Ever since I left school I had no clue what I really wanted to do with my life other than follow my dreams. But finding a way to earn my income from my dreams seemed far-off and hard to accomplish at the time.
I had the 'privilege' of going to a higher tier school for 13 years and though it was becoming increasingly annoying in the latter school years I was thankful that the extra time would spare me the necessity to make a premature (wrong) choice.
After I came back from my highschool year in Michigan, English had become my main language. It opened all kinds of unlikely doors for me when I got hooked on scouring the internet for information and alternatives to the classic occupational paths all of my friends were preparing themselves for.
I never quite warmed up to the idea of doing one job for life that I secretly hate just to get along, I already didn't need much to be happy. Many of my music idols had been saying for years that it's always worth following your heart, especially when it's difficult, when nobody else believes in you and when you don't know how to ever make it happen.
And that it would take time to get to a point where dreams would start to manifest in actuality. Persevere!
The primer
In my many hours online I came across the first Zeitgeist movie, in early 2008. The movie is pretty much legendary at this point, having been called the most-watched counterculture documentary of our generation by some, and the many uploads that exist are clocking in at several dozen million views, if not hundreds of millions when put together over all the years.
The movie shocked me.
It contained information I had never considered, and I found myself glued to the screen, devouring every scene like a hungry caterpillar.
The first part of the movie deals with the claim, that Christianity had primarily been a rip-off from earlier religions and sects, borrowing the majority of their symbology from the Egyptians, which in turn goes back to even more ancient societies. The rituals, idols and customs of Christianity were eeriely similar to these earlier creeds, despite the fact that I had never heard anybody talk about this at all.
What really got me about part one is the correlation of "Christian" symbology to astronomy and the observations about our cosmos as viewed from Earth. I was amazed. The case seemed solid and I vowed to get some second opinions on it from my friends, family, and online-forum people I had met.
The fact that nobody knew what I was talking about when I mentioned these correlations was amazing to me.
Did I really find a secret just now?
The movie would go on in part 2 where some rather inconvenient facts about the terror attacks of September 11th were showcased that I had never heard about. The amount of discrepancies presented - including original footage I had never seen - really wow'ed me.
What do you mean 'most of the hijackers are still alive'?! What do you mean 'building seven fell without plane impact'?! What do you mean 'several war games on the same day'?!
What do you mean 'jets flying around for two hours in the most heavily defended airspace on Earth, not being able to protect New York and the Pentagon' at all?!
Finally, the case I was shown about the fractional reserve banking system in part 3 was absolutely paradigm shattering for me. The movie managed to dissect the structure we all take for granted in the most enlightening way that I had never heard before. Although I felt I could not yet grasp everything that was relayed, I did have some major epiphanies that largely explained my pain in integrating into the regular customs of society and my odd intuition that somehow this isn't really how humans are supposed to live.
'Slave to the wage' only seemed to make sense to me if somebody does what he likes doing with most hours of his life. Especially if one is working towards a more life-affirming society or some other helpful cause - as opposed to building bombs, selling poisonous food or producing pesticides just to pay their rent.
On the day I watched the first Z movie, I felt I had come across something more relevant to my future than most of the mundane lessons I was taught in school all these years.
I felt... primed! Activated. Shaken up. Excited!
I found it incredible how much solid information there seemed to be that totally contradicted everything I had been taught about our society, economy and geopolitics.
I felt like I was becoming my own teacher and student - my own authority in discernment by new necessity.
I could not believe the information actually - I marveled at the info and the great documentary - but I felt this was just too good to be true. How could so many societies on Earth keep a secret that big with all the media outlets and journalists we have?! How could such a false flag ever be pulled off successfully on such a massive scale?! How could we all participate in the economy if nobody knows what the economy actually is?
Needless to say all of the sudden I had a million questions. New questions.
And there was nobody around me who was interested in discussing them with me. Which - in hindsight - might be one of the best things that has happened to me. I slowly got used to exploring these things on my own instead of following a set curriculum set by alleged authority figures. I started to decide for myself how I would see and value this information.
I became a detective.
For a while I went back focussing on my job in the youth hostel and my music. I had my first girlfriend, I played in a band that was doing well, and I also played computer games a lot - probably too much.
I was busy ;)
Too busy to really continue the dig.
Even though the movie had hit me thoroughly, it faded into the back of my mind eventually and I would not go back and reopen the case for another year or so.
That is until I stumbled upon the second Zeitgeist movie - Zeitgeist: Addendum.
Ok this is just too much - I gotta do something!
The situation was odd, it seemed like I'd been here before... I was sitting at the same desk at home, just like a year prior, and somehow... I noticed a featured video online - entitled "Zeitgeist: Addendum". I did not recognize the thumbnail nor the title, but all the impact of the first movie came rushing back through my mind.
And I hoped!
Hoped that this would not be the movie I already knew, but in fact a continuation.
So I clicked on it and within the first 3 minutes I was back on fire!
