Is it possible, to totally bring about a mutation in what is?
To go into this question of bringing about a total revolution,
one must have an extraordinary sense of awareness.
The crisis especially now, is a crisis in consciousness.
A crisis that cannot anymore accept the old norms.
It seems to me, though man has cultivated the external world
and has more or less mastered it
Inwardly, he is still as he was.
We want happiness.
We do not want suffering.
Now we are actually creating more unnecessary suffering.
That "one-million dollars" will not bring inner peace.
This money brings more frustration, more suspicion, more anxiety
but people do not understand.
I see all this potential, and I see it squandered.
God damnit an entire generation pumping gas, and waiting tables.
...slaves with white collars.
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes
working jobs we hate, so we can buy shit we don't need.
We're the middle-children of history, man.
No purpose or place.
We have no great war... no great depression...
Our "great war" is the spiritual war.
Our "great depression", is our lives.
We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars...
...but we won't
and we're slowly learning that fact
and we're very, very pissed off.
Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. - Victor Hugo
When you're born in this world you're given a ticket to the freak-show
and when you're born in America you're given a front row seat.
Everybody's got a cellphone that'll make pancakes and rub their balls
so nobody want's to rock the boat. Nobody wants to change.
We're in a nice downward glide.
I call it "circling the drain".
I think we squandered great gifts. I think humans were given great, great gifts.
We polluted it with this STUFF...
...things, material goods, games, gizmos, toys, gadgets...
...having possessions
"He's got a bigger truck! Did you see his truck? It's bigger than mine! I'm gettin' a new truck!"
Part 1 - The Freakshow
"Here's a big truck! Oooh, I'm gettin that one! That's what, you got a video in there? DVD too?"
Hi Eric, thank you so much for being with us today.
Thanks for sliding on
We are here to talk to Eric about black-friday, it has come early this year.
>> That's right. With the economy the way it is retailers are doing everything they can
to pry dollars out of reluctant customers hands.
So, you know this is a very important season to retailers it could be 25 to 40 percent of their years total sales.
So if they can expand the shopping season by a little bit, by advancing it...
Anything in this economy helps.
>> Well I mean, at this point though last year people were pinching pennies just as much as this year
so why are we seeing this now?
>> Well we're seeing it now because it's a way to expand the shopping season
and give retailers that many more chances to...
...you know, sink their hooks into you.
This is the world I grew up in.
Like many others I born with this bright, flashing, shiney promise shoved right in my face
that true happiness was just a credit card swipe away.
When I was a kid the world told me that the coolest kids wore the coolest sneakers.
When I got a little older it convinced me that my success was defined
by a college degree, and a job with benefits.
Today it reminds me endlessly that I should have another drink and buy a new car.
But I gotta tell you, the only real message I've heard through the noise
is that this world knows, better than I do
what's best for me.
>> It seems to me that most Americans have internalized the propaganda
that consumerism pummles and plies them with daily.
So, we internalize this system, we can't envisage anything different.
A number of people were speaking about, "Well why do people break windows and steal consumer goods?"
The poor have been pummeled with this propaganda.
What do you expect them to do, go out and loot a good job and good education?
>> Captain Capitalism! Wow!
What are you doing here?
>> I think the better questions son is, just what do you think YOU'RE doing here?
>> Putting money in my piggybank!
>> Crippling our nation by stagnating the economy and throwing us into another recession is more like it!
>> Hey girl! Can you say "bling-bling"?
>> Why do we consume to such a crazy level?
A level that the research shows over and over
is undermining our health, our societal well-being, and the environment.
We have to step back from before even starting this
to recognize that most of what we do, most of what we see as "normal"
is actually shaped by our cultural norms.
And unfortunately, where we are today is that culture has made Consumerism
feel "normal", or "natural".
So that watching 5 hours of television a day as a child
or drinking huge caffeinated beverages at 5 years old
as this picture here suggests
is ok... We don't even question it anymore.
You know, and a strong illustration of that for me is this series of pictures.
Now if you can't see, up at the top-right there's a little girl
surrounded by all of her pink toys.
This is a little Korean girl.
The artist actually was more interested in the genderfication process of children
Just look from how young we are brought into the consumer culture
where we define our well-being, our happiness, our leisure
through the stuff we have. Through the stuff that surrounds us.
And here's a picture of an American little girl
of course, with the princess outfit
which I've discovered from my own four nieces that... well, it's big business.
Disney makes multiple billions of dollars a year
selling their Disney princess fantasies to little girls.
So around the industrial world and increasingly in developing countries
consumerism, is becoming the default cultural pattern.
>> In the 1950s... late 50s, early 60s...
a bunch of advertising guys got together
in Madison avenue, and decided that what they were trying to do
was sell products to younger people
They thought "we should try and sell products to younger people because then they'll buy things their whole life."
So they'll try and sell them soft drinks, or bread, or cigars
or whatever the hell they were selling them, and they thought...
"We'll try and appeal to young people."
because the youth was the place where you were going to be able to sell things
and what happened was that, in a strange kind of quirk of fate
youth began to be celebrated by society
in a way that it had never been at any time in human history
because what used to be celebrated was experience and cleverness
but what happened was that what became valuable was youth
the quality of youth which made you a consumer
so what happened is that they started concentrating on all of these people
society started to turn on its head
because with the deification of youth...
Youth has a byproduct. The byproduct of youth is inexperience.
By the nature of having youth, you don't have any experience, you're too young to have it.
It became fashionable and desirable to be young and to be stupid!
And it started to be a fashion, and that grew, and that grew
and that grew, and that grew...
and now, that's what all the kids want to be.
and this terrible movement... nobody meant it!
>> Everytime that I open my mouth critically, with regards to this country
everytime I feel like I want to criticize this country
There's this little nagging voice in the back of my head that says...
"How dare you Paul. "
"Do you know how fat and lazy you are? Do you know how priviledged you are?"
"How dare you criticize this country."
"How dare you sit there, in your life of abject luxury and criticize this great country!"
"How dare you."
But you know what, ladies and gentlemen?
I cannot carry the torch anymore for this country.
America is not the "land of the free", nor is it the "home of the brave"...
It is neither of those things.
America is a country of aggressively ignorant fucking cowards.
People that are just willing to hand over their civil liberties
lock, stock and barrel
without even taking the time to inform themselves.
They're so stupid and so diluted
and so caught in the quagmire that is there empty info-tainment filled lives
that they just line up for somebody to tell them how they should feel.
The real problem is us. We're the problem
because we're too distracted by bullshit that's on the fucking T.V.
to stand up for what's in our best interests.
What's the answer to that? How do you stop that?
>> Individually, they earn about $12 a week in allowance.
But collectively, 8 to 12 year old kids in the U.S, 20 million strong
wield 43 billion dollars of their parents money in annual spending power
and they've got the stars to prove it.
>> What makes her a superstar on the launch-pad?
>> When she walked in and said, "Hi I'm Victoria Justice and I'm 12 years old."
I was like, "Alright, this kid has real charisma."
I'm thinking, "This is a kid I want to probably develop a T.V. show for. "
>> Do you want to be a movie star? Or, a singing star?
>> I wanna do both
>> You want it all.
>> I wanna do both. I want it all! Why not?
>> This season premiere got almost 9 million viewers
making it the highest rated season premiere in MTV's history.
Season 4 follows the cast as they head to their homeland, Italy
in what can only be described as the beginnings of a global takeover.
>> Can we get the Lindsey Lohan D.U.I. arrest out of the teleprompter
and put my script in it. Is that possible?
>> As to the charge of first degree murder...
Verdict as to count one, we the jury...
>> Press association is reporting that singer Amy Winehouse
has been found dead in her London apartment.
>> ...and I'm, I'm done with the Paris Hilton story.
>> In this country, being stupid is no longer considered to be a detriment.
Being stupid is considered to be a virtue in this country.
We reward the stupid in this country.
That's exactly the opposite thing that we should do.
There should be social pressure on people that are willfully ignorant
to not be stupid, and instead we reward people...
We reward stupidity in this country!
We reward people with multi-million dollar T.V. contracts
so that all the other stupid people can sit around and watch how stupid these people are.
It breaks my heart to see a place like this that has so much potential
absolutely fucking wasted.
>> But there's a reason. There's a reason.
There's a reason for this. There's a reason education sucks
and it's the same reason that it will never, ever, ever be fixed.
Because the owners of this country don't want that.
I'm talking about the real owners now.
The real owners. The big wealthy business interests
that control things and make all the important decisions.
They own YOU.
They own everything.
They own and control the corporations, they've long since bought and paid for the senate
the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they've got the judges in their back pocket
and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear
They got you by the balls!
They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying.
