12 Reasons Why The Zeitgeist Movement Could Fail

SOYMB Blog re-posts the critical comments of a member of the WSM that were placed on their discussion list.

I first came into contact with the Zeitgeist Movement after reading a short article about it at the Socialism Or Your Money Back blog and to be honest I was enthralled, that was until I went down to London for the Fresco/Meadows lecture event. By that time I realised that there were various flaws ideologically inherent within the movement itself. As far as I can see these are...

1. GRADUALISM v REVOLUTION. What I mean by this is Jacques Fresco's plan to construct and establish a gigantic Venus Project style proto-city somewhere in the South American jungle with the hope that this will act as the spark of a colossal social domino effect that will gradually bring a world socialist society into existence all over the world. This plan is doomed from the very outset...
2. THE "COLLAPSE" OF CAPITALISM. The false belief (prevalent since the 19th Century) that capitalism will collapse of its own accord leading to the rather lazy and dangerous theory that we need not bother about the certain opposition of the owning class in the future because the entire system will implode anyway. Capitalism will not collapse!
3. ZEITGEIST AS A 'GRASSROOTS' MOVEMENT. The insistence of Fresco/Meadows/Joseph that the ZG movement is and should remain "non-political". If anything the social upheavals that face us today and the material conditions which have given rise to the emergence of ZG are the most urgently political issues in the entire history of our species.
4. CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS. A lack of "class consciousness" or self awareness about the role of the current international working class both in terms of our place in history and the worldwide revolutionary role we must inhabit in order to bring about a Resource Based Economy (or World Socialism). There are only two classes in society - employers and salary earners. Us and them!
5. THE TERROR OF EVER MENTIONING SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM. What seems like deliberate obfuscation and fudging of the true definitions of socialism/communism by the ZG spokespeople in terms of the regimes that existed and continue to exist in Russia, Cuba, Eastern Europe, China etc. These were left wing fascist regimes actually known as state capitalism. Socialism is perhaps the most misunderstood and bastardised term in recent history!
6. THE STATE. No clear plan of how we are to deal with the certain opposition of the worldwide owning class, who although comprised of only a few thousand individuals have in their power the most devastating arsenal of monstrous weaponry in the entire history of humanity as well as the armed forces, government, police and penal/judiciary systems. The state exists and operates in their interests. We must capture it! How do we organise this?
7. MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. The assertion by Peter Joseph that once the dissemination of ZG ideas has captured the public imagination, the working class should then engage in protests such as the non payment of rent, tax, bills etc. This could be misguided futile romance and is wasteful of energy and time.
8. SOME ABSENCE OF HISTORICAL REFERENCE. One could be forgiven for thinking that the very idea of a global moneyless/stateless society was actually invented by Jacques Fresco if the cult of personality that surrounds him is anything to go by. This I believe is because there appears to be very little historical reference within the main ZG argument.
9. CONSPIRACY AS IDEOLOGICAL BASIS. Peter Joseph is already trying to distance himself from the conspiratorial material in the first ZG movie. Nevertheless the tag of the ZG movement as a bunch of conspiracy theorists still tends to stick.
10. FALSE ECONOMIC THEORIES. As a basis for the mistaken idea that capitalism will soon collapse, it appears that the misinterpetation of one single 1970's economic pamphlet ("Modern Money Mechanics") underpins much of the ZG position on economics and is utilised as proof that we are all headed for economic and social armaggedon. These debt theories are muddled and untrue.
11. MEMBERSHIP. There is no effective means of assessing membership other than a counter on the global website which records how many anonymous people have registered by simply leaving their email address. This is no way of accurately measuring strength. In real terms ZG has no members at all if this is anything to go by. Could it even be said the ZG movement is a glorified fanclub of the online movies?
12. CYBERNATION. Jacques Fresco believes ultimately that once world socialism is established, humans can give up thinking for themselves and leave most if not all of the important decisions to vast computers. He also asserts that in the first stages of world socialist society the world would be run with the help of an elite crew of technological experts...about 5% of the population. Sounds familiar? What worries me however is how humanity could prevent this technocracy from becoming corrupt in terms of maintaining power.

