Costa pulls headline for today’s news to demonstrate how accelerating complexity quickly outpaces that rate at which the human brain can develop new capabilities. With compelling evidenced based on research in the rise and fall of Mayan, Khmer, and Roman empires, Costa shows how the tendency to find a quick solutions- leads to frightening long term consequence: Society’s ability to solve its most challenging, intractable problems becomes gridlocked, progress slows, and collapse ensues.

She writes,

When Darwin discovered the slow pace of evolutionary change (millions of years), he also explained what happens to us when the complexity of our problems exceeds the capabilities our brains have evolved to this point. It’s simple: when facts become incomprehensible, we switch to beliefs. In other words, all societies eventually become irrational when confronted with problems that are too complex, too large, too messy to solve.

Thankfully, we have two weapons earlier civilizations didn’t have: models for high failure rates and neuroscience….Until recently we haven’t been able to look under the skull and see what the brain does when a problem is highly complex. The good news? The brain has a secret weapon against complexity, a process neuroscientists are now calling “insight.” We are learning more everyday about insight’s ability to catch the brain up to complexity—the real antidote to reverting to beliefs as a default.

More on insight:

By monitoring their brain waves, he saw a pattern of high frequency neural activity in the right frontal cortex that identified in advance who would solve a puzzle through insight and who would not. It appeared up to eight seconds before the answer to a problem dawned on the test subject, Dr. Bhattacharya reported in the current edition of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

“It’s unsettling,” says Dr. Bhattacharya. “The brain knows but we don’t.”

In short, this is further evidence (if indirect) that the brain may just need to evolve to save us from extinction. To put it bluntly, our world is too fucked up to save it through conventional means, like politics – because if you fix one thing, you fuck up another. Global cooling comes to mind – if we address pollution, this may diminish the pollutant haze that’s protecting us from the sun’s rays, thereby increasing global warming. Therefore, people start looking to the Book of Revelation for explanation.

But if the thing that’s going to save us is “insight” – which is something neuroscientists don’t quite understand, then perhaps we’re getting into Pinchbeck territory. If people trade belief in facts to belief in God – who’s not to say that “insight” is some kind of divine influence. Even if our brains evolve to handle these complexities, “God” could have a hand in this – the spiritual missing link. Not claiming that’s the case, but it’s not off the wall to suggest that there’s a spiritual dimension to insight. Another one of those anomalous issues in science that has the scientists scratching their heads, and potentially causes the book’s thesis to collapse on itself, as the “facts” of insight are open to interpretation. It brings to mind Poincaré’s getting an insight while stepping onto a bus:

This led him to functions he named Fuchsian functions after Lazarus Fuchs but were later named automorphic functions. The crucial idea came to him as he was about to get onto a bus, as he relates in Science and Method (1908):-

At the moment when I put my foot on the step the idea came to me, without anything in my former thoughts seeming to have paved the way for it, that the transformation that I had used to define the Fuchsian functions were identical with those of non-euclidean geometry.

Why on earth did that happen? It’s interesting that she brings up the Mayans as the example of a failed culture, as the Mayans form so much basis to the idea that we’re about to take an evolutionary leap, a collective epiphany, so that maybe we’ll deal with these problems. Currently, the 2012 hypothesis is based on belief – and, frankly, my criticism of Pinchbeck’s latest book is that he’s not taking into account how we can fix today’s problems using the brain power we have today – there’s a feeling that the only thing that will save us is if we evolve (which I believe, but don’t want to believe). This book appears to be making a similar argument, absent the psychedelic insight – even if she might argue that our problems can be solved using the tools we have today. We have reached a point where not only are people’s belief systems screwed up, but their intuition is screwed up as well – as so many so oddly believe the opposite of what’s actually taking place: like – environmental damage is not a problem.

I haven’t read the book, so perhaps I’m missing a thread, but it would seem that belief is many people’s core insight. The insight, then, would have to be – wait, the God I’ve believed in all my life is not the real God. And that’s not likely to happen unless some major event knocks sense back into people. So unfortunately, though this appears to be a straighter take on the subject than Pinchbeck, I’m not sure if “insight” is the answer to our problems any more than “DMT insight,” unless – somehow – everyone was to take DMT at once, or some sort of paradigm shift in our brains elevated DMT levels naturally and the insight into how we can move forward hit everyone at once. But while so many people’s insight is – we shouldn’t care for the poor – it may be yet another way for intellectuals to solve problems without being able to implement the solutions.

