I just watched Zeitgeist, a 3 part movie on Religion, the 9/11 attacks and the federal reserve. This comes two days after reading Charles Eisenstein’s essay on the Money and the Crisis of Civilization and one day after seeing the new Bill Maher movie, Religulous.

First I should preface this short blog entry with the fact that these last 5 months have really been an eye opener for me. I could probably be considered by some to live a relatively simple life. I admit that I too confuse the line between want and necessity, but there are many things I can do without. This doesn’t make me better, nor worse, it just makes me… me. And that is the point.

I moved to Cardiff, California 4 months ago, selling the majority of my possessions, although I didn’t have much, to life a simplier life and starting walking one of the many paths I wish to walk in my life. This path happens to be to start my own business. I sold my furniture and my bed, items hardly used, and items used daily, but were not very significant. I traded a warm bed to lay my head every night for an interesting, and quite fulfilling living situation. I moved in with a buddy of mine that I am pursuing this business with. He has recently purchased a camper in Montana and drove it down here. Our agreement was to split rent and the roof over our heads. Every two weeks we would switch. I move out of the room and into the camper. Aside from the beautiful town of Cardiff, this simple living arrangement has allowed me the chance to reflect on what is necessity, and more importantly, what it means to exist. More on the business side of things another time though…

I was really moved by the movie and not because it disputes religion nor because it builds a conspiracy theory around 9/11. I enjoyed the movie because it promotes critical thinking, awareness, power from within, and a notion that the movie states best as,

“a new consciousness is developing that sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed“

I’ve had interesting conversations with my housemate these last few months. We’ve exchanged thoughts and ideas on several topics including:

  • What gives someone the right to own something?
  • Why do we need banks, money and other things that seem to be built into our society?
  • Why do we let fear control us?
  • Why do so few people speak out being agnostic or atheist when it makes up about 16% of the U.S. population? (we didn’t speak on this, but as I was writing it I questioned it myself)

Sometimes I feel as though these are all distractions created to abstract away the real beauties of the world around us. Ingrained in our culture and society is to get married, buy a house, and use our paychecks to buy other items to quench our thirst of instant gratification. So, what is one answer to the reason for this?


If you are too focused on the material, chances are you are leaving behind real beauty

Maybe it’s because the movie I just watched opened my eyes and gave me the passion to write this article or maybe it’s just all a coincidence. But try to imagine the realities for just a second. Does marriage really change how two people feel about each other? Perhaps it does, but that’s probably because we were told from a young age that when two people love each other they eventually get married. But, couldn’t the same thing be achieved with a promise ring? Of course another reason for getting married are for the tax benefits, but that’s an artificially created reason.

As for the mortgage. Imagine for a second that everyone rented homes. (Remove the question of who they rent from for a second). If, say, a President and his/her administration came into office that you had significant fundamental differences with you could theoretically pick up and leave. Not so when you are in debt.

Charles’ essay on the Money and the Crisis of Civilization really drove the point on the economy home for me. Our economy is driven by spending. It increases our GDP (gross domestic product) and in turn makes our country “weathier.” Weathier by an economist’s standards at least. Our country does not increase its wealth when someone spreads the knowledge of healing to others. However, when a pharmaceutical company sells that sick person a drug, a good is purchased and our GDP increases. Thereby increasing our countries [artificial] “wealth”. I’ve never felt more abstracted from the real beauties of the world until I read that essay. He gives many more examples that I will direct you to instead of ripping them off.

To further the artificial wealth argument and instill moral order (and fear) into society many civilizations have conjured up elaborate stories to keep people in check. Some good has come from this, but I would argue that the negatives tip the scale.

The movie, Zeitgeist, describes several parallels between some popular religions and religious figures including Jesus (Christianity), Horus (Egyptian), Mirthra (Persian), Krishna (Hinduism), and Dionysus (Greece). I was surprised to find so many similarities in both plot, dates, and names. Not to mention the fact that the Egyptians came into existence around 2686 BC while Christianity started to spread around 100 AD. Keep in mind that while the film made clear sense to me, it does offer a single perspective. So I decided to see if these offered facts can be confirmed or denied. While the majority of facts can be confirmed, there have been rebuttals made against specific facts on the religious portion of the film. Even the sources themselves are only secondary sources and you can’t really accept or deny points made without primary sources, but I will let you make up your own mind.

My apologies for jumping around. This post became more of an exercise for me to vent, than to educate. I hope my words make you think and the links make you curious.

My final thought? I think Jimi Hendrix said it best…

“When the power of love overcomes the lover of power, the world will know peace“

Your thoughts?