We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, May 30, 2016

Zeitgeist representations

Click here to access article and a 2:03:07 Zeitgeist video posted by economist David Ruccio on his website Occasional Links & Commentary

I have only had time to view about 25 minutes of this video in which much was explained about the money system, and how it is created in the US by a consortium of banks known as the Federal Reserve and other banking institutions through loans. I believe that this explanation is accurate, but more importantly Ruccio, an economist, appears to believe it is accurate by posting it on his website even though he as some reservations about the video's interpretation of their explanation. 

Please understand that he must use this oblique method to post his views because they are incompatible with capitalist theology in order to secure his career in economics. This threat to our livelihoods is a prime method used by our capitalist overseers to insure that we ordinary people are not infected with any radical ideas. He writes:
What I find interesting about the film is less the conspiracy-driven analysis of the monetary system and the Federal Reserve (although there’s a certain validity to the idea that people are forced to have the freedom to sell their ability to work in order to pay off their debt) than the argument that capitalism perpetuates the conditions it claims to address and that it’s possible to imagine a different economy, one that puts environmental friendliness, sustainability, and abundance as fundamental economic and social goals. Zeitgeist offers a particular representation of the economy as it is and how it can be made better, in a manner that runs directly counter to the representations offered by most official economists in the United States.

That and the fact that the film has been viewed on Youtube over half a million times.