Check out Rebecca Costa’s high-tech site.

Notes from the Edge Times is a kind of Daniel Pinchbeck for beginners.  And I understand the necessity for that totally. It’s just as important for these ideas to be reaching the mainstream, and diving right into 2012 might be too tall an order for many readers – as at times that book can read like a scholarly dissertation, as he deconstructs the work of a writer like Walter Benjamin.  This book also feels a bit like Daniel Pinchbeck for the cell phone reader generation.  Chapters are three pages, if that – as if they’re intended to be read on a commute, waiting at the doctor’s office, etc.  Which means it’s an easy and breezy read, but also doesn’t really delve all that deeply into the ideas he’s proposing.  For new readers, they’ll want to look at his earlier books for elucidation.  For old readers, it sometimes feels like chapters end abruptly just as he was getting started.

As this book doesn’t entirely build on his past work, but condenses it, there’s a feeling of something missing.  If we are really going to evolve as a species, what would this look like in practical terms? Would all of us evolve at once, a small segment of the population?  What would then happen in either circumstance?  Would we wake up one day with an intimate knowledge of the infinite?  These questions are necessary if he indeed believes that expanded human consciousness is an inevitability.  Even if we don’t suddenly evolve, but at the very least adopt a more-progressive value system, how can this happen given the state of the world?  Without those questions, these ideas have the tendency to seem quixotic and vaguely hopeful without offering a real prescription for the future.

The book makes the case that Pinchbeck’s Evolver project is doing some of this work – bringing like-minds together who are all interested in sustainability. The social network is like the technological precursor to connected consciousness.  I’m a monthly supporter of Evolver – I’m just not convinced this is enough, given the opposition.  I most definitely have a darker outlook, while still holding out hope.  My worldview is like the hippie ethos through the lens of Black Flag.  I can’t shed my cynicism and pessimism about the state of the culture and then just send waves of compassion to those who actively working to destroy what society has built – or see this as fully effective.

Much of this book was written before the mass psychosis that’s hit the country in the form of the Tea Party. He might (rightly) argue that this regressive element has been present in America from the founding.  But when you have the media legitimizing the voice of lying malcontents and billionaires like the Koch brothers, who seem to be architects of the apocalypse, it’s hard to be hopeful and not see how the world’s going to move forward without a major societal breakdown.  Suggesting otherwise veers into wishful thinking.  In other words, it’s impractical.

Even he admits this to be the case:

With the earth’s population expanding and burgeoning middle classes in China and India demanding a fairer share of dwindling resources, the American lifestyle needs to be radically downscaled.

This is not outright advocating depopulation – though paranoids about the New Age movement would probably see it as such – but there is no method given for how the American lifestyle can be downscaled short of saying it needs to be. When he does offer potential legislative solutions, it becomes problematic:

The American diet must also change radically. Rigid limits must be put on personal consumption of meat, which require massive inputs of water and grain, as well as fish, since the oceans are almost empty and aquaculture creates toxic waste.

I’m in total agreement with this, I just don’t see how this is possible without producing widespread outrage. In the current climate, saying “because of Global Warming” will just lead to mass protests because there are so many radical deniers. But the deniers in this case have a point – enacting legislation to curb freedom is a slippery slope that could lead to a liberal sort of fascism, the suede denim secret police. Nevermind if it’s totally necessary, rationing meat consumption would be decried by every sector of the populace. Which means legislation like this could only happen if there was some major systemic collapse and people finally realized, “Oh shit, we better do something.” Ironically, though, this would be the flipside of the Patriot Act – a trauma to the country which causes people to allow the curbing of freedom in the interest of national security.

I understand why Pinchbeck doesn’t want to go the depopulation route – because then his vision for humanity is no different than another Book of Revelation myth. It will cause people to actively wish for civilization’s downfall – whether it’s via the environment, the economy, or war – because this will mean that the utopia can then begin. It’s no doubt troubling – but it’s also troubling that Pinchbeck doesn’t even bring up this argument, as if he’s afraid of the consequences. Anti-New Age conspiracy theorists could throw these arguments back in his face and claim him to be a neo-liberal fascist, but what’s been so illuminating about his past books is his utter fearlessness. And in this book it seems like he’s wary of facing the obvious.