I will now go through each of the 12 criticisms again from a purely world socialist perspective and try to allay any confusion that I have caused .

1.GRADUALISM v REVOLUTION. History is littered with examples of failed ideas dreamt up by various utopian thinkers and philanthropists as a means of escaping capitalism. From the Levellers in the 17th century, the Luddites at the dawn of the industrial revolution, Robert Owen's experiment at New Lanark (which incidentally ruined his finances), workers councils and collective farms in Soviet Russia, the Co-Op Movement and the Kibbutzim of Zionist Israel we are presented with a whole plethora of schemes which either failed, collapsed or were even successful insofar as they were subsumed into the capitalist economic mainframe. Fresco's plan for the building of the first VP style cities (within capitalism remember) could just be the latest in a long line of these failures. This cannot work!
Apart from the truly collosal expense of building such a city within the framework of the current monetary system there is also the very real danger of sabotage in terms of invasion or bombing by the armed forces of the owning class...that's presuming such an impossible city were ever even built in the first place! Ok, so let's presume that such a utopia did come to fruition. How could it survive without trading with the outside world and thus becoming part of the system? How would raw materials, energy and food be accessed? How could it defend itself from the possibility of attack from the armies of Capital?
This idea is utter folly because It is impossible to have the existence of two diametrically opposing social systems simultaneously on the same planet. There cannot exist on this earth a bubble of a future world socialist society coinciding with capitalism. It is contradictory to the extent that even Peter Joseph himself is confused as to what this plan means. You only have to listen to the contradictions he made on his radio broadcast of Wed 7th October 2009 where astonishingly he supports the plan for the building of the "first cities" at the beginning of his show then later on very correctly asserts that such a plan would end up as a commune and fail! In short capitalism cannot be phased out of existence like this...it must be abolished by the peaceful collective r/evolutionary mass action of the majority of wage and salary earners all over the world who understand and desire world socialism.

2.THE "COLLAPSE" OF CAPITALISM. The current monetary system undergoes periodic economic booms and slumps in the level of production and the rate of profitability. These events roughly occur every ten years. The crisis we are in now is similar to the worldwide financial emergencies of the 1870's/80's and the 1930's when various "experts" predicted the imminent collapse of the world financial system. It didn't happen then and it won't happen now. Capitalism has been mired in the quagmire of economic depression before but it has always recovered from this state due to the internal workings of the profit system which are cyclical in nature. These cyclical crises are due to the chaotic nature of production in capitalism which leads to one section of the economy expanding inordinately speedier than other sections. This congestion (or glut) in the market causes a chain reaction which affects other sectors of the economy and leads to a global downturn. In this society when debts become a colossal burden they can simply be written off or the owning class can opt for a more radical solution...world war, which creates such devastation that it can take decades to build societal infrastructures back up again...thus gunning the engine of world finance. Either way the profit system remains intact. Capitalism has always been in debt. In fact the entire planet is in debt...to itself! For further reading simply google the pamphlet "Why Capitalism Will Not Collapse" .

3. ZG AS A 'GRASSROOTS' MOVEMENT. In light of the fact that large numbers of workers are becoming more and more disillusioned with mainstream capitalist politics and corruption, the figureheads of the ZG movement appear to have airbrushed the concept of politics entirely out of the ZG equation by stating that the movement is entirely non political! This is dubious. I firmly believe Fresco/Meadows/Joseph have realised what a turn off even the word 'politics' is for most workers and in order to attract as many 'members' as possible from anywhere they have decided to ditch it in fear of putting people off. What is politics anyway but the often internally conflicting interrelationships among people in society, and what has society been for the past few thousand years but a series of class struggles?
The movement for the abolition of capitalism MUST be political because when we eliminate the profit system we also eliminate the privelege, power and wealth of our masters. They will most likely do everything in their power to oppose us so we must organise ourselves POLITICALLY to de-throne them. Instead of shying away from the fact that through the prism of politics we have the only means of organising the abolition of present conditions, the ZG movement should be concerned with informing workers that they are the most dynamic and intelligent class ever to have emerged on the world political stage. The abolition of capitalism is THE most political issue that has ever faced humanity. We can't sweep away terminology simply because it's not convenient, trendy or cool enough.

4. CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS. Above all it seems that the ZG hierarchy do not want to associate the movement with something as seemingly outdated as the term "Working Class". It simply does not fit in with their futuristic vision of the VP/RBE technological paradise. When I attended the October lecture in London I gained great insight when I heard Roxanne Meadows dismiss the term in front of me. She explained that she and Jacques did refer to the "Labour Class" now and then but they did not use the expression "Working Class". This again is perhaps because it is not hip or cool enough. It does not fit, it seems too old fashioned, too stuck in the past.
Above all the worldwide working class must be informed of their similiarities rather than their supposed differences. This cuts across cultural, nationalistic and "racial" lines. It is also vital to inform workers of the dangers of believing in the lie of the existence of the so called "middle class" or of any subdivision or stratification of our class for that matter. This is what class consciousness means. There are two great classes in this society, the class who own wealth but don't produce any of it and the class who produce wealth but don't own any of it. At the moment the international working class are unaware of the enormous power that we wield. We are a sleeping collosus. What needs to happen is a process of enlightenment where workers become self aware of their position in society. Their class position in terms of both the span of history and how we can remake history. Negating positive and affirming terminology, however outdated can be misleading.

5. THE TERROR OF EVER MENTIONING SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM. When I was at the Lecture in London someone posed the question "Isn't ZG just communism?". Roxanne and Jacques swiftly answered saying that socialism and communism were really only different manifestations of the monetary system like capitalism or fascism. This is misleading. It is misleading because what they failed to mention was that the regimes that existed in Russia and the Eastern Bloc etc were actually state capitalist and literally had nothing whatever to do with what socialism/communism really means. Basically Fresco/Meadows/Joseph are not letting on. I am sure they know all about state capitalism, in fact I'm convinced they know but again discussing this kind of thing doesn't fit in with what they are trying to promote.
Let me explain what true world socialism or communism (which generically both refer to exactly the same thing) actually means. World socialism means... 1. Common ownership of the worlds resources by the entire population of the planet. 2. Democratic control by and in the interests of the global community. 3. Production solely for use and not for profit. 4. Free access to the means of living. Basically then a world without money, laws, governments, armies and all of the other hideous manifestations of the profit system.
It is not in the interests of Jacques Fresco or Roxanne Meadows to get bogged down in explaining what really went on in the left wing fascist regimes which everyone thought were socialist. For convenience and quickness they have simply rebranded world socialism and called it a "Resource Based Economy" because it sounds brand new. They are hoping for a short cut to world socialism. This is one of the many problems with the whole ZG ethos...it seems half baked and there are no short cuts to world socialism. It seems the ZG figureheads are almost making their ethos up as they go along.

6. THE STATE. This is the one issue that concerns me the most with the ZG movement because if we don't get this right first of all then we face extinction as a species. It's as simple as that. This issue is of prime importance and cannot be left to chance. The state is the public power of coercion. It exists in order to allow the owning class to protect its property ownership and therefore exploit the rest of the population. The state manifests itself among other things as government, judiciary, prisons and the instruments of power. These are the army, navy, air and police forces. Before we can ever hope to establish world socialism we as a class must capture this machinery...the machinery of state. The only way we can capture this power is by voting capitalism out of existence by electing socialist delegates to power in parliament.
The difference between all other previous revolutions and the worldwide socialist revolution is how it will affect our masters. In the past members of the owning class from varying different countries have been able to accept a transition to a different form of class society with the knowledge that they could expect to morph their power and wealth to a new form. Basically they would still be on top. However a worldwide socialist revolution would strip them of their power, privelege and wealth. We can expect overwhelming opposition from them. With this in mind it is essential that the working class are armed with the desire and knowledge of world socialism as well as the machinery of state behind them.
If we don't get this right then we could face the prospect of worldwide bloodshed and massacre in a violent confrontation with the capitalist state. Even though the armed forces are staffed by workers, we cannnot fully depend on the hope that all of them will come over to the world socialist cause. It is alright having a worldwide popular movement like ZG but that's not enough. The mass movement (or political party) of the workers must "constitute itself as the legitimate authority in society through the democratic capture of the state". Otherwise we are fucked.
Instead of wasting time and energy trying to build VP cities as bubbles of world socialism whilst waiting for capitalism to collapse we must organise for a mass political action.

7. MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. I believe this idea stems from the romantic idea of revolution or rebellion...whatever you want to call it. For me the primary task is to build a strong World Socialist Movement. A force with an IRON WILL! Consider the time that has been wasted already with time being a commodity that we do not have in abundance. We have wasted enough time trying to find short cuts to socialism by trying to reform capitalism out of existence, or not paying our bills or getting involved in futile demonstrations. If we go on like this we may genuinely lose our one and only chance to establish a society where bills and tax returns will be a thing of the past.

8.SOME ABSENCE OF HISTORICAL REFERENCE. The main port of call for people first coming into contact with ZG ideas are the online movies, with Addendum specifically as the source of ZG's socialistic point of view. What I mean here is that if one had never heard of the idea of a moneyless stateless society then watched the ZG movies for the first time the impression given would be that the idea of a VP/RBE society was totally new. Well it isn't. In fact it's as old as the hills really because these ideas have been floating around for almost the past 200 years.
With ZG you will find little mention of important historical thinkers and philosophers or past acheivements of the working class in terms of suffrage, working conditions, wage levels, unionisation and civil rights. Neither is there any clear explanation of how preceding social systems gave rise to capitalism. We dismiss history at our peril.

9. CONSPIRACY AS IDEOLOGICAL BASIS. It has to be said that conspiracy theories probably have some basis in fact but it is dangerous to spend too much time concerned with whether the monetary system is a gigantic secret conspiracy or not. Believe me I have spent time dwelling on this stuff and it did me no good. The machinations of capitalism can be explained quite simply without society being enveloped in a mystical mist. The obsession with this kind of thing detracts from the central issue which is the spreading of ideas and massed class action. The other thing to bear in mind is that conspiracy theories do nothing for your mental health!

10.FALSE ECONOMIC THEORIES. For further reading check the article "Banks, Money and Thin Air" by Adam Buick .

11. MEMBERSHIP. In order to assert ourselves as a truly legitimate force in society I believe we have to organise as a mass political movement all over the world. We need to create a mass party of the working class. In so doing we could elect socialist delegates into the various parliaments all over the world.This mass party will also be the only political organisation in history to actually sow the seeds of it's own abolition because once world socialism has been established there will no longer be any need for such a party. World socialism will only be achieved by the majority of the working class who understand and desire it. Otherwise we will repeat the mistakes of the past. We have to be absolutley sure and steadfast in what we comprehend and demand. To this end a concrete membership system is essential. Otherwise we have a situation where there exists a huge lumbering organisation which is an umbrella to a multiplicity of different opinions and strategies. This in turn leads to the very real possibility of the fragmentation of this unwieldy force buckling under the weight of its own confusion. This scenario could spell disaster for the whole of humanity in the face of very real aggresion from the owning class because they will capitalise on this division and attack. With no control of the state machine at our disposal, our worldwide organisation however large in terms of numbers would be in the gunsights of the owning class. We must organise consciously and politically to be able to vote capitalism out of existence. Having a membership system measured as it is now by counting email addresses is no good.

12. CYBERNATION. The problem with this idea is that it obviates the human need to organise, co-operate and...think! I do not believe for a second that human beings will sit back and allow computers to do most of our decision making for us. These ideas of technocracy in terms of automation and cybernation first surfaced in the 1930's at the time of the last world economic emergency! For further reading please consult the classic article on this issue, Technocracy, by Edgar Hardcastle

I think in some ways ZG could be our last chance as a means of catapulting humanity out of slavery and into the next system of society...BUT WE HAVE TO GET THINGS IDEOLOGICALLY RIGHT FIRST before we get anywhere because what ZG is doing now is trying to run before it can walk. Otherwise what we have is a house of cards built on ideological foundations of sand. A house that could collapse!

For a final summing up of these ideas please check the article "FUTURE AL FRESCO, OR THE HOUSE OF CARDS THAT JACQUES BUILT"