Lobbying, to get what they want.
Well we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else.
But I'll tell you what they don't want.
They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking.
They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking.
They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them.
That's against their interests.
That's right.
They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out
how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
They don't want that. You know what they want?
They want obedient workers.
Obedient workers.
People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork,
and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs
with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime
and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it
and now they're coming for your Social Security money.
They want your fucking retirement money.
They want it back
so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street.
And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all from you, sooner or later
because they own this fucking place.
It's a big club.
and you ain't in it!
Part 2 - The Big Club
>> Think stars are having all of the fun?
Uh... no.
>> No pressure tonight.
>> These days, nobodies making more and spending more
than the button-down badasses of Wall Street.
We'll tour the hedgerow mega-homes they're buying with all that hedge fund cash...
>> Wade Carrington's the largest estate in Grenitch, and it's 25 million dollars.
>> ...show you the insane mega-yachts and jumbo jets paid for with their mind-boggling bonuses...
>> I'm just wondering now, what do you need a commercial size airliner for?
>> ...and reveal how big name charities are just another excuse to flash their cash.
>> They raised in one night, 71 million dollars.
>> We are taking from working families who are struggling to survive
taking hundreds of billions of dollars, and giving it to millionaires and billionaires.
>> I think we have a class war.
I think Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats
they're very, very wealthy, they're rich and they're very powerful
are using the Republican party to actually escalate a war
against the poor and working class of all colors
but it's more a "class war" than a "civil war" that really has to do with
organized greed at the top, and disorganized poor and working people on the bottom.
>> We need to build a beautiful granite and bronze monument in our nation's capital
to honor American heros. Unsung American heros
and those unsung American heros are, the rich.
>> Many have jobs and work hard, yet they're struggling to survive.
Some people showing up at a homeless shelter in Woodland
don't necessarily fit the mold of your typical homeless person.
>> The shelter planned for an increase in homeless.
Just not this much, this fast.
She says the slow economy has put many in dire straits.
>> Try to imagine an America without rich people.
Rich people contribute a lot to this country.
They pay a disproportionate amount, for all sorts of things that help poor people
whether it's food, or whether it's medicine, or whether it's helping send other kids to college.
The rich do a lot of good.
>> And what's going on now is, there's this philosophical myth
that has been taking Washington by storm.
It's always been around but for some reason recently it's been inflamed.
That, somehow, if these companies that have shirked tax law
that have taken a lot of their money offshore so that profits can't even be judged
let alone taxed...
are somehow, if they get a lower tax rate, going to bring it all back
create more jobs and, I don't know, fire their accounting staffs and take back their loopholes.
>> Can you pin down exactly what would keep investors happy, make them feel more confident?
>> Uh, that's a tough one.
Um... see, I'm a trader. I don't really care about that kind of stuff.
I go with what the... if I see an oportunity to make money, I go with that.
So, for most traders it's not about... we don't really care that much how they're going to fix the economy
how they're going to fix the whole situation.
Our job is to make money from it.
If a man has an apartment, stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we call him crazy.
If a woman has a trailer house, full of cats, we call her nuts.
But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation
we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they're role models. - B. Lester
>> The racking up of wealth... you would have thought the crisis would have stopped that
Actually more billionaires emerged in India last year, than ever!
The doubled last year.
The wealth of the rich in this country has accelerated
just last year.
What happened was that leading hedgefund owners got personal remunerations
of three billion dollars each
in one year.
Now, I thought it was obscene and insane a few years ago when they got 250 million.
But they're now hauling in three billion.
And as a famous statement, I think by Andrew Mellon, was way back...
"In a crisis" he said, "asset's return to their rightful owners"
i. e. him
And that in effect is the plug of the finacial world right now.
>> New Rule; Television networks have to stop making shows that try and put a happy ending
on America's enormous wealth disparity
and instead make a show called "Shine my Shoes, Fuckface".
Come on! This is America where the top 400 people have more money than
the bottom 150 million combined!
If ABC can make a show where millionaires give their money to poor people
Animal Planet can make a show where pigs grow wings and fly out of Donald Trump's ass.
>> Am I suppose to be honored?
>> America rich aren't giving you money, they're taking your money.
Between the years 1980 and 2005, 80% of all new income generated in this country
went to the richest 1%.
Let me put that in terms that even you fat-ass teabaggers can understand.
Say 100 Americans get together and order a 100 slice pizza.
The pizza arrives, they open the box
and the first guy takes 80 slices.
And if someone suggests, "Why don't you just take 79 slices?"
That's Socialism!
I know, I know, it's just a T.V. show.
But it does reinforce the stupid idea people have
that rich people would love us and share with us
if only they got to walk a mile in our cheap, plastic shoes.
But they're the reason the shoe factory moved to China.
We have this fantasy that our interests and the interest of the super-rich are the same.
Like, somehow the rich will eventually get so full that they'll explode
and the candy will rain down on the rest of us.
Like they're some kind of piñata of benevolence.
But here's the thing about a piñata, it doesn't open on it's own
you have to beat it with a stick.
>> The rich do a lot of good, and what I'm saying Bill
is they don't need to be vilified the way they are in America today.
>> This is Wall Street bitch, you don't belong here!
I'm your greatest fear!
The shit that you wish you could be, but are too weak to get here!
Is it starting to make sense? Is it starting to become clear?
>> Our financial market actively rewards being a giant cunt.
Like a radioactive Ann Coulter who's grown to Godzilla proportions.
Does that not freak anyone out?
>>... Pfizer sales reps promoted it illegally, for surgical pain in higher doses.
Uses the FDA had rejected due to safety concerns.
Doctors responded.
Instead of prescribing Ibuprofen at pennies a pill
they prescribed Bextra at nearly $3 a pill.
>> Sales were very good.
>> You might have heard of "The Yes Men"
They do social activism pranks on corporations.
For example, last week they announced that General Electric
which uses loopholes to avoid taxes
was going to give back the 3.2 billion dollars in refunds it got from the government
or another time they told the media that Dow Chemical
would finally be paying the victims of a massive chemical spill
millions of dollars in restitution.
Or another time they annouced that director Michael Bay
would be giving us all 2 hours of our lives back.
So after these hoaxes, the corporations have to come out and go
"Oh, actually... that good thing you heard about? Yeah, we're totally NOT doing that. No. Not at all. "
Now here's the interesting part. During the half hour when everyone thinks the hoax is true
the company's stock tumbles like crazy.
G.E. lost billions. Dow lost billions.
This means, we've created a system where companies get massively punished
for doing good things for humanity.
So if a corporation announces it will hostilely take over a 50 year old, locally owned company
and fire all their employees.
It's given the financial equivelant of a high-five and a reach-around.
If on the other hand it anounces it will give free AIDS medication
to the dying people of Ghana
then Wall Street knocks it unconscious and draws the word "queer" on its forehead.
>> In this grainy seminar video posted on the file sharing site YouTube
a Pittsburg lawfirm, on how to use loopholes
to ensure foreign workes can get the jobs instead of Americans.
>>... and our goal is clearly, NOT to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker.
>> Here's the thing. If Wall Street weren't around yet
would you create it to be this way?
Would you say, "Lets make a financial system wherein companies are rewarded"
"for being piping hot douche-holes."
"and if one of them does something good for humanity"
"we'll treat that with suspicion."
"You announced you're gonna pay the victims of a horrific oil spill?"
"What are you, Sean Penn?"
"You're a multi-national. You can't go around caring about people!"
"Could you imagine if every company did that?"
"The whole system would break down!"
"People would have food and clean water. There'd be fewer wars, death and hardship!"
"What kind of world that be!?"
"Not one I want MY trust-fund babies to grow up in... "
>> I'm Matthew Lesko and the government's giving away more money than ever before!
85 billion dollars, to help bank executives take a vacation!
25 billion dollars to make cars that people don't want to buy!
600 billion dollars to subsidise sub-prime lending practices
that got us in this mess in the first place!
Who cares about hyper-inflation, crippling debt
or a massive tax burden on your grand kids!
>> Jack Abramhoff may be the most notorious and crooked lobbyist of our time.
He was at the center of a massive scandal of brazen corruption and influence peddling.
As a Republican lobbyist starting in the mid 1990s
he became a master at showering gifts on lawmakers
in return for their votes on legislation and tax breaks
favorable to his clients.
He was so good at it, he took home 20 million dollars a year.
It all came crashing down 5 years ago when Jack Abramhoff pled guilty
to corrupting public officials, tax evasion, and fraud
and served three and a half years in prison.
Today he's a symbol of how money corrupts Washington.
In our interview tonight, he opens up his playbook for the first time
and explains exactly how he used his clients' money
to buy powerful friends and influence legislation.
