User:Ziggy
Ziggy can be contacted via email at ziggy.t@zeitgeistaustralia.org.
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Motivation for starting the RBEMWiki project
I consider that having a clear platform about our common objectives is paramount, and find that the information currently available about a RBEM is:
- fragmented
- plagued with opinions about the current system and how a society should be
- substantially explained through metaphorical speech
- inconsistent and even contradictory when explained by different people
- mostly lacking in referencing and academic quality
- mixed with information of dubious origin or accuracy
- polluted with binary thinking, unsubstantiated assumptions, and fallacies
- generally biased and mostly representative of specific situated knowledges
Personal understanding of what an RBE is
My understanding is that a society implementing an RBE system or model:
- require all activities to be fully sustainable in the long term
- does not require money or barter to provide for all needs of human life
- aims at releasing humankind from all dangerous or tedious labour through the use of technology
Critique
I'm openly critical of several characteristics of various advocates of RBE, and very critical of other forms of activism, charity and general society.
Critique on RBE advocates
Critique on TVP
My criticism to The Venus Project's structure and transition style is the following:
- Structure
- There is a dominant power structure in The Venus Project, headed by Jacque Fresco, and maintained by his core team of collaborators.
- My view this stifles the ability to transition to a RBE.
- TVP claims to have a comprehensive plan for transition.
- I can't find that plan anywhere. I can find a lot of talk about the supposed plan, but not the plan itself. Do I have to trust that they have one safely kept to publicise when they consider the time is ripe? How do I know if I like it? What if I don't? Should I just wait and see? I believe the lack of transparency cannot lead to anything good.
- The TVP website and the various materials it offers include a great number of comments and explanations.
- There is not only no public discussion, but there is neither clear definitions about what is exactly what a RBE is and how they plan to transition to it. Do they maintain this position on purpose? Don't they see how vague, generic and rhetorical their articles and information is?
- There is a dominant power structure in The Venus Project, headed by Jacque Fresco, and maintained by his core team of collaborators.
- Transition style
- Requires that all governments of the world (or possibly only the most powerful ones) agree to transition to a RBE.
- My view is that this would require a revolution, and will be highly unlikely in Capitalism (including China being State Capitalism).
- The transition does not take into account minorities who would be opposed to the transition.
- My view is that a RBE can only be successful if all their citizens choose it voluntarily, due to the lack of law and police. Disgruntled citizens would cause wreak havoc and be a danger to the whole community. I believe that a RBE cannot be imposed on anyone.
- TVP makes statements like All resources become the common heritage of all of the world's people.
- I don't see how such statements can be implemented in practice. Who would state them? Where? How would they be of any use? How would they be enforced? Also, about this particular statement, I find it disowns people by force of what they believe today to have ownership of, which in a way is forcefully imposing they don't own them, just like Communism does with nationalisation of private property, and I don't think this is the way to go.
- Requires that all governments of the world (or possibly only the most powerful ones) agree to transition to a RBE.
Notes about motivations to bring about RBE10K
By making reality wrong we place ourselves in a position of opposition, of resistance, and there we tend to become what we resist. Accepting the world unfurled to what it has become right now in the present, including both its beauty and its ugliness, allows us to choose freely what kind of world we want to build for ourselves and share it with the world.
Going out on a limb trying to save people who don't want to be saved has never worked. However, there is a crisis that affect us all, for example [[w:Hurricane Sandy|] was likely the result of the loss of 1/3 of the ice in the Arctic. Right now, in the world there're people dying of hunger, being bombed, or shot, or raped. Right now, and since none of these people have any market value, they will be disposed of without any considerations by the most powerful nations.
There is no need to find who's responsible and place an evil face on them (USA, banks, government, NWO, etc). We can easily see how everybody participates of the system, as there is little choice but integrating to it. Everybody buys into the marketing notions of a happy life: wants to have a house, a bedroom that is welcoming for intimacy, give in to impulses to feast on delicious foods, dominate others as a way to feel powerful and respected, and the list goes on and includes all sorts of abhorrent behaviours as a really short-sighted attempt to proving to our parents we're worthwhile and deserving of their love. We all use the only tools we know and can access around us: jobs, credit, fashion, culture, drugs, art, special skills, humour, physical prowess, storytelling... We just don't think too much about why we do what we do. We just act the way others do, we copy the behaviour of people around us.
Gradual positive change is only possible when the positive outpaces the negative, and I have no faith this fast paced society is capable of that. I hope that I'm wrong, but I'm not just going to sit an hope, I'm creating an alternative for all of those who want to start from scratch, eliminating corruption and perversion from the root, basing on what we know to be very close to the truth for having been studied and experimented upon systematically, having been capable of making accurate predictions: science. We now know we're primates, what are our primal instincts, what makes us tick, what are our most basic needs, how our psyche works at the most basic levels, how we learn during childhood, what's required for relationships to thrive, we know about non-violent communication, about the source of emotional disturbances, etc, and we cannot undo hundreds or thousands of years of culture, because it is what dominates. Starting from scratch, planning the society the way we want it (social engineering), starting with fulfilling needs (as per what science understands for needs), promoting happiness horizontally, ensuring there is room and opportunity for all to develop their identity, mature, come to terms with their reality, and be completely fulfilled and self expressed, that is what The RBE10K Project is about. The project is a community, democratic project, that is shaped currently according to my crazy idea, but that will likely change as more sane and careful input is brought in. We need to do this and demonstrate to the world it is possible, that what we have is not the lesser evil, the pinnacle of civilisation. If it doesn't work, at least we've tried, if it does work, it will change the course of History and the destiny of Humankind forever.