What’s positive about the Zeitgeist movement is that it’s moved on from the conspiracy theorizing of the first movie to how we can turn this system around.  The second movie focuses on the Venus Project. I haven’t seen “Zeitgeist 3: Moving Forward” but its title suggests that it will be focused on a real-world examination of how to get out of this crushing cycle.  While I’d love to believe that elevated consciousness will descend on the human species, it seems much more likely that the cycle will kill itself before that’s allowed to happen.  This is darkly pessimistic, but it’s hardly off the wall, and Notes from the Edge Times needed to start addressing these real world considerations.

As he opines in a recent Coast2Coast appearance, the world is likely to grow and disintegrate at once. The Tea Party, for one, are an example of the disintegration, a reflection of our growing dystopia. The Tea Party may peter out eventually, but that almost doesn’t matter – they have proven that reactionary elements are very powerful. Not just the billionaire funders, but the legions of people who actually believe a conservative like Obama is a communist. See above for the difficulty in bringing radical ideas to society when right-of-center, corporatist policy is seen as radical. It’s incredibly frustrating, and perhaps I’m asking too much of DP: I was hoping for an answer to – How in the hell do we transform society when regressive thinking has so much power among people, media, and government? Saying it’s an uphill battle is beyond understatement.

I don’t want to rain on optimism – and still when reading a book by Pinchbeck I feel more optimistic about humanity’s capacity than when I went in. I just don’t see how the transformation is possible without some calamity. And if myths speak truths, there’s an argument that this is how it should be. I just don’t want to have to witness it.

They were the New Lost Generation, folks who’d fallen through the cracks of our crumbling empire and found this mystery cult with its promises of secret knowledge and chemical salvation. At its top stood lanky, sandy-haired Daniel Pinchbeck who years ago, was a New York literati and editor of Open City. He felt empty but ignored it until his friend overdosed on heroin. Pinchbeck fled to the Amazon to drink potions from shamans to cure himself of nihilism before he died like his friend. Those dizzy vomit soaked trips became his book Breaking Open the Head which made him a counter-culture guru. Now he hosts Evolver events, circled by mostly white, well-off audiences who look to him for meaning. And he gives it to them; shaman drug rituals, Mayan prophecies and a suspicion of reality that adds up to escapism. Our world is a wreck but Pinchbeck has them look outside of it for a truth that can heal it and the crazier that truth the better.

I’m sure there were authentic crazies at the gathering, but describing everyone with this outlook as “crazy” is a small-minded dead-end. These people are having some kind of experience and it can’t all be chalked up to schizophrenia.

This meeting might have a much different vibe in person – Pinchbeck may come off as messianic. But in writing, at least, he’s not a fundamentalist – certainly not like Farrakhan as the piece compares him. He’s done a lot of entheogens, seen there might be some other universe out there that we can’t see otherwise, and he’s not entirely sure what this signifies. He never claims to have all the answers – but he does claim to have a lot more questions that most are afraid to ask for fear of being labeled “Crazy,” as this piece does incessantly.

In short, don’t trust anyone who uses the term “tin foil hat” or “conspiracy theorist.” It’s nearly a racist term, grouping everyone together as equally stupid – which is ironic, given his sensitivity about the history of racism in this country. He says,

Ufology shares with the Nation of Islam a vision of hidden truths censored by invisible forces but at the mosque, it resonates with the real violence of our racist history. What did Ufologists lose that they search for it so fervently in the sky?

He goes on:

He just flows with Crazy, Pentagon conspiracies, men screaming in the mountain lab as aliens attacked or aliens fusing a human head on a cow’s body.

There are crazy people who believe in UFOs, but there are smart sober-minded people who do research into this phenomenon. In fact, it’s pretty crazy to write all of them off in this way. Something is happening beyond mere wish fulfillment, or desperation to believe in a new and provable God. If they’re crazy then Jacques Vallee is crazy, or the members of the military who have come forward, or the millions of people this phenomenon has affected.  Closing the door on a phenomenon before we fully understand it is dangerous:

We went outside, I borrowed a cigarette and we stood there blowing smoke.

