Below is my impression of the man behind The Venus Project, and seemingly the inspiration for the Zeitgeist Movement as well. Most of this brief overview comes from the lecture cited above. I also viewed five shorter videos just after, including the first 20 minutes of ‘This Shit’s Got To Go’.
Jacque is the little monkey-eared, curmudgeon of a genius who I enjoyed so much in the Zeitgeist movies and then invoked as potential caveman slave booty in a post apocalyptic meditation. Sorry Jacque—but you are old enough that I do not think I would even have to resort to breaking your feet to turn you into intellectual property…
Intellectually, I, like so many others, treasure this man. And it is not just he that we treasure. The lucid talks he gives evoke key unnamed people from his youth, during the Great Depression of the 1930s. His story about how his principal discharged him from school at age 14, took him to a book store, purchased what he wanted to read, and then simply asked Jacque to return and discuss the content on a weekly basis, was astounding. That principal ran a stifling indoctrination camp, and when he saw a likely escapee in Jacque, facilitated his freedom. That story about a subversive educator from what is now a past age—an age of bleak ignorance to rival our own—is a hint that a hope for free thinking might always be just a nod and a wink away.
I will view each of his videos at least once if given a chance. Jacque is the type of man that kings used to patronize and keep by their side as brain trusts. In our time, reliant as we are on ideological indoctrination at the highest level, there is no tolerance for his type at the top of our class pyramid. The alternative online media such as YouTube have enabled us at the base of the pyramid to savor his informed defiance. I have believed that defiance was a virtue since childhood; making this little man a hero to me.
The title is from a passage in the talk cited in the subtitle, in which Jacque discusses the fact that a head hunter quizzed about the ethics of his collection of shrunken heads by an outsider, would surely bemoan the fact that he had far less of them than his male relation who had 20. Below are some quotes from the same talk:
“The brain has no mechanism for discrimination.”
“Soldiers are killing machines.”
“War only provides hatred.”
“War is a means of protecting everything you have stolen from others.”
“We reflect our culture.”
“People are not educated yet.”
“Misery, suffering and war—the supreme failure of nations.”
Jacque variously speaks against philosophers, politics, business and utopian beliefs. He constantly espouses evidence and applied science as the means to insure human survival and prosperity. As much as I like him, it is hard to get over the irony that he, who might actually be our smartest man, looks more like a chimp than anyone on earth. To hear this man speak is an awakening of the mind; threatening in spots, and startlingly clear in others.
Go to The Venus Project link, or go to CultureInDecline and check the YouTube sidebar playlist, or go to iimuhin videos, all linked on our network page..
