Where lies the spirit of the age?
Zeitgeist is no longer a word that means “the spirit of the age”. Today, it is also a movement that reflects the world’s outlook. The Zeitgeist movement, which conducts community-based activism and spreads awareness through a global network, is gaining momentum in India.
The movement, which became the next big thing globally after Scientology, is based on the belief that all our miseries are due to an outdated social system. It strongly protests against Capitalism and rubbishes the present monetary systems. Since it’s against Capitalism, most of the movement’s energies have been traditionally directed against the United States. “It goes back before the Clinton or the Bush administration, to the Vietnam War. The key word is Capitalism. It’s now up to people to examine the truth of their history,” says Jay Parmarty, 33 and self-employed.
Since it is a complete social movement, it goes beyond economic ramifications of past acts. The Zeitgeist movement believes that the world is a single system. It views humanity as a single family and that all countries must disarm and learn to share resources.“It’s a movement which combines all other movements that affects humanity like pollution, global warming, war and religion. Instead of looking at these problems individually, the Zeitgeist movement looks at these issues collectively and proposes a solution. It’s all about awareness through which change will happen. The present system is outdated and we need to replace it with something which will sustain humanity,” says 26-year-old technical writer and a new follower of the movement, Kamal Raj.
The inception and growth of the movement can be understood when its roots are simplified. Explains Satish Kanthati, the joint managing director of Zen Money, “The people are now asking when we did not participate in the upside, why are we being forced to take part in the downside.” It is yet another search for an alternative for two major systems that have failed humanity so far — capitalism and communalism or socialism. “We have seen communalism fail, and unregulated capitalism has got us where we are. An optimal outcome of this movement would be the birth of a mixed economy that is fair to all.”
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