Founded in 2008, The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM) is a Sustainability Advocacy Group which operates through a network of Regional Chapters, Project Teams, Public Events, Media Expressions and Charity Operations. Global Website: http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/
TZM's activism is explicitly based on non-violent methods of communication with the core focus on educating the public about possibe root sour
ces of many common personal, social and ecological problems today, coupled with the vast problem solving and humanity improving potential science and technology has now enabled - but yet goes unapplied, due to barriers inherent in the current, established social system. While the term “Activism” is correct by its exact meaning, TZM's awareness work should not be misconstrued as relating to culturally common, traditional “activist protest” actions such as we have seen historically. Rather, TZM expresses itself through targeted, rational educational projects that work not to impose, dictate or blindly persuade – but to set in motion a train of thought that is logically self-realizing when the causal considerations of “sustainability”[4] and “public health”[5] are referenced from a scientific perspective. However, TZM's pursuit is still very similar to traditional Civil Rights Movements of the past in that the observations reveal the truly unnecessary oppression inherent in our current social order, which structurally and sociologically restricts human well-being and potential for the vast majority of the world's population, not to mention stifles broad improvement in general due to its established methods. For instance, the current social model, while perpetuating enormous levels of corrosive economic inefficiency in general, as will be described in further essays, also intrinsically supports one economic group or “class” of people over another, perpetuating technically unnecessary imbalance and relative deprivation. This could be called “economic bigotry” in its effect and it is no less insidious than discrimination rooted in gender, ethnicity, religion or creed. However, this inherent “bigotry” is really only a part of a larger condition which could be termed “Structural Violence”,[6] illuminating a broad spectrum of “built in” suffering, inhumanity and deprivation that is simply accepted as “normality” today by an uninformed majority. This context of “Violence” stretches much farther and deeper than many consider. The scope of how our socioeconomic system unnecessarily diminishes our public health and inhibits our progress today can only be recognized clearly when we take a more detached “technical” or “scientific” perspective of social affairs, bypassing our traditional, often blinding familiarities. The relative nature of our awareness often falls victim to assumptions of perceived “normality” where, say, the ongoing deprivation and poverty of over 3 billion people[7] might be seen as a “natural”, inalterable social state to those who are not aware of the amount of food actually produced in the world, where it goes, how it is wasted or the technical nature of efficient & abundant food production possibilities in the modern day. This unseen “Violence” can be extended to cultural Memes[8] as well where social traditions and their psychology can, without direct malicious intent, create resulting consequences that are damaging to a human being. For instance, there are religious cultures in the world that opt out of any form of common medical treatment.[9] While many might argue the moral or ethical parameters of what it means for a child in such a culture to die of a common illness that could have been resolved if modern scientific applications were allowed, we can at least agree that the death of such a child is really being caused not by the disease at that point, but by the sociological condition that disallowed the application of the solution. As a broader example, a great deal of social study has now been done on the subject of “Social Inequality” and its effects on public health. As will be discussed more so in further essays, there is a vast array of physical and mental health problems that appear to be born out of this condition, including propensities towards physical violence, heart disease, depression, educational deficiency and many, many other detriments – detriments that have a truly social consequence which affect us all.[10]
The bottom line here is that when we step back and consider newly realized understandings of causality that are clearly having detrimental effects on the human condition, but go unabated unnecessarily due the pre-existing traditions established by culture, we inevitably end up in the context of “Civil Rights” and hence social sustainability. This new Civil Rights Movement is about the sharing of human knowledge and our technical ability to not only resolve problems, but to also facilitate a scientifically derived Social System that actually optimizes our potential and well-being. Anything less will create imbalance and social destabilization as the neglect of such issues are simply a hidden form of oppression. So, returning to the broad point, TZM works not only to create awareness of such problems and their true systemic roots; hence logic for resolution, it also works to express the potential we have, beyond such direct problem solving, to greatly improve the human condition in general, solving problems which, in fact, have not yet even been realized.[11]
This is initiated by embracing the very nature of scientific reasoning where the establishment of a near empirical train of thought takes precedence over everything else in importance. A train of thought by which societal organization as a whole can find a more accurate context for sustainability on a scale never before seen, through an active recognition (and application) of The Scientific Method.
