Has anyone seen the movie Zeitgeist?

[Armueller2001]

What'd you think of it?

[SMASH]

It was very entertaining and sure to fire people up who don't think critically, which is clearly its intent since a lot of it is BS or very unbalanced while a balanced account wouldn't be as entertaining or controversial.

The parts that are in my area of expertise, mainly re: the banking/economic stuff, was extremely one-sided and missing a lot of pertinent info. and generally misleading. It was either purposely done so, or out of ignorance, but it was in no way balanced and the net effect is the same - anyone simply believing without question is conned.

A good bit of the 9/11 stuff, same thing. Very incomplete, and some of what they assert is widely and logically debunked so I can only assume they were deliberately misleading people.

The religion bit I don't know as much about, but given the track record of the other two segments it's likely a bunch of hooey too.

As I jokingly wrote to a friend (a TB'er) who sent me the link :

"They're definitely trying harder to make their point than to present balance. A shame they didn't tie it all in with the Age of Aquarius rising. Basically we get the religious wars/one world government, then it all falls apart by 2150, maybe via a new hope/messiah as Aquarius dawns."

The link is on Google video, if anyone's interested. It'd make for a very hot thread, if the film ain't already been discussed on TB(?)

EDIT : Ah, the old "Search" function. Zeitgeist - Have yu watched it yet? As I was saying about people not doing any simple investigation ...

[iamthebassplayr]

Originally Posted by SMASH

It was very entertaining and sure to fire people up who don't think critically, which is clearly its intent since a lot of it is BS or very unbalanced while a balanced account wouldn't be as entertaining or controversial.

The parts that are in my area of expertise, mainly re: the banking/economic stuff, was extremely one-sided and missing a lot of pertinent info. and generally misleading. It was either purposely done so, or out of ignorance, but it was in no way balanced and the net effect is the same - anyone simply believing without question is conned.

A good bit of the 9/11 stuff, same thing. Very incomplete, and some of what they assert is widely and logically debunked so I can only assume they were deliberately misleading people.

The religion bit I don't know as much about, but given the track record of the other two segments it's likely a bunch of hooey too.

As I jokingly wrote to a friend (a TB'er) who sent me the link :

"They're definitely trying harder to make their point than to present balance. A shame they didn't tie it all in with the Age of Aquarius rising. Basically we get the religious wars/one world government, then it all falls apart by 2150, maybe via a new hope/messiah as Aquarius dawns."

The link is on Google video, if anyone's interested. It'd make for a very hot thread, if the film ain't already been discussed on TB(?)

EDIT : Ah, the old "Search" function. Zeitgeist - Have yu watched it yet? As I was saying about people not doing any simple investigation ...

I was going to say pretty much what you said. Stealin' people's thunder!

+1

[cdef]

There's also Zeitgeist: the Addendum here. (Note: 2 hrs).

I couldn't find fault with the analysis of the basic nature of currency and the banking system. They lost me about halfway through with the "Venus Project", though. This is Utopia. But production values are high in both movies, and many questions are raised that are worth thinking about anyway.

[Philbiker]

Unmitigated bull-ess.

http://www.conspiracyscience.com/articles/zeitgeist/

[SuperDuck]

I think it's a potentially dangerous movie - not because it contains anything really pertinent to anything (because, as is stated above, it's a bunch of hooey from start to finish), but because there are a lot of not bright people out there (the real life tin foil hat club) who get fired up about this kind of thing and will take that movie as the gospel truth, no pun intended.

It's like The Da Vinci Code of internet movies. It's a load of ****, but gullible people see it, believe it, and preach it as truth.

[deggial]

Originally Posted by SMASH

The religion bit I don't know as much about, but given the track record of the other two segments it's likely a bunch of hooey too.

The religion bit is just as full of inaccuracies, especially as far as references to the Egyptian culture are concerned. While it is true that there are some cultural influences from Egypt and Babylonia present in Hebrew culture and religion (and as a consequence still present in christianity as well), most of the actual influences are not mentioned or are mentioned inaccurately or exaggerated.

For instance, Horus did not have 12 followers. He did indeed have followers, but if I remember correctly it was 16 humans and 4 semi-gods. Horus was not born by modern calendars in December, but in August. To my knowledge, there is no reference in Egyptian culture of a story similar to Jesus' birth. The story of Noe is indeed not original in christianity, but it doesn't appear in the Egyptian culture as Zeitgeist claims. Instead, the story derives from a very similar story in Babylonian culture.

