Introducing myself. I neither belong to a chapter nor feel able at this time to start one. I live in the greater Philadelphia area, so the nearest chapter is NYC, too far for local activity. Iād love to hear of a Philadelphia chapter.
I am a retired software developer. After decades of commitment to capitalism, the last two years have persuaded me to reject it. My recent influences include Peter Joseph, Kate Raworth, and Andrew Yang. These three have disagreements, but would be better served by looking at their commonality than their differences.
Iāve listened to all the Revolution Now podcasts so far, watched the first Zeitgeist film, read extended twitter threads between PJ and Kate Raworth, watched the youtube where PJ poses The Three Questions, read both of PJās medium posts, and am halfway through The New Human Rights Movement.
I am biased in favor of PJās views. I recognize this as bias in myself because, in his work, I find confirmation bias, circular reasoning, and unsupported inference of causality in the face of correlation. PJ posits causation chains that are appealing, but other causation chains are also plausible, with no rigorous research to support his or discredit others.
I offer these critiques, not to tear down PJ, TZM, or the ideas they represent, but rather to challenge the community to shore up their reasoning. I would not support an argument that 2+2=4 because 2 pigeons flying over my deck twice equals four pigeons, even if they leave 4 pigeons worth of droppings. A conclusion may be correct even if the argument for it is not.
However, I can agree that a holistic systems view, taking complexity and chaos theory into account, is necessary to creating a sustainable socioeconomic system. I can agree that automation, properly applied, can relieve misery, and maybe even lead to happiness. I can also agree that Capitalism has failed miserably, although I cannot agree that it has failed as profoundly in the past as PJ makes it out. Until recently, life expectancy and quality of life used to be increasing, but the combination of inequality and planetary overshoot is reversing earlier gains. We are now in a world where the past is no predictor of the future.
I wish to join the TZM community in order to continue learning about the movement, to help me reformulate my ideals, and expand my horizons of what is possible.