>> I was actually thinking of writing a book, "The Idiot's Guide to Buying a Congressman"
as a way to put this all down, but...
First, I think most congressmen don't feel they're being bought.
Most congressmen I think can, in their own mind, justify the system.
>> Rationalize...
>> Rationalize it. And by the way we wanted, as lobbyists, for them to feel that way.
>> Abramhoff would provide freebees and gifts
looking for favors for his clients, in return.
He'd lavish certain congressmen and senators with access to private jets
and junkets to the world's great golf destinations like Saint Andrews in Scotland.
Free meals at his own upscale Washington restaurant
and access to the best tickets to all the areas sporting events
including two skyboxes at Washington Redskins games.
>> I spent over a million dollars a year on tickets to sporting events
and concerts and what-not at all the venues.
>> A million dollars?
>> Yea.
>> For the best seats?
>> THE best seats.
>> But the best way to get a congressional office to do his bidding, he says
was to offer a staffer a job that could triple his salary.
>> When we would become friendly with an office and they were important to us
and the Chief of Staff was a competent person
I would say, or my staff would say to him or her at some point
"You know, when you're done working on the hill"
"we'd very much like for you to consider coming to work for us."
Now the moment I said that to them, or any of our staff said that to them
That was it. We owned them.
>> You're asking me to trust the top one tenth of one percent of wage earners
and the politicians that they outright purchase
with stewardship of the economy.
You're asking me to trust them to run the economy in such a way that not only benefits them
but benefits me and everyone else besides.
>> How many congressional offices did you actually own?
>> We probably had very strong influence in
100 offices at a time.
>> <gasp> Come on...
>> No
>> 100 offices?
>> In those days I would view that as a failure
because that leaves 335 offices that we didn't.
>> When Barack Obama and I were literally sitting at a desk in a high rise in Chicago
beginning to plan how we would try to get this economy out the ditch
literally
the first guy I called, was Jon Corzine.
Jon Corzine - 54th Governor of New Jersey former CEO at Goldman Sachs and MF Global
Net Worth approximately $300 million.
>> These people have never given me any reason to trust them.
Use a little Google Fu, go and look up white collar corporate crime statistics
you know, from 1980 on.
These names show up over, and over, and over
and over again for the same shit.
Embezzlement, bribery of public officials, outright theft, tax evasion, misstatements of profits
and they do it again, and again, and again
and again, and pay billions of dollars in fines
and they do it again, and again, and again...
This is not just an isolated incident or two, this is a pattern.
This is a part of the way they do business.
Part of doing business in America, is breaking the law
over and over and over again...
and getting caught over and over and over again...
and you're asking me to trust these people.
>> I'm not here to talk about plans to deal with this till 2017.
I'm saying we've got a real problem
and I'm tired of Republicans and Democrats who either...
Republians who want to burn the place to the ground
and Democrats with all due respect, who want to offer a plan
that gets it through the end of their second term of their presidency
and then screws me and my kids when it's over.
And until we do that we have to deal with the extraction that is at foot
it is the reason the financial markets are behaving the way their behaving
that is a mathematical fact! This is not some opinion!
This is a mathematical fact!
Tens of trillions of dollars are being extracted from the United States of America.
Democrats aren't dong it. Republicans are not doing it.
An entire integrated system; financial system, trading system, taxing system
that was created by both parties over a period of two decades
is at work on our entire country right now!
And we're sitting here arguing about whether we should do the four trillion dollar plan
that kicks the can down the road for the president for 2017
or burn the place to the ground.
>> At this point in history, you can no longer afford to live in blissful ignorance of the facts.
You can no longer afford to be wrong about this.
The decisions that these people make, the laws that these people break,
the money that these people extract from the global economy illegally
...and in some cases legally...
everything that they do affects every aspect of your life.
>>...and, you know the joke is if you want to talk to someone from Goldman Sachs
call the treasury department.
I mean, it's just staffed with people who are from Wall Street.
So, it's an area where they really do control both ends of the debate.
You don't really have much choice between the Republicans and Democrats.
You know, you get the Democrats in, you have as many people from Wall Street
as with the Republicans. Maybe more.
So it's certainly a very, very big problem.
>> Here's the way it works.
It's 10:14 PM, eastern time.
You're gonna get up at 5:30 in the morning tomorrow.
If the kids are sick, forget about it. I don't care.
Get somebody to take care of them.
That lousy commute that takes you an hour and a half...
Suck up and do it, don't give me any bologna.
Go to work at a job that you hate, but you're taking the job because you need the money
and your boss is a jerk, and you can't stand your coworkers
I don't wanna hear any complaining.
You have to stay late.
And then make that commute back.
And then feed your kids some garbage that you have that you call food.
And then call it a night and start the next day.
I don't want any back-talk but I want your money.
I'm gonna take your money, and I'm gonna give it to my friends!
>> There is a capacity to basically fire a politician
who disagrees with me by taking funding away from him.
People of the United States of America, your congress is bought!
Your congress is incapable of making legislation
on healthcare, banking, trade or taxes because if they do it
they will lose their political funding, and they won't do it!
And I won't have a country that is run by a bought-congress!
>> Why aren't we directly helping home owners with their debt burden?
Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy?
Is this the United States congress, or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs!?
>> My name is Mitch McConnell
My name is Boehner
My name is Bush
My name is Clinton
My name is Obama
My name is Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd...
I'll tell you want to think, what to believe. You just turn over your money!
And I'm gonna give it to my buddy over there, Bernanke.
And he's gonna distribute it to all the banks and all the businesses
and all the hedge funds.
And they're gonna borrow billions and trillions at zero interest rate.
Part 3 - The Iron Fist
>> Does the government work for us or do we work for the government?
How has the United States changed from a humble, peaceful republic
into a police state?
Tonight, "Freedom vs. Security".
This past week the United States supreme court told police that
they could break down the door of your home if they smell what they think is
smoke from the use of Marijuana coming from inside.
Last week the Indiana supreme court told police in that state
that they can enter a private home even if they're not looking for evidence of a crime.
And yesterday the Justice Department revealed that
FBI and local police are executing "sneak and peek" warrants.
They break into your home, seize an item
and don't tell you that they've done this for over 18 months.
And they are doing this in ordinary criminal prosecutions
not just for the persuit of terrorists, as the law requires.
This is all about the slow loss of personal libery.
>> The number one priority of this government
and future governments
will be to protect the American people against terrorist attack.
>> After the events of 9/11, the Department of Justice
came to us in the congress and said...
"These terrorist succeeded, because we didn't have (we in the government)"
"did not have sufficient power to have stopped them"
"and we, therefore need the congress to pass legislation"
"correcting these deficiencies in previous law"
"and giving us (the government) more power."
>> So just 6 weeks after the attack on the World Trade Center
congress passed a new law called
"The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools"
"Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" act of 2001
The PATRIOT act.
Sure is the "Axis of Evil" for bad acronyms.
The PATRIOT act is, "An act to deter and punish terrorist acts"
"in the United States and around the world."
"to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools,"
"and for other purposes."
Other purposes?
>> Under the USA PATRIOT act, among other things
you can now have people who are tried on a military barge
off the coast, a U.S. military barge off our coast or some other country.
They could be tried by a military tribunal. We wouldn't know the charges against them
let alone the evidence
They could be convicted...
They could be sentanced to death by this military tribunal
and thrown overboard
and we wouldn't even know their names.
>> When the PATRIOT act was first sent to the congress by the Bush administration
it came with a request that we hold no hearings on it
so that there would be no public input
or public discourse.
>> Imagine if your family was awakened in the middle of the night
by a team of federal officers.
Well that's exactly what happened to a woman and her children
in Grandville county.
>> Amanda Lamb is in the news room joining us now
and Amanda, we understand that because
this case falls under the PATRIOT act
a lot of the usual rights for defendants, not available here.
>> That's right David. The PATRIOT act was created after 9/11.
It allows federal agents to investigate suspected cases of terrorism, swiftly
in order to better protect our country.
But one Grandville county mother says
it gives the federal government too much leeway.
Her son was taken into federal custody 2 months ago
she can't get him out, and she can't get any answers.
According to the United States government
this 10th grader who has never been in trouble with the law before
is now a suspected terrorist.
>> They said that he was being arrested for
making bomb threats.
>> Annette Lundeby told the officers that
someone stole her son's I.P. address
and used it to make crank calls through the internet
making it look like the calls had originated
from her home.
She says the FBI's extensive search of her home
turned up nothing.
>> Quitely and quickly, congress reauthorized
the PATRIOT act last week
just before ducking out for the holiday weekend.
The senate passed the bill, 72 to 23.
