Zeitgeist: The Movie

My sister wrote about the Bear Stearns collapse, and then:

I read in your blog about the Carlyle Group and others. Have you seen the Zeitgiest movie? Go to zeitgeistmovie.com and watch the movie, it is very disturbing, it refers to the Carlyle Group and other banks, politicians, wars, etc....right up your alley.

Here is a basically sympathetic, yet critical, review of the movie:

The over-all temper of the video is rather like the John Birch Society on acid, with interludes by Harry Smith. Incongruously, after spending nearly two hours trying to scare the bejeezis out of its viewers, Zeitgeist ends on an oddly upbeat note, telling us that Love — not Fear — is the answer, We are all One, and featuring sound-bites from Ram Dass and Carl Sagan.

It’s a shame, really, that Zeitgeist is, ultimately, such a mess. There are plenty of legitimate questions about what transpired on 9/11, just as there are plenty of shady doings in international finance or puzzling aspects of religious history, for that matter. And what is coming down in the name of National Security is truly unnerving. Yet, bundling them all together in disjointed fashion does justice to none of them. Time and again, Zeitgeist maximizes emotional impact at the expense of a more reasoned weighing of evidence. But, perhaps that’s the intention.

I’ve often pondered about what it might take to snap everyone out of the walking dream we collectively entered on 9/11/01. Just as the fall of the Berlin Wall provided the emotional pivot for the end of the Cold War, only a collective experience of an intensity equal to that of 9/11 might jolt us awake as to what is really happening in the corridors of power and certain undisclosed locations.

It’s my hunch that Zeitgeist is one attempt to provide such a jolt, and it does indeed pack a certain punch. Too bad it also runs off in three directions at once, and is so indiscriminate in its sources and overly certain of its conclusions. Zeitgeist may be powerful, but its power is tainted with some simplistic and pernicious memes that have already received more propagation than they deserve. The video’s producer does inform us that “It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth . . .”

I tend not to be a conspiracy theorist, but sometimes there are elements of truth to the alleged conspiracies. Actually, I’m surprised how slowly conspiracy theorists seized on 9/11 – probably a sign of just how scared people were that day, and willing to believe official explanations about anything, before ultimately becoming dissatisfied and reaching out to conspiracy theories.

What surprises me, when it comes to Bear Stearns, etc., is how fast everything happens. For months, they go “yup, everything is fine here,” and even just last week, they were saying “yup, everything is fine here,” then here comes the weekend, and BANG!, it’s all over! WTF? Guess we weren’t in on the details…..

I worry about this coming recession: the financial system is responding sluggishly to the Fed’s cuts in interest rates, and it may be that because the governmental debt is already so large, that the financial system simply won’t recover readily, but instead, start a downward spiral.

Remember that even during the worst times in the past, complete chaos never resulted. For example, during the Depression of the Thirties, society continued to function, however badly. Laws were enforced, people got married, had kids, etc. Same is true today. And our rulers are not all-seeing divine creatures, but rather terribly myopic hogs pushing buttons whose function they do not understand.

Bud I'm glad they used clips from Paddy Chayevsky's 1977 movie "Network" in "Zeitgeist: The Movie." So bracing! So inspiring!