“I think what you’re doing is dangerous,” I pointed at him. “You’re spreading false hope and escapism.”

“You keep using that word dangerous…”

“It is. We have real problems on the planet and telling people to do drugs or waste time searching for aliens is a distraction. I mean, look, I defend your freedom of speech but that doesn’t mean it’s worth saying. This isn’t real. Hunger is real. Poverty is real.”

He eyes searched for an escape, “These states of consciousness are real. I’ve experienced telekinesis, making things appear and disappear through alternate dimensions, telepathy…”

Personally, I’ve never experienced telepathy, but I do think it’s not outlandish to think that it’s possible. Granted, Pinchbeck could turn himself into a kind of priest who’s had visions of the “other side.” That could turn out to be dangerous – but automatically calling everybody who believes in this phenomenon capital-word Crazy is prejudiced in the extreme. There are more kinds of poverty than the lack of money. Intellectual poverty is also an epidemic.

I’m very interested in his novel.

More about the video:

This unique dialogue brings together two leading counterculture thinkers, Daniel Pinchbeck author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age, and Breaking Open the Head, and Graham Hancock author of Fingerprints of the Gods, Supernatural and most recently the fantasy adventure novel Entangled. Pinchbeck and Hancock discuss the implications of the Mayan Calendar “end-times” date 2012 which Hancock first drew to the attention of his readers in Fingerprints of the Gods published in 1995. Hancock’s evidence for a great lost civilisation wiped out in a global cataclysm 12,500 years ago is explored in depth together with his suggestion that the survivors of that civilisation may have sought to pass down a message to the future and indeed specifically to us in the twenty-first century — a warning that the next great lost civilisation may be our own.

From the geology of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Egypt to the mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant, from ancient maps showing the world as it looked during the last Ice Age to out-of-place artefacts indicative of high technology in ancient times, the discussion ranges widely across some of the most intriguing evidence for an immense forgotten episode in human history, and moves on to consider the spiritual crisis of the modern age. Could a new paradigm emerge from our present state of chaos? Hancock and Pinchbeck see hope in efforts by people all around the planet to reclaim sovereignty over their own consciousness, and identify a powerful role for shamanistic visionary plants such as Ayahuasca and Psilocybin in ushering in a gentler, less toxic, more nurturing state of mind. “It does seem like when you ingest them,” says Pinchbeck, “you get a lot of messages about how to reintegrate into the larger community of life.” For further information see http://www.realitysandwich.com/, and http://www.grahamhancock.com/. For Graham’s latest book see http://www.entangledthebook.com/

(via the Daily Grail)

Update: I hadn’t actually listened to the whole thing when I posted this.  In the second half, the tables are turned and Hancock interviews Pinchbeck.  All around fascinating and worth the two hours.  I have no idea what this would sound like to someone who’s never touched on these ideas.  Probably wacky and sort of reasonable, which is what it is.

As I explored in previous works, I am convinced that we are reaching the hinge point of a shift in human consciousness and the earth that will either lead to a rapid transformation of our way of life, our “civilization” and its basic paradigm, or the termination of our species in a series of intensifying cataclysms. One clear reason for this is that our technological powers continue to advance rapidly, while those who are currently in control of these galvanic forces reveal a dangerously reduced consciousness, a lack of forethought based on their self-centered greed, combined with a complete absence of ethical and moral development. As Rolling Stone recently exposed in a great piece of investigative journalism, the bungled handling of the oil spill was preceded by the gutting of the regulatory system that monitored such operations, revealing once again the government’s capitulation to corporate interests. It seems increasingly obvious that, if we wish to survive as a species, the current ruling corporate, political, and financial elite – working seamlessly together to bring about our collective suicide – must be deposed, replaced by a new orchestration of civil society, an openly democratic and truly transparent system, where nothing is hidden, where profit is not the only motivation, and all have a voice….

I try to maintain faith that the human spirit will awaken in time to liberate itself from the prison that has been built around it. While my doubts grow, I continue to work for that result – to hope and to pray for it. What seems more likely is that the great churning multitude of humanity will choose to remain distracted, disconnected, pursuing narcissistic aims, vain and virtual pleasures, as the natural world, the generative earth, crumbles around them. On what the Russian mystic G I Gurdjieff called our “ill-fated planet,” most people apparently prefer to die rather than awaken to the situation, think for themselves, and join together in a collective movement to restore the earth and build a sustainable and equitible global society. Many of us can see the awakening happening, but it seems to be coming far too slowly, in hesitant fits and starts, while the destructive force also grows in strength, pumping up the volume on mind control technologies, predatory drones able to assassinate from a distance, data-mining intelligence operations, and all the rest of the sterile evils that our technocrat sociopaths can envision and unleash.