The house followed suit just hours later
passing it 250 to 153.
All in all, more than 80 Democrats supported the bill.
We're going to bring in Jeffery Rosen.
He's a law professor at George Washington University
he's also the legal affairs editor at the New Republic.
Jeffery, thanks so much for joining us, really appreciate it.
Let me start with that fundamental question.
Is there something significantly different about
this PATRIOT act as opposed to the one during the Bush years?
>> Absolutely not, in fact the three most controversial provisions of the PATRIOT act
were reauthorized with barely any debate.
These are the provisions that authorize roving wire-taps,
the infamous section 215
which allows the government to seize "any tangible thing"
data, cellphone records, what have you...
merely by saying that it's "relevant to a terrorism investigation".
And then finally, the secret national security letters
that also allow the government to seize any data
and if you receive this letter
you're not even allowed to mention it to anyone else
and an investigation in 2007 found
serious and wide-spread abuse of these letters.
It found there were 140,000 of them issued
between 2003 and 2005
many with people with no connection to terrorism.
These are very provisions that Harry Reid and
other Democrats properly denounced during the Bush years
and this past week as you said, with barely any debate
the same people just voted to reauthorize
these terrible provisions.
>> Government was giving us, kind of a running tally...
>> There have been a total of over 480 people
arrested or detained...
...we've arrested or detained, 614 persons...
...we've detained nearly 1000 individuals...
>> He swept broadly, he swept blindly
until the number was over 1000
and people started asking questions.
They said "How many of these 1000 people"
"have been charged with the crimes of September 11th?"
and the answer was zero.
Then people asked "Well, how many of these people, these suspected terroristists"
"have been charged with any crime related to terrorism?"
and the answer was zero.
Those were not good answers from the government's perspective
so what did the government do?
In early November it annouced
"We no longer will give out a daily tally."
"It's too difficult for us to give out a daily tally."
It wasn't difficult for them, when they thought
it sent the message that, "We're doing something to fight terrorism"
but when it started to send the message
"We're locking up lots of people who aren't even charged with terrorism"
they just stopped telling us how many people were detained.
>> Most congress members admit that
they never even read it.
>> It is an immutable law of the universe
that if you give government power
it uses it.
>> But in reality, our liberties have been on decline
from almost the moment of the conception of this great country.
The hateful "Alien and Sedition" acts, which criminalized free speech
that was critical of the government
were inacted in the 18th century by the same generation
indeed, in some cases the same people
who adopted the first admendment with its iconic language that
"congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech"
Those laws expired, when Jefferson refused to enforce them
but two generations later another president would argue
that he could arrest state officials and newspaper editors
with whom he had political differences
and two generations after that
the government enacted the espionage act of 1917
which made it a crime to speak out against World War 1
or to oppose the draft.
And two generations after that
F.D.R. arrested Japanese Americans and Italian Americans
just because of their nationalities
and the supreme court let them get away with it.
And two generations after that
the war on drugs was prosecuted
to distract us from the disaster in Vietnam
and the economic destruction brought about
by wage and price controls and the rejection of the gold standard.
Each of these assaults on freedom
used the previous assault as a legal justification.
>> The war in Iraq may be over
but America is still fighting its so-called "war on terror".
U.S. president Barack Obama says
he wouldn't block a new security bill, which for the first time
writes into law the indefinite detention
of alleged terrorists at Guantanamo Bay
even American citizens.
>> It's very, very noxious...
Very, very reminiscent of the "Emergency Regulations"
introduced in Nazi Germany in 1933.
It goes way beyond the "War Powers" act
and it's meant to intimidate people
to make sure that people don't act up or speak out.
>> U.S. congress passed a bill
which repeals "Posse Comitatus"
which means, that we have now
institutionalized and codified marial law.
Right now, the battle against terrorism involves all of us.
Everybody in the country is a potential terrorist.
And the words that they used in there
to bring everybody in as a potential terrorist
is "any associated forces"
which means that if you happen to visit a website
or happen to attend a meeting...
happen to do one association
you can be accused of being a terrorist
and the bill says you have "no right to a lawyer".
And this president, just about a year ago announced
that some of these "bad people", even though they're American citizens
don't deserve even charges
that they can now be assassinated.
>> The vote was 93 to 7.
So only 7 senators object
to the literal evisceration of the fifth amendment.
>> Someone missing fingers on their hands, is a suspect.
Someone who has guns...
Somebody who has ammunition...
Someone who has more than 7 days of food in their house...
>> We're talking about the military arresting citizens
and then you disappear forever with no trial
for no reason.
And they say they can kill you if they want
and torture you
or have a military trial. Whatever they want.
I mean this is, this is...
This is the royal flush.
This is the "crème de la crème".
This is the Mike Tyson in his prime of boxers.
The Babe Ruth of Baseball.
You sit here and you look at this
and it is so mind blowing
and it's happened, and now they're just going to
slowly roll it out, and they'll use it on examples
of "turbaned brown people" so it'll be ok...
>> Radical change is immediately noticeable
not just when it is radical
but when it is disruptive.
But if it happens slowly, and in steps
if it happens in degrees
eventually the radical change will have happened
and we will not have noticed it at all.
>> The internet is one of the United States most robust
and growing industries.
It enables free and open communication among billions
and it's been the backbone of protests around the world.
But a new bill proposes we give the power to censor the internet
to the entertainment industry.
>> You got to care about this because SOPA is next.
It's coming. What that is, if you don't know
it's corporate censorship. That's what it is.
It means if they see fit the government can shut down your entire website.
because you have copyrighted material on it including links.
They can sue you. You will technically be a felon.
If your daughter posts a video of her lip-syncing
to Michael Jackson, or whatever
she can be sued for millions of dollars and is now a felon.
>> Federal law enforcement and national security
aiming to get new regulations
that would make it easier for them to wire-tap internet communications.
So that includes email, facebook, skype, and other sites
so how can the U.S. promote internet freedom in other countries
yet restrict those same freedoms here at home?
>> Some amongst those who had been campaigning against SOPA and PIPA
did not know the U.S. government already had the authority
to shut down entire websites, and in fact
has excersised that authority on numerous occasions.
Late last year, a number of nations signed a new global copyright agreement
known as "The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement"
or ACTA
signatories include the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, South Korea
and 22 member states of the European Union.
>> The problem is that it's vauge enough
that abuses can happen.
>> These acts have potentially disastrous consequences
for things that we enjoy doing.
It's not just about taking down "rogue sites".
It has far more dangerous implications.
The fact of the matter is the vast majority of people debating it
have no idea what it is.
They don't have any idea how to use the internet, for one thing
They have freely admitted that!
It's like putting toddlers at the controls of a 747
but not just "a" 747...
...EVERY 747, 777, Airbus A320, every aircraft in the world.
Do you think that's a good idea?
>> NO!!
>> Now it's tempting to stop the story here
and conclude that the problem is that
lawmakers are either clueless or evil
or possibly evilly clueless
and just leave it there
which is not a very satisfying place to go
because it's fundamentally a council of dispair.
>> People who see nothing wrong with restricting internet freedoms
I don't think their primary interest right now is
being able to shut down access.
In fact, I think they actually like the idea of us using
as many social networks as possible.
Because what they want to do is, they want to eavesdrop.
Actually let people say as much as they want
then let us watch, let us collect it
and then let us do whatever we want with that information
whether that's indefinite detention
or whether that's shutting down websites
>> If there was trust throughout the system
ACTA wouldn't be scary.
There's no trust, that's why it's scary.
>> The preponents of SOPA, the "Motion Picture Association of America"
circulated a memo citing research that
SOPA would probably work
because it uses the same measures as are used in
Syria,
China,
and Uzbekistan...
These measures are effective in those countries
and so they would work in America too.
The fact that this will be a dismal failure over and over and over again
will just make them try harder at ineffective remedies.
>> And all these people that do not care
they say they don't care
well guess what, mush-head...
It's your fault we're in this predicament to begin with.
We can't afford to talk about football anymore, ok?
But you have to let them know, and they're going to start caring
when their wife dissappears
and their friends are gone
and their kid is a felon
and their business website was taken down...
They're going to care. This is something we have to care about.
We have to wake up.
>> It is an immutable law of the universe
that if you give government power
it uses it.
>> Wake up stupid, or your fucked!
>> Have you ever noticed
that the government always claims
that when it does these things, it does so in the name of
"safety"
When is the last time you heard the government give
as a basis for its behavior
"personal freedom"?
Some will say "Come on Judge, this is America. We're free."
And I would say "There are none who are so enslaved..."
"...as those who falsely believe themselves to be free."
>> This is an open message to police
to the military
to TSA
Homeland Security
and to members of every other enforcement arm of the government.
