Zeitergeist

Zeitgeist is culture. It's also a set of movies that... well...

Zeitgeist: The Movie (2006) is a set of three mini-films, really. The first is about how Christianity is a rip-off of other religions (shock!), and how it's bunk. And also connected with astrology. Umm... some connections, I'd agree with. All of them...? It's always possible to cherry pick the bible to support any view, as is done here. And the second part is not even thinking enough to cherry pick: the US knew about 9/11 and let it happen. I'll go with that the US government took advantage of the crisis (and other wars) to run through laws that benefited themselves and powerful companies, but that 9/11 was planned, the building was detonated, several attacks were staged... fuck off. And the third part is how money is a system used to screw over everyone but the bankers who control how money flows.

Which is then the focus of Zeitgeist: Addendum (2008). Just outdoing the previous film's length (over two hours!), this is a rant about how "monetism" is what we have, and everything is controlled by the top bankers and everyone should reboot society and go with The Venus Project. I will grant that it's a slick movie and there are some valid points about how people are doing things to benefit themselves, you aren't going to change the world (that radically) by changing the world, you need to change the people, and that isn't happening.

And so we come to Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011). People are molded by genetics and the environment. Market economics is against making society better. Indeed, the market place is creating a bad environment and making people worse. What we need is a Resource-Based Economy. But since that's not going to happen, the global system is going to crash, taking everyone with it... In many ways, this is a politer, and better structured, version of Addendum, although even longer at 2 hours 40 minutes. However, I look forward to seeing the crash and what we do next, 'cos I don't see us changing before then.

This is a set of movies (I'm not going to say 'trilogy' 'cos there could be more) that is trying to change the way we interact with the world. Nice idea, but vision is out-stretching ability to make that change. If you have seven hours... well, I doubt you'd watch these... and, in fact, you're better off sticking to the last movie... but they are, if I may say, a slice of culture...

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