Before you say “mind control”? Yes, mind control. TV is mind control – as are the multitude of anti-depressants.  It’s not hard to look at this video and see it as some kind of archetypal beast.  America first killing itself and then reaching across the ocean to affect other continents.

2012 Time For a Change

Chris Hopkins’ Podcast

Looking forward to the movie.  Meanwhile, Scribd is amazing.  Or illegal, not sure which:

2012 the Return of Quetzalcoatl

…has got an agenda of his own.  John Mack’s theories about space brothers guiding us into the new age millenium may err on the polar opposite side of the debate:

It doesn’t seem likely that the alien story is all bad or all good.  It may not even be a case of anything alien at all, but possibly a literal manifestation of our psyches.  When you add hypnosis into the mix, in which the hypnotist’s worldview can be imprinted on the subject – even telepathically without any aural cues – it makes the whole enterprise fairly dubious, even if it’s totally fascinating.  Like the rest of the UFO debate, something is happening, and until we know what that something is, we should never cast it aside.

I was disappointed as well to see Budd Hopkins cite David Jacobs work as credible in his recent memoir Art, Life, and UFOs.  Really, an incredible read, one of my favorite UFO books, along with Jacques Vallee’s journals, because Hopkins is so erudite and courageous about covering this issue knowing he could (and did) damage his reputation.  A good primer on Abstract Expressionism as well.  I knew little about his art and mostly knew his UFO research – but he’s obviously the real thing in every way.  I want a Budd Hopkins piece on my wall:

The main issue may be that Budd Hopkins is an authentically decent guy and I’m…not.  That is, he sees people as basically decent so ripping people from their bedrooms and studying them is totally invasive.  Me, I see humans as basically primitive and that possibly we’re being studied in the same manner we study mice.  And I’ve been involved in animal rights activism – I don’t (generally, sometimes) eat meat and much animal testing is cruel and unnecessary.  But I am not so blind that I cannot see that medical research has some real value for humanity’s future health.  Alien research could fall under the same category – we’re too primitive to understand why it’s being done, but it’s being done for a purpose that is not as nefarious as the research itself.

The most compelling stuff in Budd Hopkins’ research is when there’s physical evidence by those who don’t claim to be abducted – so there are witnesses to “lights” at the same time someone claims to be abducted.  Other cases of abduction by several different people in which they all tell a similar story are eerie – but again this could be a case of the hypnotist imprinting not only his view of the subject, but also what he’d learned from previous subjects about the same encounter.

It’s interesting that John Mack and David Jacobs both find subjects that confirm their theories about the abduction experience – though John Mack does report on the scarier, more-invasive encounters, which is why to me he’s more credible. Basically, you have one researcher citing that hybrids are here to help usher us into the Age of Aquarius, and one who thinks hybrids are here to enslave us.

The latter has gotten into some trouble.  Emma Woods, one of Dr. David Jacobs’ subjects, has this to say on her site:

1) I was Dr. Jacobs’ research subject between 2004 through 2007, and he investigated my anomalous experiences using hypnosis.

2) During that time, Dr. Jacobs told me that he was in danger from “hybrids/aliens” because of his “alien abduction” research, and in my opinion, his behavior became quite bizarre and paranoid.

3) Dr. Jacobs also believed that those “hybrids/aliens” could read my mind (and the minds of other abductees) because it is well documented that the communication that abductees remember having with “aliens” (whatever the actual cause of the phenomenon is), is primarily telepathic.

4) Consequently, while Dr. Jacobs had me under hypnosis, he planted suggestions in my mind that I had Multiple Personality Disorder. He did this ostensibly to try to fool the “hybrids/aliens”, not because he really believed that I had MPD.

5) Dr. Jacobs ostensibly believed that the “hybrids/aliens” would read my mind, see that he had a new theory ‘that everyone telling abduction stories was actually suffering from MPD’, and that the “hybrids/aliens” would therefore loose interest in him.