I know that most of you chose the life in uniform
because you love your country.
Because you believed in what that uniform stood for.
Because you genuinely wanted to serve and protect.
But I also know that deep down inside
you sense that something has gone terribly wrong.
You've watched with the rest of us
as elected officials have legislated our constitutional rights away
piece by piece.
You've watched as the state surveillance apparatus
has expanded like a cancer
through the heart of the nation.
And you've seen the corruption that become more blatant with every passing year.
I can understand why you haven't wanted to acknowledge the implications of what you're witnessing.
To face the reality of what's happening
would mean admitting that you've been betrayed.
And it would mean coming to terms with the fact that
you are working for criminals.
I don't envy your position.
I know your job depends on following orders.
And I know you have families to support
and bills to pay
and I know that if you stand up
you could lose everything.
But what you need to understand
is that, continuing to submit to unconstitutional
and immoral orders
will not protect you from whats coming.
You may tell yourself that you can draw your line in the sand later
that there's a certain point where you'll say no.
But in reality, you crossed the line a long time ago.
You're standing on the wrong side of history
right now.
You are already participating in the destruction of this country
and the trampling of our rights...
of your childrens' rights...
and your grandchildrens' rights.
You are the enforcement arm
of a criminal enterprise.
You are a servant of a rapidly expanding police state
and you DO have a choice.
I'm not telling you this to condemn you.
I'm telling you this because we, the people
desperately need you to take a stand.
We desperately need you to have the courage to face your commanding officers
and tell them, "No, I didn't sign up for this."
"No, this isn't right."
"No, I will not obey these unlawful orders."
You took an oath to defend the constitution
against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
It's time to start taking that oath seriously.
>> Why are you huring these people!?
It doesn't make any sense!
How do you sleep at night?!
There is no honor in this!
There is no honor in this, man!
>> So look man, that's the fucking job.
The job is, we agreed, that guy gets the gun
and the flashing lights
and you listen to him. "Yes sir / No Sir"
and that means you're a good citizen
and you're not trying to cause any trouble.
And in turn, he doesn't take advantage of this power
that's presented to him by this willingness for people to obey
and he doesn't automatically assume that
everybody OWES it to him...
and that's the problem with older cops that you see
punching people in these Occupy Wall Street crowds.
They've been involved in law enforcement for 30 years
and you have to listen to them. You know...
The whole things disgusting.
It's really disgusting.
It's like, these cops are forced everyday to go out there and
try to combat this ever growing thing
that shows no signs of weakening.
In fact, shows signs of gaining momentum and strength.
And that's why all these actions are being
taken to try to supress it
because they go, "Well, we've got to stop this now"
"because right now it's 30,000 people."
"What the fuck do we do when it's 300,000 people out there?"
"Guess what, 300,000 people are going to come through those doors"
"and they're going to start throwing people out windows."
You know, and I don't think they will.
I mean, it hasn't been a violent movement so far
but that's what they would do if they had 300,000 people.
If you're Mayor Bloomberg
or if you're one of these guys that owns some giant hedge fund
and you've made billions of dollars just raping people your whole life
and then all of the sudden, you know
you picture what you would do
if you were all those people.
You would think, "those people are going to get me."
"They're going to come get me."
>> They're going to storm the gates.
>> Even if they stay non-violent
these people are never going to accept that
because they're always going to assume that
human nature is always violent
so they're going to push these people back
before it ever gets to a point where they can't control it.
You know that Chase paid the cops $4.6 million
made a huge donation to the cops.
>> Of course.
>> Isn't that ridiculous?
>> Do you think that all this is leading up to
a protest, or getting the troops back here
or, like, all of this is just going to lead to something
like a new "Hands Accross America" or a new "We Are the World"?
>> That's so not what's going on here.
What's going on here is some "overthrow the government" type shit.
That's what's going on here.
You know.. this is the only time in our life that I've ever seen this.
Never seen anything even remotely close to it.
People saying "Hey, this system right now doesn't work AT ALL."
Part 4 - The Awakening
Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world.
For indeed, that's all who ever have. - Margaret Mead
>> We will not be silent! We will not obey!
We will not let our government destroy our humanity!
>> If you looked at young blacks
and young whites
with a discerning eye...
and careful hearing...
they have been telling us
and we would not listen!
>> A year ago, thousands of Egyptians shocked the world
when they took to Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Fast forward 365 days
and the iconic square is packed again.
>> You know, they're begining to understand that the game is up.
And yet, in their desperation to preserve their dream
They want to remove any remaining traces of Democracy from the system.
>> Years of anger and frustration spilling over in the Romanian capital.
What began as a protest against healthcare reform
has widened into mass protests against the government.
>> Friday's protests culinates a week of numerous mass-rallies
accross Poland...
>> ...a revolution. These people are also standing for change.
>> My wages didn't go up, but prices went up!
Gas goes up!
Milk goes up!
Trains go up!
How am I suppose to live?
>> Wall Street, and the banker class, the people who actually run this country...
they have a blueprint. And it's written in
all of their Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman textbooks.
Their blueprint, is the destruction of the future of this generation.
>> Thousands of people are out marching here in Santiago today.
It's about people fed up with the inequalities of the current economic system.
>> It is happening in Syria.
It is happening in Clapham.
It's happening in Liverpool,
and that is the nature of the historical moment!
>> My interests is in reclaiming human consciousness
that's autonomous.
That is our organic, natural, evolutionary place.
We are not designed to be following orders.
We are not designed to have
authority figures above us
or submissive people below us.
That is not natural.
It is not normal
and it's certainly not healthy.
>> We are at a pivotal, pivotal evolutionary moment in human history.
And, we're clearly witnessing biological and cultural evolutionary collisions.
I don't know how it's going to shake out.
>> The wealthy in the United States are worried about global unrest.
They're investing in arming their yachts.
They have planes and cars with military-style security features...
>> They're starting to buy Predators.
Drones.
Ok? They're not armed yet, they're just for spying...
Oh that's great.
>> This was meant to be the first post-ideological generation, right?
This was meant to be the generation that never thought of anything
bigger than our facebook profiles and our T.V. screens.
This was meant to be the generation where the only thing Saturday night meant was X-Factor.
I think now, that claim is quite ridiculous.
We are now the generation at the heart of the fight back.
We are now the generation that will stand
with everyone whose fighting back!
>> Humanity marches on!
You can fight it, or fight for it.
When we say "revolution"
we say it with love.
>> They're giving out leaflets to the public
where they say that they want to see the money market system replaced
By a Resource Based Economy
where everyones needs are provided for, free.
>> Because WE'VE got to sit around in this shit for the next 70 years, alright?
Who do you think has to sit here breathing the tained air
eating the mutated fish
watching the vetted reality shit on T.V.
create a nation of malignant imaginations...
It's us, alright? We've got to sit here in this rancid bathwater...
You know, this is a revolution.
This may not be a revolution in the traditional sense
but this is a revolution of the mind.
>> We have to think as a human species.
We have to think as homosapiens.
We have to create global consciousness
if we're going to move this through an industrial revolution
and create a new civilization...
an empathic civilization.
Maybe it's not always about trying to fix something broken. Maybe it's about starting over and creating something better.
What we're seeing here is a defining moment for the human race.
>> We will not wait another moment in fear to stand up for what we know to be right.
It is time we start meeting oppression, with resistance.
>> Hello citizens of the world.
We are Anonymous.
>> The hacker group Anonymous is fighting back
temporarily taking out several government websites...
>> ...but the hacker group called Anonymous
was secretly listening and recording...
>>...the hackivist organization Anonymous has announced plans to...
>> They call themselves Anonymous.
They are hackers on steriods...
>> ...calls itself Anonymous...
So who are these people?
>> Anonymous has no leaders to be targeted.
Anonymous has no headquarters to maintain.
And to become a member you will not be required to fill out a questionnaire.
>> They're this shadowy and motley group
group of hackers and activists
who answer to no one,
drawn together by a love of internet mischief.
>> Now they're evolving into this movement of social change
a real driving force behind the Wall Street occupiers.
No surprise, they're hated by corporate security
but also, hunted by the FBI.
>> The label, Anonymous, is only a symbol
that embodies the collective actions of many autonomous intividuals
fighting against the injustice of the current system
and any individuals or organizations that hide in its shadow
and exploit the world.
>> Anonymous, and a lot of other movements, regard the internet as
sort of independant from any government
and they regard governments interfering in the free flow of the internet
as stepping outside of their jurisdiction.
>> We are the 21st century militia.
We are a part of humanity's developing social immune system.
We are those who have taken up arms to defend ourselves
and others, against those who abuse their positions of power...
