Zeitgeist is a series of three documentary films released between 2007 and 2011 that promote a number of conspiracy theories, as well as proposals for broad social and economic changes. The films, Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007), Zeitgeist: Addendum (2008) and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011) are all directed by Peter Joseph.
Zeitgeist: The Movie
Zeitgeist: The Movie is a 2007 film by Peter Joseph presenting a number of conspiracy theories. The film assembles archival footage, animations, and narration. Released online on June 18, 2007, it soon received tens of millions of views on Google Video, YouTube, and Vimeo. According to Peter Joseph, the original Zeitgeist was not presented in a film format, but was a "performance piece consisting of a vaudevillian, multimedia style event using recorded music, live instruments, and video".
Synopsis The film's introduction features animations, footage of war, explosions, and the September 11 attacks and audio quotes from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Jordan Maxwell, and George Carlin. Part I claims the Christian religion is mainly derived from other religions, astronomical assertions, astrological myths, and other traditions. The Christ myth theory, which disputes the historicity of Jesus, asserts that Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid, nurtured by political forces and opportunists. Part I was influenced by the work of Acharya S.
Part II alleges that the September 11 attacks were either orchestrated or allowed to happen by elements within the United States government to generate mass fear, justify the war on terror, provide a pretext for the curtaillment of civil liberties, and produce economic gain. It asserts that the U.S. government had advance knowledge of the attacks, that the military deliberately allowed the planes to reach their targets, and that World Trade Center buildings 1, 2, and 7 underwent a controlled demolition. Part III states that the Federal Reserve System is controlled by a small cabal of international bankers who conspire to create global calamities to enrich themselves. Three wars involving the United States during the twentieth century are highlighted as part of this alleged agenda, started by specifically engineered events, including the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The film asserts that such wars serve to sustain conflict in general and force the U.S. government to borrow money, thereby increasing the profits of the international bankers. The film also claims that the Federal Income Tax is illegal.
Part III also alleges a secret agreement to merge the United States, Canada and Mexico into a North American Union as a step toward the creation of a single world government. The film speculates that under such a government, every human could be implanted with an RFID chip to monitor individual activity and suppress dissent.
Reception The first film received almost universal condemnation from the media, though it also "attracted massive interest" from the public. The newspaper The Arizona Republic described Zeitgeist: The Movie as "a bramble of conspiracy theories involving Sept. 11, the international monetary system, and Christianity" saying also that the movie trailer states that "there are people guiding your life and you don't even know it". A review in The Irish Times wrote that "these are surreal perversions of genuine issues and debates, and they tarnish all criticism of faith, the Bush administration, and globalization—there are more than enough factual injustices in this world to be going around without having to invent fictional ones". Ivor Tossell in The Globe and Mail cited it as an example of how modern conspiracy theories are promulgated, though he praised its effectiveness:
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