This WAS a DIFFERENT movie, same guy talking, same director, but far more revealing than the first... "If that is even possible", I thought.
I left everything unfinished: chores, girlfriend callback, grocery shopping mission - and instead threw myself at this movie with all my focus and attention.
This would be good!
The second movie "Zeitgeist: Addendum" is still my favorite of the trilogy to this day. It goes to great lengths to dissect the structure of our monetary system - similar to the first movie - but in much more detail. I was slightly amazed when I caught myself grabbing a notebook to take notes, this was something I had never done by my own volition but generally only when teachers had asked the class to "take notes this lesson".
And despite my best efforts I couldn't keep up with the information density.
My mind was twisting and turning, trying to defend against the clarity of the presented notions on purposeful waste cycles, systemic abuse and societal control that were mentioned and explained in the documentary - but seemingly nowhere else at the time. A control structure by design noone seemed to have recognized as such.
"I don't know if this is true, but DAMN is it interesting! Why isn't this a thing in discussions anywhere?"
Well, the answer came all by itself as the movie progressed.
My initial thrill about finding this second Z movie turned into sheer awe at the ideas and the scope I was presented with. Connections I had never considered before suddenly flared up and my mind clicked several times to a degree that I did not deem possible until that day. I would have to confirm all of this for myself as best I could, I knew that much.
A gazillion missing puzzle pieces at once! It's like I could almost make out the picture now. Almost ;)
I was convinced that something major was here to be uncovered.
And I made it my mission that day to find out what the hell is up with all this info and why nobody knew about it. Or cared. It seemed increasingly unlikely that this was all bogus, instead it offered an explanation to countless questions I had long asked myself.
Finally, some answers to dissect. Some solid starting point for my research.
Finally!
Solution-orientation vs. problem-obsession
The movie had another charm that I thoroughly enjoyed: It would not only point out the problems with our current economic structure that was flawed by design, the movie would also offer a solution. A proposal I had never heard before, and a train of thought that took my breath away because of its logical merit and its radicality.
A fundamental restructuring of the economic mechanisms humans live their lives by from a scarcity to an abundance economy, and a move to a complete open-source society where good arguments would outweigh political babble, where logic and facts would trump over propaganda, where contributions to society were valued for their helpfulness not for their degree of successful manipulation...
Where truth would be the basis - instead of political agendas.
I was just as glued to the screen as with the first movie, but this time something major had changed in me, I could feel it. Never had I been drawn to a solid path of inquiry like this. I started sweating, my heart started beating faster and despite my young age I saw that THIS would somehow be the direction where my future lay - somewhere with this information and these out-of-this-world ideas for solving real problems in society through applying the scientic method to human concerns.
It felt like I had crossed a threshold to a new life-chapter of understanding. And this is not an exaggeration.
To top it off: After two hours the documentary closes magnificently, not only proposing multiple sensible strategies to help bring the systemic control matrix down, but also calling for like-minded individuals to band together and form groups to spread the information far and wide, so that change could effectively grow from a grassroots-level and not be dictated by someone powerful on top who simply decides for everyone else how to live their lives.
To me this seemed the most democratic thing I had ever heard, despite my lack in interest for politics and economics for most of my life.
This was different.
Everything was different now.
Getting involved - now or never
For the next weeks I would devour the movie again and again, trying to see what I may have missed, trying to understand all of what was presented in detail, and writing comments to connect to other people like myself out there - people who seemed just as shocked and enticed about the information and just as happy to connect with me as I was, connecting with them.
None of these people seemed weird at all.
They seemed like open minded individuals which I greatly appreciated. Parents, students, vegetarians, engineers, gardeners, surfers, musicians - all sorts of ages, backgrounds, cultures and occupations. All united under this unexpected umbrella of a new clear paradigm emerging, after we had all stumbled upon this film and could see its ramifications for life on Earth.
I went on to check out the Zeitgeist Movement forum that was mentioned at the end of Z: Addendum - and that is where the magic really started for me.
Here were all these amazing threads, talking in depth about how a resource-based economic system could work for everyone on Earth, how decisions would be made in such a new system, what the dangers of such a system could be, what alternatives there are to the already proposed mechanisms, what additional resources people would recommend for further study in related and unrelated areas...
It was an ever-rich goldmine of information and evaluation - filled with regular people like myself, people who amazed me because they seemed way smarter than me, and they would actually work on these proposals in their free time, doing charts, calculations, presentations, flyer designs, offering their skills to teach to others in the movement... without asking for anything in return but an open ear and constructive criticism.
It was awesome! I must have spent a good eight hours a day on the forums for months.
I finally felt I had found a crew where I belonged, and it didn't pain me much that we were all spread out everywhere - I knew I had a new crew, and I quickly found that after writing entries and comments on the forums I felt more connected to many of these people than to most of my old friends!
And to their ideas to help bring change into the world in a meaningful way.
The case made itself
The inability of even the smartest people in my life to explain any of these systemic issues I brought up suddenly made them seem like amateurs in my eyes.
