my name is federico pistono and i am the italian manager of the zeitgeist movement.
in the last few weeks, i dedicated myself to the international organization of the movement
and i became one of the global managers.
there are some projects that i dedicated to particularly like:
the complete design of the international site but also other projects like the newsletter
and the new site of the international blog that we hope
it will become the only source of information of the movement.
so i'm working on the movement on a large scale of possibilities.
Personally,i've allways been interesed since i was a child on descovering things
, what makes something true or false,
this thing has a meaning or how i can explain this to myself.
Going on this thing became a passion because i discovered there was a method
to acheive knowledge and to know how "world works".
And this was the scientific method so i dedicated myself on studiing science and its applications.
when i was 16 i won a scolarship (researchgrant)for an international course
in a comunity that had 200 boys and girls from 80 countries of the whole world called "United World College".
it was an experience that transformed me, because it gave me the possibility to
expand my knowledge about other people and their different cultures
and with basic values for civilized living that was: english part
All this things were our statement ant it was what made me grow and became part of TZM.
I made several activism in the past, i created my own non profit organization,
4-5 years ago it "lived" 2 and a half years, organizing conferences on enveroinment, health, anti-mafia
and similar activities at a local level.
It eventualy transformed when i entered in a more close contact with internet
and i discovered hundreds documentaries that i watched one after the other allmost like "devoring" them. I eat them at breakfast, lunch, dinner, at night.
One of this movies was Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist Addendum.
When i watched Zeitgeist Addendum i saw there was the possibility to create this comunity and the efforts
were grouped in persons that said: ok let's change something, but not going in the streets
screaming and shouting that"heeey here nothing works is al a bih sh...t.
but try to find solutions to the problems you found.
So i said WOW this is a chance to change the world,
not only say it would be nice if it will change.
OK let's apply the scientific method, let's think what do i have to do to change the world
is it possible?
Ovviusly you can not be that "naif" to think you can change the world in 2 years with a movie
but you can start changin a part, there is a degree between black and white,
where you askyourself: am i getting allways closer or am i going completely in another direction?
And the basic conclusion was that an economy based on profit and the continuous consumption of goods
with a planet that has finite resources is not sustainable.
So that is a completely wrong direction. It would be better to take the right one the better one.
then the discussion is not about if we have to take or not this direction but
how we arrive to it.
This has to be the subject of our discussion and the start of it.
I belive that if one manages to make the very first step in recognising that the wrong direction,
and searches another one, at this point you can give a meaning to the discussion.
Beacuse we spend a lot of time defending or attacking the monetary sistem,
while i think we should simply define our target: sustainable living on the planet,
and to avvoid suffering to billions of people from malnutrition, pollution and all
this problems easily solvable technicaly.
You say ok this are the things we don't want how we can avoid them from happening
This is the discussion we should have and it's what TZM tries to do.
English part and other stuff
The italian chapter comes alive from mine personal idea.
There wasn't anybody that presented itself to coordinate so i made a step forward
So i opened the site being a programer, and waited to see what happens.
i expected few persons like 5 10 50 maybe, nothing extraordinary, who knows.
but in less than 2 months hundred of people inscribed and saw google statistycs going exponentialy so i said ok is becoing something
.....
So when we started to have this growth i thinked it would be better to organize the comunity
so that who entered it, could have clear information on how he/she could help, and how the comunity could grow even more.
Imediatly i realized that the only way the project could work was giving to people the power of expriming their own creativity.
Beacuse if it would have remained a personal project where i tried to have an expression of my ego,
it would had been firstly wrong, secondly fallimentary beacuse it wouldn't had last for long,
and the last reason but maybe the most important one is that i have no fuc....ing ego,
and i think those who have an ego is for an insecurity problem
I'm very sure of me and of what i do, i put myself in discussion but i'm not afraid beacuse i know i have the basis to do it.
So because of this, as soon as somebody came with new ideas i was very excited
"come come, do you want to manage a new project, all the doors are open".
In fact there was a small problem at the begibibg in the italian chapter
because everybody saw only the zeitgeist movie and not addendum,
so there was the religion subject that continued to come out.
talking with some of the more activ members that understood more the situation
we decided to make a small movie where we explained that TZM is not against religion.
Is a fact that is has to be very clear beacuse a lot of people had this preconcept and "closed their doors" to us.
So we said ok let's see what we have in common
we say we have to treat each other like we are a family, that we have to respect nature
and the other beeings and try to live like brothers and sisters.
This is Jesus Christ so christians come come , if you want to realize your values on Earth come to TZM,
we open our doors to you.
So the real christians values, or the gold rule of all religions like budhism, indhuism eventualy
is simply common sense that does not come from a god but from our inteligence
because we think, we live in a habitat, there is the natural selection,
and so is positive for a comunity to treat each other good, so this is what wetry to do with the movement,
being friends beacuse if we see this like a task or a sacrifice or something that stresses us, then we've failed.
The purpose of the movement is to create a sustainable society not only technologicaly by building passive houses
that consume less energy than the one they produce, everything is recicled,
we use only natural resources etc.
That is part of the idea of the movement but is mainly a bio-psycho-social sustainibility.
And the psicho-social part is important as the biological and ecological one
because if we are violent , we don't have empaty, we don't have dialog and we don't respect each other
we are not sustainable socialy and humanly.
So how can you build a society with people that hate each other? i can't immagine that.
In TZM i can speak about the italian chapter where we try to promote empaty friendship but also enveroinment sustainibility
because they have to stay toghether.
If this two things get separated you have the technology curve going up the culture remaining straight
and bigger is this gap bigger are the problem we have i the society.
ENGLISH PART
One of the things i've done in my life
is living very much in contact with persons very far from me using internet
that puts us in instant contact from Australia New Zeeland America, we are in contact and
we have different cultures that make a "merge".
