t matter.” Interest is against Sharia. Interesting things to think about.