...people who do not yet understand that there are no individuals
there is only humanity.
If you believe, as we do, that the current system is a burden to humanity
then you are already a member.
>> We aren't a group,
we're an idea.
We're an expression of the anger
that every person feels
when they see injustice.
>> It's a dark and disturbing vision.
A world where riot police attack with impunity.
Where democracy is corrupted by greed
and dissent is crushed.
That's how Anonymous sees America
and they say, that's why they're fighting back.
>> We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
>> Our weapon is not a gun
but our ability to operate with efficiency in the digital realm.
Our ammunition is not bullets
but information.
And our protection comes from the fact
that we have grown out of the fabric of humanity itself.
We cannot be stopped, because we are not restricted by your rules.
We cannot be beaten, because we are not playing your game.
We are the first stage of a new human evolution
born out of the collective human consciousness
and augmented by the technologies of our time.
Each of us has our own path.
But each of us share the same goal.
A free humanity.
The corrupt fear us. The honest support us. The heroic join us.
>> The people should not fear their government.
The government should fear the people.
We, are the people.
The people are legion.
The people will not forget.
The people will not forgive.
Expect us.
>> Mr Cruise. Come on, be a gentleman.
Give me a sign on it...
Yes!
This is cool, I love it.
Oh thank you so much!
Thank you!
>> And now we have to take that information and that awareness
and that knowledge, and build a foundation
for a new way. A new life.
>> Hi, my name is Marcin.
Farmer... technologist...
I was born in Poland. Now in the U.S.
I started a group called "Open Source Ecology"
We've identified the 50 most important machines that
we think it takes for modern life to exist
things from tractors...
bread ovens...
circuit makers...
Then we set out to create an open-source, do-it-yourself version
that anyone can build and maintain at a fraction of the cost.
We call this the "Global Village Construction Set".
Problem
Lack of freely shared information unnecessarily prohibits
economic distribution and general prosperity
by keeping human inovation in the hands of only a few
while creating artificial material scarcity for most.
Solution
The GVCS is an open enterprise platform
that allows for true collaborative development of key productive technologies
that foster the use of best-practices accessible to everyone.
We are accelerating the inevitable.
A future where everyone has access to economic best-practices.
The 'Global Village Construction Set' is an open source enterprise kernel
consisting of the 50 key industrial machines that reinvent local production.
bringing wealth back to communities.
The GVCS is phase one of the Open Source Ecology platform
that includes an open-source CAD/CAM solution to realize the promise of digital fabrication.
Phase two is the use of the GVCS to create open-source industries, and sustainable communities
virally and world-wide
in parallel to the global economic status-quo and urban sprawl.
This is brought about by ethical supporters and entrepreneurs
using the GVCS platform.
Phase three is a new world of individuals and communities
living beyond the constraints of artificial material scarcity.
Why Now
We all know the world is cracking at the seams.
Despite having access to the most amazing productive technology,
long hours, low job satisfaction, poor distribution of wealth
remain persistant global problems.
The new paradigm requires an unprecedented level of collaboration
necessary to make a comprehensive civilization starter-kit kernel
which was impossible, prior to the digital age.
Market Size
The GVCS technology spans multiple industry sectors
from agraculture, construction, energy production, and industry.
Our competative advantage is a 24/7 development and improvement cycle
around the world via open-source collaboration
not to mention, equipment created with lifetime design
and at a typical 8x cost reduction than industry standards.
Development Roadmap
Presently, we have completed four beta product releases:
The Automated Compressed Earth-Brick Press
Multi-purpose Tractor
Soil Pulveriser
and Hydrolic Power Unit
By April 1st, 2012 we will release 13 further, beta-stage products
in the microfactory, energy production, and construction areas.
By the end of 2012 we will complete the remaining 33 products
after an agressive field testing and product documentation campaign
involving a network of remote collaborators.
By April 1st, 2012
we will recruit a project co-founder, CEO, and CTO
to the core team to develop strategy, production,
and to manage technological development.
The OSE Fellows Program will begin April 1st, 2012;
Individuals who we train and fund to produce a beta product release
and open business model on a time-scale of 6 months.
2012 will also be spent largely developing standards
and a platform to make this one of the most collaborative projects in the world.
We are a distributive enterprise, movement entrepreneur incubator.
Movement entrepreneurs are tech-savvy individuals
organizing world progress by economic development.
a distributive enterprise is an enterprise which maintains replication as one of its core values
by publishing its own trade secrets openly.
At heart, we develop open source technology
we train entrepeneurs via dedicated educational programs
but since we are now in startup we have initial trainees
participate in both research and development, and production runs.
Open source hardware is the next trillion dollar industry.
We are not saying that we will be a huge corporation to acheive this
but instead, that we will generate this value as a distributed movement.
Understanding Peak Oil
Oil is a limited resource.
Oil takes hundreds of millions of years to form.
Peak oil is when oil extraction rates max out and begin to decline.
Rob Hopkins of transition network
is seeking solutions to the problem of peak oil.
>> It started when I was working in Kinsale in Ireland
at the "further education college" there
and we started looking around for...
...there must be places who are using permaculture principles
and sustainability thinking, systems thinking,
to work out how cities and towns and communities
are going to get through peak oil sucessfully.
And we couldn't find any, so we just improvised and did a 20 year plan
for the town of Kinsale, based on the idea that
where we got to in the end, could be better than where we start from now.
Today, the transition network inspires and connects thousands of people
worldwide who seek to reduce carbon emissions at a local level.
>> I think what's changed for us really over the last couple of years
has been, firstly, how the idea of peak oil
has moved from being largely a fringe idea
to something now talked about by a number of governments
and a lot of leading organizations.
It's really moved from being considered a very odd kind of idea
to part of the political mainstream now, really.
This is a process that you start, and you catalyze
and you have no idea where it's going to go or what's going to come out of it.
What does a local authority look like
whose development plan for the next 20 years is based on the end of the age of cheap oil?
...on cutting carbon by 90% a year like we actually are going to need to?
What does that look like? It's an enormous question.
But what's really exciting is today, I think we've sowed the seeds
of people starting to ask those questions.
The transition model has spread quickly around the world.
There are now 320 official initiatives in 14 countries
and thousands more in development.
>> It was really fascinating when about 2 years in to transition
and it really started to gain some traction.
People started coming along and saying...
"You know, Transition is really a fascinating peice of design work."
Transition IS a design project.
When faced with with peak oil and climate change and the need for collective community responses to that
maybe we need to look at this as being a collective design exercise.
How do we disign our way through from where we are now to where we want to get?
The Transition Model
>> There's a lot of value, I think, in acknowledging the work
that people do like this.
When you're actually doing work that comes to be seen as
innovative, or pioneering, or whatever...
it's generally, the people who do that have ploughed a fairly lonely furrow
for quite a long time.
So when will peak oil happen?
There is still a lot of debate on the exact date
but one thing is certain...
No matter what else happens, this is the century in which we must learn to live without fossil fuels.
>> It's about the re-writing of stories
collective cultural stories. The myth, the narratives that we tell ourselves.
The idea that we can just carry on as we are
that technology can solve everything
or that everything is just going to collapse and unravel very quickly
You know, what we DON'T have are the stories
about the generation, the culture, that looks something like peak oil and climate change
square in the face, and responds
with compassion, and creativity, and ingenuity.
That's the story that Transition is trying to tell.
Oil is conserved, demand shrinks
Clean, renewable alternatives are put in place
Sustainable local agriculture
Fewer cars on the road
and a sustainable and healthy future.
Rob Hopkins Transition Network
The Zeitgeist Movement
>> Hi, my name is Peter Joseph
I'm the founder of a social sustainability organization called the Zeitgeist Movement
which, in form, has about 1000 chapeters accross 70 countries
and basically we're all working together to try to bridge some differences
about economic problems that are working its way accross the world
social destabilization, unemployment, debt crisis, environmental destabilization...
and this community is attempting to bring new sustainable ideas
to the forefront, to revolutionize economy as we know it
hence revolutionize "human values" as we know it
so we can try to create a new way of life.
It's a grassroots movement with that basic premise.
>> This movement is essentially a social movement.
It's not... It's easier to describe what it isn't, really.
It's not a political movement.
We don't really recognize politics as a viable option
in addressing the issues that we talk about.
It's a voluntary social movement. A grassroots social movement
that centers on ACTUAL sustainability.
We need a society that functions on a physical level
that actually has advanced, intelligent, automated to the most degree you can... systems.
to enable efficient transport, efficient energy usage, efficient land usage...
Part of our understandings are that we need sustainable city systems
very much like those spoken about
in the Venus Project, or by Buckminster Fuller
or many other futuristic city planners.
So, that's sort of the first level.