6) Dr. Jacobs told me that he actually believed in “alien abduction”. He said that he believed that his life was in danger from the “hybrids/aliens” because he knew that they had a “secret” program to infiltrate Earth by using “hybrids” to blend into human society.

7) Dr. Jacobs was ostensibly trying to use my mind as a shield to protect himself from “hybrids/aliens”, whom he said he believed would use mind control on him, or even possibly kill him, to stop his “alien abduction” research.

Read on…All in all, not that surprising.  But it’s really damaging to the future of abduction research.  And it can give rise to sites like Alien Abductions Incorporated:

When you choose an AAI Abduction Experience our doctors, hypnotists, and memory implant technicians work with you in pre-abduction orientation sessions to customize one of our hundreds of stock abductions to suit your personal taste. You can even pick one of our fetishist’s specials—interspecies breeding, medical experimentation—it’s all up to you. Whether you select a solo abduction or one of our special Group Abduction packages (great for corporate retreats, school groups, and theme parties), AAI gives you the best abduction for the lowest price.

Funny, but ouch.

The retreat idea fell apart due to financial problems and there’s a long discussion on the site between Rob from the Chimbre retreat, Reality Sandwichers, and Daniel Pinchbeck about the mix between spirituality and commerce.  Really, think this thread is going to be referenced down the line regarding the problems of mixing God and money in any form – it’s not just a problem for Christian mega-churches. After a lot of back and forth and suspicion, Pinchbeck weighs in:

Since starting Evolver, we have been struggling with the question of how to finance this operation. Somebody like Rob, who comes out of the Wall Street world but discovered his soul through ayahuasca, is exactly our dream candidate for an investor and ally. We dearly wanted to work with him because we could see that he brought in a business force and acumen that we, who started this venture, tend to lack….

I still really love Rob and believe he means to do good for the world. However I also believe that the new spirit he discovered through ayahuasca is currently warring with the old Rob who made a fortune through the Wall Street vulture-fest. During our negotiations, I felt that he betrayed my trust and went back on his word. I asked him in emails if he felt I had betrayed his trust, and he admitted he did not. For me, I kind of agree with Don Juan that a man’s word is the only thing he really has. When I felt Rob was reneging in his initial offer to us about Chimbre, at the same time he seemed to be using all sorts of cunning and nasty negotiating tactics around Evolver, I felt that we also shouldn’t be involved with retreats supported by such an energy.

As a friend says, “It’s tragicomic. A psychedelia pillow-fight showdown. These are the progenitors of a ‘new consciousness’? Henry, we’re so screwed.”

Really fascinating to see people who are looking for enlightenment devolve into bickering and infighting.  I found this on Youtube, which is fairly enlightening about Rob, the guy behind the disagreement. At 1:35, there’s a pretty revealing anecdote about his volatility. Don’t want to denigrate him totally, as I don’t know the guy, but Pinchbeck’s made a recent comment about how people can have their mind opened by something like Ayahuasca and think the work’s over – they’re enlightened, they’ve been to the other side, they’re priests. But real-world human instincts aren’t shed that easily.

The two most compelling movements I see right now are the Zeitgeist Movement and Evolver & Daniel Pinchbeck’s work regarding a possible change in consciousness.  The Zeitgeist movement is anti-religion, and even anti-God, as the purpose of part one of Zeitgeist is to show how Christianity and other religions have a basis in sun worship, and that’s it, just worship of this object that leads to photosynthesis and creates life on the planet.  Pinchbeck would argue, I imagine, that the sun’s relationship to the earth is as spiritual as it is physical – ala his essay in Toward 2012 about Cosmos and Psyche.

A merging of the two movements would be interesting.  Zeitgeist’s plan seems to be to start a test society somewhere to prove a new economy could work – on his radio show, Peter Joseph, the filmmaker, mentions Finland as a possible starting point. An aside – he calls the integration of Zeitgeist into a real-world framework “Phase III,” which is what I call “The New City” in The American Book of the Dead, when a new community starts after WW III is over.

