Zeitgeist
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Zeitgeist - Movie Statement
Peter Joseph (creator of Zeitgeist) believes that I'm mentally ill because I disagree with him. You can read all about it on his forums (linked from this forum post), with a blog-based rebuttal here. You better not disagree with him, or you'll be labeled insane next. Perhaps I'm crazy for pointing out his forum post?
I was perusing the web site for Zeitgeist, The Movie and I ran across the official movie statement, as made by the creator of the film. Some of the things said in the statement were interesting enough to talk about here. I will quote the entire statement, verbatim, and then discuss it.
The "statement" on the web site, as of January 26, 2008:
Welcome to the Official Site for 'Zeitgeist, the Movie.' Since the emergence of the work in late June, 2007, many other websites, organizations and posts have fallaciously claimed connections to the work. Please note that 'Zeitgeist', along with this site, has no direct affiliation with anything else online.
Zeitgeist, produced by Peter Joseph, was created as a nonprofit filmiac expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The information in Zeitgeist was established over a year long period of research and the current Source page on this site lists the basic sources used / referenced and the Interactive Transcript incldes exact source references and further information.
Now, it's important to point out that there is a tendency to simply disbelieve things that are counter to our understanding, without the necessary research performed. For example, some information contained in Part 1 and Part 3, specifically, is not obtained by simple keyword searches on the Internet. You have to dig deeper. For instance, very often people who look up "Horus" or "The Federal Reserve" on the Internet draw their conclusions from very general or biased sources. Online encyclopedias or text book Encyclopedias often do not contain the information contained in Zeitgeist. However, if one takes the time to read the sources provided, they will find that what is being presented is based on documented evidence. Any corrections, clarifications & further points regarding the film are found on the Clarifications page. Non-Profit DVDs / Free Video Downloads are available through the Downloads page.
That being said, It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth, but find out for themselves, for truth is not told, it is realized.
Thank You
My interest is primarily with the third paragraph of the statement itself. As you can see, it starts by saying that people will have a "tendency to simply disbelieve things that are counter to our understanding". While I agree with that, I think the film-maker is underestimating how grossly different his claims are from ones in history, science, religion, and other areas such as astrology. Even though some things should be called into question, there is a difference between questioning and honestly looking into something, and single handedly just trying to disprove something.
For example, some information contained in Part 1 and Part 3, specifically, is not obtained by simple keyword searches on the Internet. You have to dig deeper. For instance, very often people who look up "Horus" or "The Federal Reserve" on the Internet draw their conclusions from very general or biased sources. Online encyclopedias or text book Encyclopedias often do not contain the information contained in Zeitgeist. However, if one takes the time to read the sources provided, they will find that what is being presented is based on documented evidence.
There is a reason this information is not easily obtained via simple searches on the Internet. In fact, if you try you cannot find this in real-world libraries, both public and university. It was also difficult to find this information in bookstores, which are more likely to house information that is controversial. It essentially comes down to the film-maker wanting to say "Every source you will attempt to find is wrong, and only the sources I provide are correct." This is no different from simply telling you not to look up the information at all.
The most laughable part was "...draw their conclusions from very general or biased sources". This is coming from a film which repeatedly sources only a few places, in fact nearly all of Part I can be found in the book The Christ Conspiracy - The Greatest Story Ever Sold, which I discuss in length on the movie sources page, calling into question the author and her other claims as well.
That being said, It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth, but find out for themselves, for truth is not told, it is realized.
Well, as discussed in the various pages for this article, and nearly all claims being completely refuted -- I would venture to say that the film should never be taken as truth on any level. Honestly, it seems this statement is a subtle disclaimer of sorts, essentially saying "if anything in this movie is proven wrong, I actually didn't mean for it to be true, but if you think it's true, that is just as good."