I didn't resent them for not knowing any better, but I marveled at how different my outlook had become, how much relevant knowledge I had gained, and how I had seen it very similarly to everyone else not a year ago, through all my years in public institutions that had completely formed my worldviews and convictions... which now all fell apart quickly.
It dawned on me that pretty much everybody had fallen for the same explanations I had, before coming across this new paradigm blueprint. There was also still the possibility that all information presented in the movies was just wrong and plain make-believe, but the more I looked and discovered - the less that possibility seemed likely.
It became absurdly unlikely in fact, especially because noone could name a good argument at all to counter my solid questions - all I heard was the regurgitated mainstream notions that I had thoroughly blasted apart in my months of research on the old paradigm's mechanisms.
Some of my friends went to university to study economics, and even though they had no idea that our system is based entirely on debt that can never be repaid by design, some of them laughed at me when I mentioned these concepts - eyerolling and telling me that I had no idea what I was talking about - after all they "had studied this at university" and "such a large issue could never be hidden".
Their inability to see these correlations despite their studying this at a university was pretty much the evidence that apparently this could all be hidden very effectively. I marveled.
I didn't care to mention that I had studied this for half a year on my own with all my spare time available. I didn't care to mention either that everything they came up with to defend the workings of our current system was either factually incorrect or insufficient to explain our system's reasoning - naive fairytales that would eventually lead to all of society walking over a cliff thinking it to be an escalator. Herd mentality.
I would start to mediate between the two camps, collecting the best arguments and defenses of my friends, family and co-workers... and bringing them back into the Zeitgeist Movement forums for anyone on there to dissect.
And boy did they dissect it!
The sheer mass of intelligent and empathic responses to the points I mentioned there was just glorious. These people were not only a hundred times more knowledgable about the system than all my friends put together, they were also genuinely helpful and supportive of others - even of those newcomers with "dumb" questions.
Since that time I have not experienced such an empathic and supportive online community until I joined steemit in late 2017.
My series on the Zeitgeist Movement and its tenets
In the next days and weeks, I will create a series here where I try to condense and collect the most essential lessons I have learnt in my time in the movement. Not only in terms of content, but also in terms of all the breakthroughs I had in building on that content, meeting other chapters in different countries and collecting additional gems of education through what they shared with me.
After that series is done I will devote a few posts to the story of why I left, what the movement's problems are in my view and what led me to change my mind about the ideas' potential to encompass our human problems in a holistic way, after having been part of it for a long time.
For years the Zeitgeist Movement and the ideas presented stuck with me, and I still consider it the best analysis of our economic system to date, especially for people who call themselves "realists" or "logically-minded". Which is almost painful to say, because both films are about ten years old now, and they still deliver an amazing case.
But most of these mechanisms have STILL not made it to mainstream consciousness.
Back then I thought for sure we would have a global revolution on our hands in the next three years - ahahahaha. Nope ;)
And while I have moved on from the Zeitgeist Movement in late 2012 - I feel I owe you all this important bit of my journey in detail before I leave that paradigm and my need to talk about it behind me.
I have always considered myself a logic-driven guy. And relaying my TZM experiences will be invaluable to understand how I could eventually ditch the paradigm completely, dropping atheism and many other convictions on what this world most likely is along with it. It really is an epic journey and my time in TZM was invaluable to becoming who I am today.
Despite its far-reaching ramifications - it's just not far-reaching enough anymore. And I would like to lay out why I say so.
I felt for a long time that I owe the world my take on this - because I feel qualified to give it.
When I got involved, I founded my own local chapter in my hometown, held meetings and eventually helped to coordinate the movement for the whole of Germany for years, working in tandem with other chapter coordinators around the world and meeting many other like-minded activists, in places like Amsterdam and Los Angeles.
I have not only studied this, I have lived it.
You could say I am an insider.
And considering the emphasis I want my presence on steemit to have, I feel it would be smart to complete my work on TZM in this way here, segment by segment, before I go on to tell you what I think they missed. And why even the most awesome case made in the movies is insufficient to be called 'a solution' - knowing what can be known today - in 2018.
The movies
I do not want to "spoiler" without warning, so I am giving you an opportunity to watch these movies for yourself here before I go on to dissect the content in depth in this series.
The first movie is important, the second movie is mindshatteringly essential.
Zeitgeist: The Movie (I) - Documentary
Zeitgeist: Addendum (II) - Far-reaching documentary & the basis for the Zeitgeist Movement
I will work my ass off for this series, so please be patient as it's somewhat of a "mammoth's task" as we say in German, and I can't guarantee that I can publish a segment every day.
But this needs to happen, and I want to do it right - the information simply deserves my maximum efforts.
I am looking forward to finally get that chapter of my life off my chest for good - on steemit - and tell you how this movie series, all its ramifications and all my years as a coordinator in the movement have changed me into a better man ;)
It's been a long time coming for me, and this series will be epic. And probably a challenge to most people's worldview.
I promise.
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