The other night a friend of mine started telling me about this movie he saw and that I should watch it. He said it would leave me thinking, asking questions, probably confused, and likely disgusted. Great, I thought, so I asked him what was the name. "Zeitgeist" he said, a German expression that means "the spirit of the age". The he informed me that I could download it for free on the website or buy it for only $5. Hmmm, I thought, interesting. Doesn't sound like they're too interested in making money, but more in spreading thoughts or awareness. Just the thing I like.
He proceeded to give my husband and I a little insight into the movie and it only sparked our interest more. So the next day he burned us a copy of the one he bought, which apparently is promoted on the website, so long as it is not for selling purposes, and my husband and I sat down to watch it. In the end the movie left me quiet a bit disturbed, confused, and shocked at some points, but at others, I felt a sense of affirmation and logically convinced. One point in the movie addressed an issue of much importance to me: Education.
For some time now I have been convinced of the fact that while the younger generations seem to be far more intellectual than the older ones, the younger generation is also allowing themselves to be dragged through a misty fog of Hollywood fashion and celebrity gossip. This is the priority of our current society as we walk through the cashier lane of the grocery store and are bombarded with gossip magazines that tantalize us so much we can't refuse to pick them up, or flip through the hundreds of reality shows, half of them being the lives of celebrities, or being informed yet once again by the news that Hillary Duff was once again arrested.
Students who study journalism or media would say to me that the Media only gives the public/society what they want. How much control does the media have over us though? I'm sure that 80% of you would say: NONE. I wear what I want to wear, I say what I want to say, I believe what I want to believe. But is that really the truth? What you know about something, about anything, do you know about it because you actually researched it, or do you know about it because someone told you that was how it is/was?
I downloaded a clip of the movie that I wanted to share with you where it discusses US education, the influence of the media, and then something probably most of you have never even heard of: The North American Union. After you have watched the video discuss your thoughts on your blog. But before you watch the video I want you to read the statement that the director has on his website:
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 includes 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
P.S.: For those of you who are unfamiliar: words that are in a different color and underlines are hyperlinks I have included for you to go to find more information.
12 comments:
This video is quite cool in its concepts and it has some interestung ideas. I watched the video with an open mind and expecting to see something i may enjoy.
How ever in this video it points out that the power of the media is very powerful and people tend to listen to what it says without question. This video is no exception, as cool as interesting as it may be, much of the video seen is obveously layered with the voices and ideas they want yo to hear and see. Also some of the quotes used are taken from movies.
Thanks for the video i quite enjoyed it!
I was actually thinking about that too..that the movie was telling us that we should not believe what the media tells us and yet we are listening to the clip believing what we are hearing. Although I agree that the clip does give ideas that they want use to hear and see, I do still agree on some very strong points that the movie clip makes. I do think that much of the truth in some world issues are not being told by the media.
I ,too, would have to say thanks for the video. I thought it was very interesting. It was a good blog topic and I am glad that the video was made and is spreading around.
SO have you all checked out the other video clips? You can find all of them on YouTube or download it from the website.
Per suggestion of a student of mine, rather than doing the extra credit discussions here in blog, I have posted a discussion forum in the wiki that is easier to handle and user friendly. Please visit: http://tashababysenc1102.wetpaint.com/thread
That video was one of the most compelling things I've ever watched in my entire lifetime. Ever since the '80s, mass media has been attracting us and pulling us away from what really matters -- education. Mass media, in a sense, is also making much of America vapid and hedonistic -- no wonder the USA is one of the lowest-ranked countries in education efficiency. But more importantly, the media likes to "hide the truth" like kimg said.
Great vid.
After watching that video I was in awe, I was stunned. The information they reveal here is crazy. I had never heard of the North American Union until now. Something I really liked about this video was the fact that it revealed how the media controls us. In my opinion it is a proven fact, we believe what we see and hear on the news. I believe that we should not believe everything we see/hear from them. For a while now I have been skeptical about many things said on the news and it all started with a video called "Loose Change." (link)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=593477999977759983&q=loose+change&total=4295&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3
It is a video about how September 11th seemed to be a setup by our own goverment. Like this video said there are certain thing that the media shares with us that the only reason they do it is to make us "believe" and not look for further information on the subject. What we all should do is look into things talked about in the media for ourselves. Research them and come up with as much information on it and create our own conclusion. On the other hand what we do is listen to everything the media says and stand by it. Therefore I believe that this video was an excellent source of information and im glad it is being seen by others.
-Arnold
Also I believe that we have gotten to the point that we completely lost control over everything. We are controlled by the higher ranked people and we continue to let ourselves be controlled. I think we definitely have to do something about it and regain power for the well being of our future, education, and us as people.
well what i like is that yea it points out how we listen to media and almost everything they have to say... the same would go for this video,because it has such an extreme view on things you really cant trust much at all of what it says untill you look into it yourself. For the example the North American Union sounds like total junk to me.. nice little idea but not very possible in my eyes.
to watch the full 2 hour video just go to zeitgeistmovie.com, and watch it there for free.
holy shit! hilary duff was arrested again!??!
lol i couldn't help myself... i'll continue reading the rest of your blog... which it should be called bloooooooooog for how long it was
some of the things that the video says are true. the media has a big influence over what americans do, buy and even think. however we must not forget that this video is also a way of blinding people from the truth. although there might be many things that are real, i think that only the author's thought are shown and not the complete thruth. if we only look at one side of the story, even if it what really happened, then we would always be inmersed in a biased media where only certain people in the higher level will know the thruth, whether we like it or not.
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