We understand that Earth is a finite resource.
Earth is actually entirely A resource.
We think about wave, and wind, and tidal...
It's in fact, one thing.
This is the resource we're on. This is the rock that we're on, that's hurtling through space
and we need to live on it, we need to continue to live on it
and as well as possible.
>> Why do I like the Zeitgeist movement?
Why do I advocate for the Zeitgeist Movement?
It's very simple.
I love this.
>> What we currently refer to as Capitalism
under various guises around the world
and suggested in various doses and concoctions
in the prescripted manuals and political philosophy and economic texts
the monetary based price system is a means of coordinating and organizing so-called economic activity
of consumers, producers, and owners of resources
is ultimately unsustainable.
The reason for this is that it's essentially predicated upon linear consumption
and you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet.
>> Join the Zeitgeist Movement, it is exciting
the people that you meet are fantastic, they think like you
and we're out to make a difference on something that really matters.
>> ...it was, whatever you needed to do to get money.
and what's happened now with the value system disorder
is that, since that's the persuit, that's the devine drive of the system...
that's what status is defined by, that's what your success is defined by...
that everyone can blindly look the other way with how much destruction is occuring in the world
>> And when I look at our species, I just see one that's divided.
We're SO in our infancy. We're having to learn the most basic lessons
in the 21st century.
The Zeitgeist Movement and the Resource Based Economy
doesn't go like that.
It advocates that the Earth is the common heritage of everyone to share.
And not for us to all just dive in and take what we want
but for us to intelligently manage the planet.
>> The monetary system has come to an end.
It was very useful for a while, I've not been anti-money in all of history.
It's changed its usage in history.
You can't be "blanket anti-money" and still understand the history of money.
But we've obviously come to the end of that paradigm now
because now it isn't serving us anymore
and that was the goal to begin with.
It was to ensure that there was enough labor, so there were enough resources,
so that we have the system, so that people are ok.
>> The Zeitgeist Movement, from my perspective
it's all about equality, it's all about preserving our planet
and it's all about thriving on human creativity and innovation.
>> In fact, the truth is this entire sytem of cyclical consumption that we have in this country
is the cause of all of our problems.
>> Zeitgeist: Addendum was mind boggling.
Dots began to connect.
>> Now is that time, to move to that next level.
>> I advocate the Zeitgeist Movement, the Venus Project and a Resource Based Economy
because they represent the only viable alternatives
to the corrupt and unsustainable system that we have today.
>> People aren't following this because Jacque Fresco is their version of Jesus
or because Peter Joseph is a good public speaker...
They have looked at it, and decided that it makes sense to them.
>> ...basically trying to get people from around the world to discuss why, in a very concise manner
they advocate the Zeitgeist Movement, the Venus Project, and of course a Resource Based Economy.
>> Today around the world, many people often say
"I wish we could live like Americans."
I know you've heard this before.
Well, no.
Conspicuous consumption patterns of the American culture
should be despised
by all other countries on this planet.
We have 5% of the population and we consume 30% of the worlds resources.
It's insane.
In a resource based economy, where be base our production and distribution on physical references
starting with the carrying capacity of the Earth...
where we streamline our labor expression towards things that have a long-term social return...
where we get rid of the cancer known as the financial system
and start to share our resources in a diligent way
working togther, avoiding the false values of materialism and consumption pushed upon our culture
we find that we can provide a high quality of life for everyone on this planet
while eliminating all of the central reasons
for war, poverty, destitution, violence, criminal behavior, neurosis...
It would be the dawn of a world we could actually label a civilization
and if that isn't a goal worth working towards
I don't know what is.
>> The future rests in our hands.
Yours and mine.
It rests in the capacity, which we totally have as a species
to make radical shifts
when our survival is necessary.
And maybe WE are the people who will emerge
to create an alternative that enables our species to survive in peace on the planet
otherwise we WILL NOT survive.
The Venus Project Beyond Politics, Poverty and War
>> The Venus Project is the redesign of a culture
in which the elements that comprise the culture are different.
What the Venus Project has to offer
is a way of life without ambiguity
to change the relationship between people.
When you break the patterns that have been established by existing society
you begin to move people in a new direction.
As long as there are prisons, police, armies, navies...
we are not civilized.
When the world joins together
and agrees to use the Earth intelligently
that'll be the beginning of the civilized age.
People say "Well, the trouble with you Jacque, is you want to give people things for nothing."
Let me tell you a little about "things for nothing".
Just being born in any technical country today
you've got the lights, the telephone, the washing machine, air transportation...
You had nothing to do with that. You got it for nothing.
To build a way of life, worthy of man
to humanize society
it is neither Communist, Fascist, nor Socialist
nor Democratic.
To break away from the artificiality, the regimentation...
that dominates our society today
we feel that machines ought to do the filthy, or the repetitious, or the boring jobs.
That man has to be free
to persue the higher things. The higher possibilities of man.
All of the marvels of science and technology
all of the electronic and mechanical wonders
are just so many millions of tons of junk unless it enhances the lives of men.
The reason we emphasize machines and technologies
is to free man, to find the meaning of their own existence and lives.
Our problems today are not political.
Our problems are technical.
Everything that you have...
your radio, your telephone, your airplanes, your transportation...
is all technical.
If it wasn't for technology, you'd be pulling boats along the Volga river.
It's technology that moves things forward.
Human beings are not self-operating entities.
We are operated by many resonant forces.
Of course many of us are not aware of that. It looks like we're perfectly free
making our own decisions.
I know I think for myself. I'm sure you do.
That's an illusion.
You're indoctrinated to a set of values that are unreal.
Indoctrination continuously!
And then all of us together sing "we are free"
..let's go, "we are free".
>> What we are introducing is a new method of organizing and running society
based on the methods of science and technology applied to the social system.
>> You have a society that's a predatory society.
If you get your car banged up, somebody makes money.
You get a toothache, the Dentist makes $1500.
So everybody makes money on every form of misery.
There's no final architecture, or final frontiers,
or final city.
Even the best city I design
will be a straight-jacket to the kids of the future.
They'll design their own cities.
I don't want to follow anybody
and I don't want anybody to follow me.
If what I say makes sense, do it.
If it doesn't, get off.
To build a following where people admire you,
that's dangerous.
Trying to solve your problems politically
by electing this political party or that political party...
ALL politics is immersed in corruption.
We have the brains, the know-how, the technology, and the feasibility
to build an entirely new civilization.
The choice lies with you.
There are no negro problems, or Polish problems,
or Jewish problems, or Greek problems or Women's problems...
they're human problems.
We could either develop paradise on Earth
or oblivion... wipe ourselves out.
Only the future will tell.
What you do to make the future.
Part 5 - The Future
There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. - C.S. Lewis
>> The tremendous progress we've made over the last century
by a series of forces, are in fact accelerating!
To a point that we have the potential in the next three decades
to create a world of abundance.
Now, I'm not saying we don't have our set of problems...
Climate crisis, species extinction, water and energy shortage...
...we surely do.
And as humans, we are far better at seeing the problems way in advance
but ultimately, we knock them down.
Underpinning much of this is technology
and of late, exponentially growing technologies.
We truly are living in an extraordinary time
and many people forget this!
This is Moore's Law over the last hundred years.
I want you to notice two things from this curve.
Number one, how smooth it is.
Through good time and bad time, war time and peace time,
recession, depression, and boom time...
This is the result of faster computers being used to build faster computers.
It doesn't slow for any of our grand challenges.
And also, even though it's plotted on a logarithm curve on the left
it's curving upward.
The rate at which the technology is getting faster is itself, getting faster.
And on this curve, riding on Moore's Law
are a set of extraordinarily powerful technologies
available to all of us.
"Cloud Computing", what my friends at Autodesk call "Infinite Computing"...
Sensors and networks...
Robotics...
3D Printing, which is the ability to
democratize and distribute personalized production around the planet.
Synthetic biology... fuels, vaccines and foods...
Digital medicine... nanomaterials... and A.I.
The world is going to change with or without you... get ready.
>> Science and technology are propelling us forward at accelerating rates
>> That's right, and if we don't understand it
and by "we" I mean the general public
If it's something that... "Oh, I'm not good at that. I don't know anything about it."
Then who is making all of the decisions about science and technology
that are going to determine what kind of future our children live in?
Just some members of congress?
Science is more than a body of knowledge.
It's a way of thinking.
A way of skeptically interrogating the universe
with a fine understanding of human fallibility.
If we are not able to ask skeptical questions
to interrogate those who tell us that something is true
to be skeptical of those in authority
then we're up for grabs
for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along.
It's a thing that Jefferson lay great stress on.