I think all the examples above are mentioned in the site Philbiker posted, a very good debunking attempt.

-------

On a more general note, it still surprises me how in the age of readily-available information people still tend to to believe anything they may see or read without the least bit interest in checking for more information, sources or counter-points.

[bad_andy]

I shut it off when they got to the standard "9/11 was an inside job" crap.

[Thunderscreech]

I really do wonder if there is no law requiring the payment of Income tax. If theres not...

[KingCrimson]

I wouldn't call the movie BS, BUT it has a way of cutting out the other information to make it 1 sided.

In other words while people are going on about how it gives them new view on life the movie should merely give you another perspective. IE another way to think, another possibility.

I take this film like a Michael Moore film, great documentary, fascinating but too biast to change the way i think. Its not period it didn't debunk everything it just gave anothert side to it.

The only REAL way to get an informed opinion on this is if you watch both sides and research yourself deeper then a 122 minute internet film.

Then again some people are gullible enough to let a film change their whole perspective on the situations it covers.

I would love to see a film that counter points everything this one covered.


In the end though I look at these documentary films and everything and think to myself, WHAT DO I BELIEVE its hard to filter out the crap and keep the good on all these issues. 9/11, global warming, religion etc......

I guess I'm just to sheltered to believe anything just some citizen will say wholeheartedly because I know that it can be ruled out with other logic the same day by something else.

[unclekebm]

I don't think people should watch zeitgeist and then base overall truth on it's content,
but there is some truth in it...

what i'm seeing (on both sides) is a lot of dogma
I think we should consider and be open to what everyone has to say

you want one sided? the Rothchild family, the insurance industry, the FDA, IRS,
the pharmacutical industry, education (public schools) and mainstream history books,
people who only believe FOX and CNN, corporate shareholders and all the rest of the money hungry, greedy jerkoffs out there
who don't care about empowering a nation

[AlphaMale]

Originally Posted by SMASH

It was very entertaining and sure to fire people up who don't think critically, which is clearly its intent since a lot of it is BS or very unbalanced while a balanced account wouldn't be as entertaining or controversial.

The parts that are in my area of expertise, mainly re: the banking/economic stuff, was extremely one-sided and missing a lot of pertinent info. and generally misleading. It was either purposely done so, or out of ignorance, but it was in no way balanced and the net effect is the same - anyone simply believing without question is conned.

A good bit of the 9/11 stuff, same thing. Very incomplete, and some of what they assert is widely and logically debunked so I can only assume they were deliberately misleading people.

The religion bit I don't know as much about, but given the track record of the other two segments it's likely a bunch of hooey too.

As I jokingly wrote to a friend (a TB'er) who sent me the link :

"They're definitely trying harder to make their point than to present balance. A shame they didn't tie it all in with the Age of Aquarius rising. Basically we get the religious wars/one world government, then it all falls apart by 2150, maybe via a new hope/messiah as Aquarius dawns."

The link is on Google video, if anyone's interested. It'd make for a very hot thread, if the film ain't already been discussed on TB(?)

EDIT : Ah, the old "Search" function. Zeitgeist - Have yu watched it yet? As I was saying about people not doing any simple investigation ...

I love the first line. Exactly what I saw thinking. I've did research on the religion thing. I'm an atheist, so as much as I'd like it to be true. About 88% of everything it said is either completely made up or taken out of context. Well 98% if you want to count the whole numerology based on Jesus being born on December 25th. (If he did exist the bible kind of points to April and mentions nothing about a December or Winter.)

It would say Virgin Birth for people that were born from rocks (Mithras) or from plants. If you'd want to see someone who predated Jesus and had a similar story, look up Apollonius of Tyana. There are some things that were true, of individual qualities, but they definitely greatly fabricated to the fact that the characterstics of Jesus' life actually predate him to make it seem more bombastic.

[AlphaMale]

[Masher88]

Originally Posted by Philbiker

Unmitigated bull-ess.

http://www.conspiracyscience.com/articles/zeitgeist/

Not that I care about anything on either side...but who is this guy who is writing the "corrected" version of the movie? What are his credentials? Seems like he has a slight agenda. If you notice all the links to "friends websites" are all religious in nature. "Jesus Christ Loves You" website..."Free 10 commandments". Links to all religious sites.

So, in fact, this guy (or girl) is spinning the same yarn that the Zeitgiest author is.

