POLITICS OF PROJECT EARTH: An open letter to The Zeitgeist Movement.

 

In his Communist Manifesto Karl Marx claimed that in the society he envisioned "the public power will lose its political character" because "in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared." Yet every state that has claimed to have realized the vision of Karl Marx developed an authoritarian political system with an elite political class. With that in mind lets examine the claim that the new society envisioned by the Zeitgeist Movements Earth Project will not have politics. 

The Greeks of antiquity coined the word Politics to discus "the affairs of the city." More than 2500 years ago in the city of Athens they decided to arrange the affairs of their city in such away that all free men had to participate in politics, in making collective decisions regarding their city and citizens. As a warning to those who wanted no part in that process, one of their most famous philosopher Plato wrote: "The penalty for refusing to participate in politics is to be ruled by worse men than yourself."

Politics is the process of making collective decisions and enforcing them with force, when they are not followed freely. It's a process of fulfilling values with the force of law. It's a practice of legitimizing the use of coercion when it is used to get people to follow the rules that reportedly bring about the realization of those values. Fail to follow the law and you are assumed to have forfeited some of your freedoms or rights. Resist and they will be taken from you with violence.

The Zeitgeist Movements Earth Project outline specific values. Among them are sustainability which has at its roots survival, arguably the most basic human value. Efficiency through the scientific method is then also valued as the way to attain sustainability. Having already prioritized the values of the society, which today is done mostly through party politics, would decrease the scope of politics considerably, but only if people agree on the prioritization of the values, which is assuming a lot. The first political question in Project Earth is therefore: "How is the prioritization of values enforced when people actively go against it?" 

Other values like safety from violence and rape will not disappear even though the frequency of such violations would arguably decrease, as explained the film Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. And just to touch on the deep rooted value of so many people to force their values and morality on others. There would be a call from many to make laws prohibiting drugs, alcohol and pornography, just to name a few moral issues. 

There would therefore be laws stating what could, what could not and what must be done in the community. Obeying these laws would not be voluntary, they would be enforced with threats followed by violence when threats were not enough. And this process of making and enforcing rules for the community, the city, the world, is precisely politics.

Having said that, the Zeitgeist Movement has very desirable goals many people are willing to pursue freely. The general welfare and equality of Project Earth puts it in harmony with the basic goals of both socialism and communism. If these and other goals of the project are then pursued by convincing free individuals to be part of that community, instead of using coercion to compel them to do so, the project also becomes harmonious with the ideologies of libertarianism and anarchism, increasing further the number of people willing to participate.

But is Project Earth communism? If communism is communal ownership of the means of production, lets be honest about it, then it communism. But it has a potential to be very different from Marxism and the authoritarian communism that states have pursued in the past. None the less with collective ownership come collective decisions about that which is owned in common. Granted, the decisions about resources and the means of production and distribution will be based on scientific evidence of what leads best to the fulfillment of the values of the Project, which limits the field of politics from what it is today. But the collective decisions about the affairs of the community are not only about resources, production and distribution.

A community realized by the Earth Project will have politics. But if it's political process is truly democratic with a strong constitution that defends that democracy along with civil liberties and human rights. If the project is implemented by free individuals who defend that constitution and freely agree with the prioritization of the communal values. Then that community might remain a prosperous place where people are free to pursue their happiness in a sustainable way.

With the fundamental values of the Earth Project in place it's time to look at it's politics. If you don't want power hungry control freaks to take over your project soon after it gets of the ground then make sure to put in place from the beginning the basic rules, the constitution, that dictates how decisions are made and enforced in the community. Here is a free 57 page guide at google books to get you started. It's called "The Game of Politics: Game Manual." http://books.google.com/books?id=1hxtpwgeMgMC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false