Heading for the hills

"Heading for the hills"
photo by Gordon Hatton (Geograph)

I've been thinking about the Zeitgeist movement lately, and while the films certainly make some good points, it is such a broad subject with so many different political and economical factors to consider that I'm not sure if anything much will come from it all. The problems with "movements" is that they are just another aspect of the society which is being criticized and can too easily fall into similar traps. Yet, public opinion seems to have brought about important changes in societies, so perhaps if there are enough movements...

My biggest problem with the Zeitgeist films is that their perspective comes out of high modernism and this has a psychological leaning toward the attitudes of some types of extraverts. So when they imagine that everyone will start to think that way, it is just that: imagination. For example, competitiveness is not due to society acting in erroneous ways, it is part of our evolutionary make-up. I don't think that this can be treated so cavalierly.

Another critic of Zetgeist is James Scott (Yale) and I watched several hours of his talks before picking the one that, I thought, combined enough good points in combination with the sound quality of the video. It is an interesting look at states and comes from James Scott's intimate knowledge of people who have rejected them. There will be more in this theme in subsequent posts, but for now, enjoy the movie.