WooHoo! Here's another video I can offer commentary on. My first note: the fact that Joseph doesn't believe in Casper (invisible things like God) doesn't mean Casper doesn't exist! Now, I spend much time arguing that public policy shouldn't be predicated on a belief in Casper, but this doesn't mean that Casper doesn't exist or is not having an enormous influence on conditions on this planet--and truly evil conditions at that.
For anyone not familiar with P.J. he became famous putting out a conspiracy documentary called, Zeitgeist, around 2008 which asserted that Christianity, 911, and The Federal Reserve, were and are conspiracies. He describes it now as an ART piece and as far as I can tell distances himself from commenting on the content in public these days. I'll amusingly suggest that he became famous via conspiracy theory and now denies conspiracy theory:P I'll come back to this later but I think this post will kind of end up looking Yin/Yang as I agree with him and disagree with him on different issues. I'm in complete agreement that scale is the primary issue facing civilization and he correctly states that our politics are going to kill us via their outmoded socialism/capitalism antagonisms-- which were always at loggerheads but now could lead to ruin. He's 100% correct that any meaningful change has to be structural and not premised on individual 'lone recycler' ethics--ethics which are also needed but not sufficient to solve the issue of scale.
A note on Daniel Pinchbeck: this post won't talk about him as much as he's the interviewer and Daniel became famous for his explorations into ENTHEOGEN theory and created the website Reality Sandwich which explores spirituality. He's also a writer and is also another who is well versed in Integral Theory.
So my first criticism of P.J. will start where he started: religion in Zeitgeist. The modern powerbrokers use Egyptian symbolism everywhere! The word Ra-bbi comes from the sun; Is-Ra-El is Egyptian gods and goddesses; obelisks stand at every power institution on the planet. So we have this sun-worshipping religion which controls pretty well everything now and P.J. just accounts this to superstition! At this point, I need to apply Occam's Razor to the question of Theodicy and God. Isn't the simplest explanation for the evil that exists on this planet the speculation that if there is a God it's flawed and evil? I can understand and agree with the deconstruction of religion, but that's a separate issue as to the existence of God and what kind of God exists if one were to exist, and I don't see how the rightful deconstruction of religion necessarily solves or leads to the definitive position that P.J. seems to hold on this issue: that everything along this line of inquiry is superstition. A possible and even plausible explanation for evil and the human condition and the cosmic condition sits right in front of us and I see no good reason to dismiss it outright as superstition.
Just a note as they finish up the first section before moving onto the issue of spirituality, religion, and God. They end the first section by P.J. denying any collusion among the billionaire elites. Unfortunately, this is laughable considering he made the doc. Zeitgeist... 911 is proof enough to anyone with common sense and critical thinking skills that collusion and conspiracy are happening at unheard-of levels. There's no moving forward until everything surrounding that day comes to light. I believe history will bear the truth of this statement and everything he's trying to do will more or less be moot unless we get to the truth of this issue which is inextricably linked to the J.Q.
They talk about spirituality and I have no problem with the atheist worldview; per se, nor agnosticism, and I completely agree with his Secular Humanist framing of spirituality. I also agree with his stance on the root causes of pathology and their interconnectedness with being and culture.
Moving onto solutions: he's arguing for the rapid advancement of the technosphere. Dr. Frankenstein? A.I. juxtaposed to work loss, etc. He's entirely correct, though, that the slave culture of work and its associated exploitations, coercion, and antagonisms are our 'fallen nature' that is being manipulated by the archons. Yes, the work ethic is NOT spiritual from the western theistic tradition but factually a curse brought about by 'spiritual entropy'. Whether or not the coming Smart City Techno Grid with it's likely associated Mark of The Beast surveillance app sets humanity free is something I'm skeptical about. Go back and deal with 911 and see the light of day there and I'd feel a little better about the technosphere.
Next: there is no going back on the macro scale to hunter-gatherer type ways of living. The only way that's going to happen is via a worldwide apocalypse and the horror of that is something we all need hope doesn't happen. This isn't to say that one of the many solutions shouldn't be neo-homesteading--intelligent well thought out and enacted return to minimalist living on the land. But, this, IMO., could only be done orderly via private property rights so the trick here would be to pass anti-land-hoarding laws and make land affordable and accessible again. I propose 1-house per person policies as a sustainable way forward.
I completely agree about localization and that globalization has led to reductionist homogeny.
Open-source, decentralization, and crypto: this utopian idea that the technosphere is going to usher in some type of egalitarian economy is wishful thinking. Again, though, I'd like to see something happening NOW as far as that goes which would make me feel a whole lot better about this assertion. Right now the plutocracy is squeezing every dime out of everyone so they can have the society THEY want. Can rape be turned into love? I don't think so and if we can't change human behavior now for the better why should anyone believe that it's magically going to happen in the future? Zero marginal cost is bull-shit of the capitalists who don't care about anything but their power and control.
GOVERNMENT: it comes down to this: somehow taking control back from billionaire oligarchs! Until this happens assertions about the future are useless. Localization, localization, localization with some type of overarching earth council made up of retirees who have given up their wealth and are committed to the good of the earth and its people. Local governments would be bound to their overarching decisions. Perhaps a council of 24? 12 men and 12 women?
One thing I want to take issue with here is when Daniel Pinchbeck cavalierly suggested to 'tear down the house', so to speak. I find this suggestion reckless whether coming from him or Steve Bannon or any other number of thoughtless actors on the world stage (not that D.P. is thoughtless in general) Look, as they correctly point out in the beginning--this isn't 1850 anymore and the scale of destruction today would be incalculable and to say that anything or anyone would survive to build ANY kind of society isn't a given. Here is the truth as far as I understand it: there are FOUR areas where the present system HAS to adjust if we are to survive in any sane way in the future: HOUSING, FOOD, EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE. I call these The Four Pillars of a NEW EARTH COMMONS. This post is too short to argue why ending private property is a delusion so I'll argue, then, that the solution is to guarantee that everyone by birth has access to a small piece of private property and that the speculation on real-estate end and that houses be turned into homes again and not speculative venture. I'll link a post that fleshes these ideas out more but the solutions to sustainability and legitimate spiritual concerns can be addressed by this model. I consider it an intelligent pragmatic rational compromise to the Marxist/Capitalist Psyop...
