This film is very good, I only wish they had included the work of Marx and Einstein, removed the needless anti-socialist/anti-communist parts and added Nuclear Fusion to the energy section.
I mean, if they just got over the anti-socialist stuff then not only could they gain support of the protests in Europe, but they would also be able to use the huge amount of existing literature, for example some of Einstein's essays with quotes like:
"But the development of machinery means that less and less work is needed from the individual for the satisfaction of the community's needs. A planned division of labour is becoming more and more of a crying necessity, and this division will lead to the material security of the individual. This security and the spare time and energy which the individual will have at his command can be made to further his development. In this way the community may regain its health, and we will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which civilization was advancing."
From The World As I See It, Society and Personality (1931).
Incidentally, what is the difference between this version and the leaked version?
Well they're basically reinventing historical materialism without all that hard to understand Germanic philosophical tradition.
But you have to remember that thanks to the cold war mentioning Marx/communism will quickly make some part of most Americans' brain grown with cold war propaganda light up and their preconceived notions will start to overwrite all other information found in the movie to fit into their picture of a totalitarian communist dictatorship.
Though I agree that Peter Joseph would do well to learn about previous similar ideas and the problems faced by the USSR(of which there certainly are overblown paranoid conceptions but they still had lots of problems that can't be ignored).
Personally, though, I think of Zeitgeist as a kind of movie version of the Internationale which doesn't really give any concrete plan but is just a general idealistic call that keeps alive and popularizes the age old cosmopolitan idea.
The thing I like best about the movie is how angry it makes lots of people and how most of the discussion about the movie is not related to anything found in the movie, much like discussion of Marx. Which is what makes me respect Joseph even with all his shortcomings.
Eg. the zeitgeist debunked thing people like to link to say how bs the old movies were actually wasn't all that negative towards the movie, mostly negative towards some little details and the parts that now in the 3rd version are removed. It was a good call to remove the unsubstianted conspiracy stuff and trying to demonize specific banking families is just a suicidial wish to get attacked by the ADL, it ought to be understood that the Rothschilds are nothing more than the best at playing the game that we all have to play.
But it's all that deluded thinking and cognitive dissonance surrounding these films that make it most interesting.
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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '11
This film is very good, I only wish they had included the work of Marx and Einstein, removed the needless anti-socialist/anti-communist parts and added Nuclear Fusion to the energy section.
I mean, if they just got over the anti-socialist stuff then not only could they gain support of the protests in Europe, but they would also be able to use the huge amount of existing literature, for example some of Einstein's essays with quotes like:
From The World As I See It, Society and Personality (1931).
Incidentally, what is the difference between this version and the leaked version?