is a false society.

Our society will go down in history as the lowest development in man.

We have the brains, the know-how, the technology

and the feasibility to build an entirely new civilization.

(Jacque Fresco) It was living through the 1929 Great Depression

that helped shape my social conscience.

During this time, I realized the Earth was still the same place:

manufacturing plants were still intact and resources were still there

but people didn't have the money to buy the products.

I felt that the rules of the game we play by

were obsolete and insufficient.

Misery, suffering and war provided the incentive for my life's work.

I was also motivated by the seeming incompetence of governments

the academic world, and the lack of solutions offered by scientists.

I realized that instead of working with individuals

a more effective method would be to redesign the culture.

This began a lifelong quest to finding solutions

to the many problems that we have today.

(Narrator) This presentation is a feasible plan for social change

that works toward a peaceful and sustainable global civilization

where human beings, technology and nature coexist.

It outlines an alternative to strive for

where human rights are not only paper proclamations

but a way of life.

It is called The Venus Project.

Its founder, Jacque Fresco

calls for a straightforward redesign of the culture in which war

poverty, hunger, debt and unnecessary human suffering

are viewed not only as avoidable but totally unacceptable.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that anything less

will simply result in a continuation of the same problems we face today.

The Venus Project's research center

constructed by Fresco and Roxanne Meadows

is located in Venus, Florida.

It addresses many of the root causes of our difficulties.

But what are the real origins of our problems?

At present, we are left with very few alternatives

since we are on a collision course of our own making.

Answers from yesterday are no longer relevant.

Considering the damage already done to the environment

we are rapidly approaching a point of no return

where nature will dictate the course.

Either we continue as we have

with outmoded social customs and habits of thought

thereby threatening our future

or, we apply a more appropriate set of values

relevant to a sustainable society

with more opportunity and freedoms.

Americans have been conditioned in their kind of society

to get a different kind of car next year

to buy a new television set, or a tape recorder.

We are radical as hell but our political and social institutions

have not changed and this is where we are stagnating:

because we always equate any new idea with communism or regimentation

because we have been brought up to fear that which is new.

(Narrator) None of the world's economic systems:

socialism, communism, fascism or the free enterprise system

have eliminated the problems of elitism, nationalism, racism

and most of all, scarcity.

These are all based primarily on economic disparity.

When money is used to regulate and distribute resources for profit

and people and nations are out for themselves

they will seek advantage at any cost.

They do this by maintaining a competitive edge

or through military intervention.

War represents the supreme failure of nations to resolve their differences.

From a strictly pragmatic standpoint

it is the most inefficient waste of lives and resources ever conceived.

Most wars are for the control of resources

and maintaining your position of differential advantage.

They're not based on the 'dignity of man.'

They're not based on elevating human beings.

It might elevate the human beings in the country that's the victor.

It might do that. But as far as the rest of the world goes

the price is enormous.

(Narrator) This crude and violent attempt to resolve international differences

takes on even more ominous overtones

with the advent of computerized nuclear delivery systems

and deadly biological and chemical weapons.

Yet it is a windfall, money-making opportunity

for those who profit by the military-industrial complex.

If the profit were taken out of wars

do you really believe we would have them?

(Jacque Fresco) If they draft you into the army to serve this country

(you put up your life for this country)

they should draft all the war industries:

every cannon maker, machine gun maker

automobiles, jeeps, warships

all drafted, so they're on the same basis of pay as the army.

Then it's real. But if you make millions selling warships

and machine guns to the army, then it's corrupt.

I would (if I had my way), if we had millions of men in the army

I'd send them to school to become problem solvers

how to get along with other nations. That's what we have to do, not kill.

Soldiers are just killing machines; they're trained to kill.

I would train them to be able to go to Mexico and bridge the difference

and go to the Arab world and see if they can bridge the difference.

So bring them all together, all the nations.

(Narrator) War is not the only form of violence imposed upon people.

There is also hunger, poverty

homelessness and unemployment.

The acceptance of these conditions as expressive of 'human nature' is a myth

used to keep things as they are.

Genetics has nothing to do with greed, business, race prejudice.

All of the operant systems in any society are part of your education

the books you read, the role models you follow and the people you admire.

The genes have nothing to do...

except with the color of your eyes, the shape of your nose

perhaps inherited features.

The genes do not control values.

Even if you're born with a much better brain than another person

meaning better receptors, the quality of the tissue is better

I would say that if you have a better brain

and you live in a fascist country you become a fascist faster.

The brain has no mechanism of discrimination.

The brain can't tell you what is relevant or less relevant

except experience.