Could the two movements co-exist – a community of psychonauts and a community of atheistic libertarians?  The real question is how successful any new community could be, given the proclivity for power grabs even by people who are supposedly enlightened.  Not to be too pessimistic, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot of work to make any new revolution effective.  If a planet of 8 billion people is already not on board with these sorts of ideas, how is it going to work if even the “believers” are fighting with each other?  Making these grievances public is useful in order to iron them out, but it’s as if the human system is built to make the transition difficult.

There’s also the potential for demagoguery, especially among revolutionaries.  That seemed to be people’s fear about Pinchbeck and Chimbre – that he was trying to profit off his celebrity.  But that doesn’t really seem to be the case.  I don’t know if Peter Joseph has it in him to be a cult leader, but my fear is that the Zeitgeist movement could devolve into that if the movement started an isolated society somewhere. Not saying that’s the case, but the Reality Sandwich debacle shows just how hard it is to create these sorts of forward-thinking movements.  Zeitgeist is all about how power corrupts, and that’s true even for people who are fighting the power.

Yeah, it’s hard.  But at least they’re trying.

The Venus Project clearly separates the Zeitgeist movement from other conspiracy theorizing from the likes of Alex Jones or David Icke – who seem mainly to be fear peddlers without any real answer to moving on from that fear. That’s what disturbs me about them. Obama may be a disappointment who is tasked with rescuing an unsustainable system, but he is not equal to the Bush legacy. The sheer fact that he’s a black man with the name Barack Obama shows that we’re inching closer to a more open society. I don’t think you can underestimate that, even if his promise of change is not really arriving – and most likely can’t because “rescuing banks” is the process of rescuing something that caused the problem. But Jones and Icke want to see totalitarianism everywhere and then sell that fear, so they will look for evidence wherever they can. Their terror alert level doesn’t seem much more honest than the one perpetrated by the Bush administration.

The Venus Project is in part what makes Zeitgeist so convincing, because it offers a level-headed alternative amidst some very far out claims. What this vision of utopia doesn’t see to emphasize is our potential for spiritual evolution, as well as economic and technological progress.  Daniel Pinchbeck, in 2012, rails against the concept of the Singularity, as it sees technology as solving all our problems, when his more-New Age stance is that a kind of mind technology is more important for our progress than literal technology.  If we see technology as the savior, we’ll be less inclined to explore and expand consciousness and tap into the greater world of outer and inner space.  There’s something to this.

Perhaps the Venus Project could usher that in because only until we become less warlike we’d be given access to other worlds.  Otherwise we might abuse the privilege, as we abuse everything.  What’s attractive to me about a techno utopia is that it satisfies both needs – technological and spiritual, as the technological would free us to spend more time with spiritual and creative pursuits.  And it’s more practical and feasible to create a sustainable environment than waiting for an evolution that never comes.

The Maya, after all, were technologically advanced, and going “back to nature” doesn’t necessarily mean being free from technology.  The Na’vi from Avatar are nice and all, but I don’t want to sleep in a hammock in a tree – I like my computer and the copy of Logic that allows me to record music.  That’s not a distraction like TV, it enhances the potential for creativity. So on that front I agree with the Venus Project and its aim to use technology to create an environmentally sustainable world that frees people from the mindless and unnecessary work that makes up most people’s workdays.  If a true Theory of Everything incorporates both the religious and the scientific (determining the “why” as well as the “how”), then it would seem an advanced society would incorporate both as well.  My worry is that our entire structure needs to fall apart first in order for it to be rebuilt as something better.

I’m currently reading (among other things) A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit, which makes the supposition that people are at their best amid total catastrophe.  Most people have no doubt seen this, even if they’ve never been part of a disaster, as the collective support after 9-11 shows how disaster can inspire goodwill.  That’s not entirely a positive prospect, as it may just be the case that the world system needs to collapse in order for us to start over with a better blank slate.  The environment might go to war with us before we go to war with each other as a form of self-protection.  Either way, we seem to be headed in that direction, and troubling as it may be, how else do you reform a world of 8 billion people that needs instant reforming?  I suppose everyone could take Ayahuasca at once, and blow everyone’s heads open, but somehow I don’t see that happening.

Whatever the case, Zeitgeist and the Venus Project are literal manifestations of my novel and the soundtrack so I’ve been glued to finding out new information about these two developments – “The New City is my home and I love all I know.”  Cool to me too that the filmmaker writes and records his own music.

More: Who is Peter Joseph?