It wasn't enough, he said, to enshrine some rights in a constitution
...or a Bill of Rights...
The people had to be educated
and they had to practice their skepticism and their education
otherwise we don't run the government. The government runs us.
>> My sense is, the problem lies with the fact that
our business leaders, our government leaders and for that matter the rest of us
we are continuing to rely on 18th and 19th century ideas
about human nature and the human journey
that were spawned at the begining of the market era
the nation-state era
and at that period of time we had a great discussion
The Enlightenment.
John Locke, the great political philosopher of the Enlightenment
He said "Look, babies are born tabula rasa. Blank slates."
"They're not born in sin."
But he did leave a little opening.
He said "However, there is a predisposition to acquire property."
Somebody should have caught him on that.
>> Scarcity is contextual
and technology is a resource liberating force.
The cost of solar dropped 50% last year.
Last month MIT put out a study showing that by the end of this decade
in the sunny parts of the United States
solar electricity will be 6 cents per kilowatt hour
compared to 15 cents as a national average.
And if we have abundant energy
we also have abundant water
because we live on a water planet.
We live on a planet 70% covered by water.
Yes, 97.5% is salt water, 2% is ice
and we fight over a half of a percent of the water on this planet
but here too, there is hope
and there is technology coming online
NOT 10-20 years from now, right now.
and the conversation I had with Dean Kamen this morning
one of the great D.I.Y. innovators, I'd like to share with you...
His technology called SlingShot that many of you may have heard of
it's the size of a small dorm room refrigerator.
It's able to generate 1000 liters of clean drinking water a day
out of ANY source. Salt water, polluted water, latrine...
at less than 2 cents a liter.
This is the kind of innovation that exists today.
>> I should like to help everyone if possible.
Jew, Gentile...
black man, white...
We all want to help one another, humans beings are like that.
We want to live by each others happiness, not be each others misery.
We don't want to hate and despise one another.
In this world there's room for every one, and the good Earth is rich
and can provide for every one.
A way of life could be free and beautiful.
But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned mens' souls.
Has barricaded the world with hate.
Has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
>> In the last 10 years
under the radar
there's been some very interesting developments
in evolutionary biology, neurocognitive science,
child development research, and many other fields
which is beginning to challenge some of these long-held shibboleths that we have
about human nature and the meaning of the human journey.
This was the dominant frame of reference:
Utilitarian, self-interested, materialistic.
It really challenges these assumptions.
And with that, the institutions that we have created
based on those assumptions.
Our educational institutions, our business practices,
our governing instituions, etcetera...
So here's the question.
We know that consciousness changes in history.
The way our brain is wired today
is not the way a medieval serf's brain would be wired
and their brain wouldn't be the same as
the wiring of a forager/hunter 30 thousand years ago.
So the question I asked at the beginning of this study 6 years ago
or this book
is, how does consciousness change in history?
Is it possible that we human beings, who are soft-wired for empathic distress
is it possible we could actually extend our empathy to the entire human race
as an extended family
and to our fellow creatures
as part of our evolutionary family
and to the biosphere as our common community?
>> We're going to hit 70% penetration of cell phones in the developing world
by the end of 2013.
Think about it.
That a Masai warrior on a cell phone in the middle of Kenya
has better mobile com than president Reagan did 25 years ago.
And if they're on a smart phone on Google
they've got access to more knowledge and information than president Clinton did 15 years ago.
They're living in a world of information and communication abundance
that no one could have ever predicted!
Here is the biggest force for bringing about a world of abundance.
I call it, the rising billion.
In 2010 we had just short of 2 billion people online, connected.
By 2020, that's going from 2 billion to 5 billion internet users.
3 billion new minds who have never been heard from before
are connecting to the global conversation.
And they will get healthier by using a tricorder
and they'll become better educated by using the Khan Academy
a by literally being able to use 3D printing and infinite computing
more productive than ever before.
So what could 3 billion rising, healthy, educated, productive members of humanity bring to us?
How about a set of voices that have never been heard from before.
What about giving the oppressed, wherever they might be
the voice to be heard and the voice to act for the first time ever
What will these 3 billion people bring?
What about contributions we can't even predict.
>> But if we have gone from empathy in blood ties
to empathy in religious associational ties
to empathy based on national identification
is it really a big stretch to imagine
the new technologies allow us to connect our empathy
to the human race at large, in a single biosphere?
Today we're in a globally connected world.
Our youngsters can begin to empathize across all the traditional lines.
We almost can grasp the possibility
of global empathy.
The new communications
the ICT revolution, is open-source, flat, peer to peer, here's the key word...
It's distributed.
Meaning 2 billion people can put a little utensil in their hand
and they can send their own video, audio, text, to all the other 2 billion people
at the same time, at the speed of light, with more power than the centralized BBC
and we did it all in 15 years.
>> We have heard the rationals offered by the superpowers.
We know who speaks for the nations
but who speaks for the human species?
Who speaks for Earth?
Our global civilization is clearly on the edge of failure
in the most important task it faces;
Preserving the lives and well-being of its citizens
and the future habitability of the planet.
Shouldn't we consider, in every nation
major changes in the traditional ways of doing things?
A fundamental restructure, of economic, political, social, and religious institutions?
Fundamental changes in society
are sometimes labeled impractical
or contrary to human nature
as if there were only ONE human nature.
But fundamental changes can clearly be made. We're surrounded by them.
In the last two centuries, abject slavery
which was with us for thousands of years
has almost entirely been eliminated
in a stirring, world-wide revolution.
Women, systematically mistreated for millenia
are gradually gaining the political and economic power
traditionally denied them.
And some wars of aggression have recently been stopped or curtailed
because of a revulsion felt by the people in the aggressor nations.
>> What gives me tremendous confidence in the future
is the fact that we are now more empowered as individuals
to take on the grand challenges of this planet.
We have the tools, with this exponential technology
We have the passion of the D.I.Y. innovator
And we have 3 billion new minds coming online to work with us
to solve the grand challenges
to do that which WE MUST do!
>> Our children are being revolutionized, in terms of their consciousness
to fit the new tempral-spacial orientation of the biosphere.
The kids in 1st grade are learning
that everything they do...
The clothes they wear, the food they eat,
the electricity they use, the car the family drives...
All of that affects their carbon footprint
and impacts some other human being, or some other creature
somewhere else in the biosphere
because we're all connected. THAT's a revolution.
We have the technology that allows us to extend the central nervous system
and to think viscerally as a family, not just intellectually.
It's not going to give us utopia.
It's not going to eliminate the fragilities
and the inconsistencies, and the imperfections
and the struggle of being alive.
But it will give us a sense of our stewardship of this planet.
And we know at the end of our life when we look back
we don't look back at our life, and we don't say...
"Gee, that momement where I made a new deal..."
"I felt really impregnable as an island to myself..."
"I felt really detached and rational, and really objective..."
"I was able to extinguish my libido, and enjoy my utility..."
I just don't think...
There may be some pathalogical person that does that
but, as my wife said, it's the death bed chest.
When we look back at our life
we look back and its the moments where we had that empathic connection
where we transcended ourselves
and could actually FEEL a loved one, or someone else
as if we were experiencing it ourself.
We feel super-alive.
It's of those moments where we actually feel transcendence.
You don't have to be religious.
And we felt, we're connected.
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned
so as to have the life that is waiting for us. - Joseph Campbell
>> You the people, have the power!
The power to create happiness!
You the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful!
To make this life a wonderful adventure!
Let us use that power! Let us all unite!
Let us fight for a new world
a decent world
that will give men a chance to work
that will you the future
and old-age a security.
By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power.
But they lie, they do not fulfill their promise
they never will!
Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise!
Let us fight to free the world!
To do away with national barriers!
To do away with greed!
...with hate, and intolerance!
Let us fight for a world of reason!
A world where science and progress
will lead to ALL mens' happiness.
>> The old appeals to racial, sexual, and religious chauvinism
and to rabid nationalist ferver
are beginning not to work.
A new consciousness is developing which sees the Earth as a
single organism
and recognizes that an organism at war with itself
is doomed.
We are one planet.
A film by RELIC
final mix and master by THE VOICE OF REASON
all footage provided by The Interwebz
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Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt the people doing it. - unknown
More powerful than the will to win, is the courage to begin. - unknown
Man is free the instant he wants to be. - Voltaire
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. - Horace Mann
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. - Frederick Douglass
All limitations are self-imposed. - unknown
>> I want to live my life taking the risk all the time
that I don't know anything like enough yet.
That I haven't understood enough.
That I CAN'T know enough.
That I'm always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest
of future knowledge and wisdom.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Take the risk of thinking for yourself.
Much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way.
This presentation was brought to you by Crackin Films.