(Narrator) We are not born with greed, envy, hatred, or bigotry.

Our behavior and values are reflective of the culture we are exposed to.

If you were raised by the headhunters of the Amazon

you'd be a headhunter.

If I said to you "Doesn't it bother you to have 5 shrunken heads?"

you'd say "Yes, my brother has 20."

Is he nuts? No, that's normal to his culture.

Social and environmental problems will remain insurmountable

as long as few nations control most of the Earth's resources

and the bottom line is profit over the well-being of people.

Putting profit first results in unnecessary suffering

and aberrant behavior prevalent today.

Many people feel that we need the rule of law to eliminate our problems.

We have many laws, thousands upon thousands of them

but they are constantly being broken.

Paper proclamations and treaties do not alter the facts of scarcity

deprivation, and insecurity.

You can predict the shape of the future and the values if you know

the trends of events in the ocean pollution, the scarcity of arable land...

If you watch that degrading system grow

I can predict the riots and killing and assassination.

Human behavior is really generated by the surrounding environment.

If there's a scarcity, say of water, it is prized and its price is high.

Let's discuss scarcity as a system.

Suppose it rained gold for about 3 days, gold dust.

People would go out and shovel it in, fill their cellars

the attic, every drawer in the house. They'd throw out their clothing.

If the rain kept up for a year so that gold was all over the place

people would sweep it out of the house, take their rings off, throw them away

and so human behavior undergoes change to that condition.

There's only a policeman in front of something that people have need for

and don't have access to, so you put a guard there.

But if lemon trees or orange trees and apple trees

grew all over the place, you couldn't sell it.

If you landed on an island that was so abundant with resources

you had 10 people, there were 1000 fish for every person if you wanted it,

there were 10 times the amount of breadfruit and bananas

money would not come into existence.

Private property would not come into existence.

If the island was big enough: there were 10 people, there were 8000 acres

no one would give a damn about staking out this particular area.

There are patterns of behavior that promote survival.

There are social conditions that change our values and outlook.

No one can write a constitution of required behavior

without consulting the environment.

So, we'd better take care of the environment

we'd better take care of one another and we'd better educate people

to the highest possible levels of our ability

in order to have a society.

(Narrator) Even a peace treaty cannot prevent another war

if the underlying causes are not dealt with.

Maybe what are needed are ethical people in government

who will work toward everyone's well-being.

But even if the most ethical people were elected to high positions

and we ran out of resources, there would still be lying

cheating, stealing and corruption.

It's not ethical people that are needed but rather

a way of intelligently managing the Earth's resources for everyone's well-being.

Let's examine our social arrangements further.

To maintain our economy, products must continuously be sold.

To assure this, they are deliberately designed to wear out and break down.

Maybe you've noticed this usually happens

right after the warranty expires.

This corrupt practice is referred to as 'planned obsolescence'

which is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency.

Innovators go through the finest schools and then are required

to design things that wear out and break down right on schedule.

This results in a tremendous waste of resources and energy.

We are plundering the planet for profits.

If you think about it, it isn't a job people want

but access to what their paycheck will bring.

Money does not represent anything real

and there's no gold, silver or resource to back it up.

You can't eat money or build a house of it.

It is not even related to our real capacity

to produce goods and services on this planet.

The monetary system has been handed down from centuries ago

and we continue to use it without questions.

This system will keep installing more and more automation

cutting down on the purchasing power of the majority of people.

There will come a time (it's called the Gaussian curve)

where employment is that, production is this

and purchasing power is that. The system stops.

Banks fail and nothing works anymore.

We're moving in that direction very rapidly.

- We have finally gotten to a place in 2011

where it's becoming obvious that the machine has beaten the man.

- We are incredibly productive with far fewer people.

- We are more productive as an economy than ever before.

- An iPad app can do more than four people.

- It's just that there are fewer jobs. The jobs that do exist now

can have lower wages because of obvious reasons:

a lot of people are looking for a small number of jobs.

The wages go down, that has huge impacts on the middle class

and ripples out from there.

We're moving towards social collapse.

I think this is going to happen all over the world, not just here.

It doesn't require the overthrow of the government.

It just requires that you let it alone; it will overthrow itself.

If you control the media, you can calm people down.

But if the majority keeps getting laid off, they don't have purchasing power

the system collapses. It doesn't work anymore; they invade.

It's already happening, this country is already insoluble.

They're going to have difficulty with national security, paying pension people:

they've spent far beyond what they already have.

All they can do now is create debt, borrow more and more money from banks.

- We also want to show you a rather grim sign of our times