Again...I don't care either way...99% of the internet is BS. If I were a teacher, I would not accept references from the internet. (hopefully, they don't!)

[Masher88]

Originally Posted by KingCrimson

In the end though I look at these documentary films and everything and think to myself, WHAT DO I BELIEVE its hard to filter out the crap and keep the good on all these issues. 9/11, global warming, religion etc......
.

The problem with Documentaries now..is that they are money makers.

Remember when they used to be very dry and boring...painful to watch? Because it just gave the facts with no spin. Now, people who make them are trying to lure people to the theaters to get their money, so they have to make it entertaining and shocking.

[GregC]

Originally Posted by Thunderscreech

I really do wonder if there is no law requiring the payment of Income tax. If theres not...

[deggial]

Originally Posted by Masher88

Not that I care about anything on either side...but who is this guy who is writing the "corrected" version of the movie? What are his credentials? Seems like he has a slight agenda. If you notice all the links to "friends websites" are all religious in nature. "Jesus Christ Loves You" website..."Free 10 commandments". Links to all religious sites.

I'm a bit confused here, as I cannot find any section labeled as friends' websites, general links or anything similar. Unless you mean the Google Ads in the left, that are automatically generated and the site's author has no control over them (in the same fashion as irrelevant Google Ads appear in TB sometimes).

In any case, both Zeitgeist (in their website) and the site above cite their sources, so it's easy for someone to follow up their research and make up his own mind.


PS. As far as referencing web pages, this is generally acceptable in academia and nothing wrong with it most of the time. The problem is that sometimes people tend to cite inappropriate, non-primary sources, such as web pages that do not contain original work (for instance, Wikipedia).

[Disco_Gee]

I saw the first third - the section on religion. Then I promptly turned it off.

The 'film' (if you can call it that) is the biggest load of rubbish I've ever seen passed off as a documentary. At no point during ANY of the religion section of the film did they come close to presenting an actual fact. They fabricated pretty well every piece of 'information' presented in that part of the film. Some of the claims were downright ludicrous.

I started a thread on this film about 8 months ago and the replies were interesting. It was actually quite sad to see the number of people who honestly believed the stupidity presented in the movie.

[Unrepresented]

Yeah, I saw it as a kid. Scared the hell out of me when the little blond girl got sucked into the tv!






/thread

[newbold]

It's all about power and how those with advantage have conned us.

I don't believe all of it entirely, but there are some important points about religion, the banking system, and yes 9/11 that are very hard for a lot of Americans to look at objectively.

The United States is in effect a police state after 9/11 - Martial Law is a reality that is just under the surface. There aren't tanks rolling down Main Street just yet...but it's a potential reality.

I believe that the more we focus on conspiracy theories the less time we give to our families and communities - but the same can be said for refuting many of these 'half-truths'.

We have an opportunity to create the world we want to live in. If you can learn what you can about how you're being used and how to incite change in the system and make that system work for you, you will stand a bigger chance of making the world better for your children.

Where Jesus may have been real, there are countless other Saintly persons that have done good for their brothers and sisters.

I don't really buy Zeitgeist's take on the birth of Jesus. I honestly believe that the story of the 3 wisemen from the east were coming to find the new Dalai Lama. As the Dalai Lama is an incarnate of the Buddha of Compassion, they bring with them articles that were the Dalai Lama's for him to recognize. Gold, Myrrh, Frankincense...All things from far away and of religious significance. We don't really know much about Jesus after his birth until he is about 30...as long as it would take for Jesus to be trained in the holy palace and long enough for him to want to spread the word and his life with his countrymen. Ever wonder why Jesus lives his life quite Zen, even on the cross?

There are significant ties between all major world religions. these religions are all a center of wealth and power and all have meaningful things to say.

Even Buddhism fails to share all teachings with its kinsmen. To unlock the wisdom that the Buddha found, one must go to a non-religious kin that teach Vipassana Meditation. It is a non-religious group of teachers that share the technique so that people may work to break the cycle of suffering and *not* reincarnate - so even Tibetan Buddhism falls short and exists only to continue supporting itself.

I'm more inclined to live my life understanding that not all is as it seems than to take one side or the other. The only thing that I know for certain is my relationship with God (or whatever that happens to be, as i find it easier to use 3 letters than a paragraph-long description) and this moment.

If you want a better reflection on religion, look into Tom Harpur's 'The Pagan Christ'

It's way less conspiracist.