It didn't took me too much to realize that the concept of politics or democracy, aristocracy
autarchy or whatever "chy" were obsolete
and were concept that greeks allready had explored using the instrument they had to manage the public "res" the pubblic thing
So we've said, excuse us this things were alleady in depth explored by greeks 4000 years ago
is it possible that in 4000 years we can't manage to find something new,
a better way to talk and to take a decision together?
And the answer is yes we found it: the scientific method and instruments like internet, wikipedia,
forums.
So WOW who knows if there are working experiments, where they managed to take decisions in the most efficient way possible
where you know you can't acheive perfection, you know that whatever method you use
you could never make everybody happy.
This will never happen but what you can do is watch this the other way:
everybody is sad, you took the worst decission.
So between this two situations you can try getting closer to this direction.
And i saw all the instruments that variocomunities used but what's the one that takes you closer
in the most efficient way?
I saw that the method of decission making or decission arival in wikipedia seems to be the best.
As i mentioned is not perfect but is the one that allows us to go in this direction.
The method consists in opening a page where one writes:Ok this is my proposal, mine.
Underneath others can say :I agree or I don't agree but they have to explain why.
And when they explain they don't have to say beacuse i like it beacuse you are ugly or bad
because today is full monn tomorow not, but they have to explain with scientific proves why yes or no.
What works in wikipedia is that there is no democracy and no aristocracy but simply
the scientific evidence that is being valued and is self evident.
so if i write i agree another one i agree i agree , even if we are 100 is like being 0.
On the other side if i say idon't agree because this situation was prooved by this comunity in
this context similar to ours and they've failed beacuse of this reason, reasearc of Standfford University from 2006
that in this conditions etc.
was prooved that this does not work
even if they are only 2 that have the scientific proves they win not the 100 that said only yes.
And this process of discussion using only the scientific evidence that you can present
1:it eliminates the emotional part where you insult saying YOU ARE A BASTARD A STUPI I HATE YOU
.... all this makes you lose the sense of what you are really speaking of
because you enter in conflict and the discussion has no sense anymore.
The science is whatever your beliefs are t doesn't matter you have to bring some evidence.
And if i'm a good scientist, if i have a belife and you bring me evidence that i'm wrong, i have to say
WOW you're right, i wasn't.
This is the only way i saw we can grow as individuals, beeing humile, admiting our own errors,
but mostly is the only way to prevent all the power problems conected to empowering somebody.
Beacuse for example in a rappresentative democracy tot. persons say this one rappresents us,
and you have that person as a weak spot. Is like a chain made from many rings
if one ring is weak all the rest is compromised. But if instead of the chain you have a net a mesh, even if there is a weak ring there are the
other ones sorounding it and solving the problem.
But if you have a piramidal structure this ring here "puffff" and all the rest falls down.
So for the decissions ragarding all the comunity, decisions that are taken not this frequently,
but only like 2 or 3 times a year, not banals things that can be decided very simlpy in workgroups
But when instead a decision regards 500.000 subscribers and in a future we could be 5 bilions or 50 bilions
At that point you can not say ok that rappresents 50.000 people you elect one
and it rappresent 5 bilion people or 50 billion and then they speak one with the other.
Well that is our actual system where you only corrupt that one and all the rest are fucked up.
But if you say ok who has an idea, presents it with scientific proves no matter where it comes from
if he is the global manager or the last arrived, what really matters is his ideas.
Like we said in a lecture sometime ago with Peter Joseph and i agree, we have to pass from
a society that elects persons to a society that elects ideas,
Beacuse what matter are ideas. Persons are only the builders of the ideas but is the concept
that has to be elected not the person.
Otherwise you create all the retroactive problems like leader, authority figure, corruption etc.
So we proved this structurein the italian chapter, it works, we are now trying it at an international level
and it seems it works. I spoke about it at Europeean and international level in various meetings
and who allready knows the wikipedia system say is very beautifull,
while who doesn't say let me see it looks interesting.
And when they realize they say WOW is not perfect but looks like a good idea to me.
I think this is the direction to follow.
english part
The political situation in Italy?!?..! Next question?
The Polotical situation in Italy is such a disaster that usualy i avoid to speak about it
or i speak for 3 days and get depressed.
I will try to resume it like this in a few minutes if i'll manage to control my emotions:
In the last 25 years the country was violented mentaly, psichologicaly, emotionly,
fizicly from all directions in all the holes we have in our body,
by a social-cultural-economical and political structure that makes people more stupid and imbecile
ignorant and vulgar.
And this was made using mass media that promote an idea of a regim that was continuisly advertising
more and more and this is not only about Berlusconi.
He is only the top of the problem but there are also the soroundings.
Everything that made possible that someone like Berlusconi came into power and stay there for 4 or 5 legislations
There are 25 years since he has power and even if when he doesn't have it
he is so involved that it doesn't matter. Infact the true italian power is the economic one like in
other contries and it is maneged by the mafia that manages the governement.
And this is not only my opinion but it was provedby Gian Antonio Stella
or ... No wait i don't know if is Gian Antonio cut this part.
It was proved by various writers that wrowte for example "La Casta"
"Gomorra" , "Saviano", they have documented in a very detailed manner the inner structure
of the italian state is intertwined with mafia and they are mainly the same thing.
They made a pact 25 years ago when happened "the massacre of PIazza Fontana"
they made explode persons and bodyguards got killed ,
After they made this pact this agreement with the mafia
in witch they said ok you don't make anymore terroristic attacks and we give you
the control of the country.
And this happened , the mafia gave Berlusconi the possibilty to sent it's message to all
the broadcasting stations, while Berlusconi was only the proxy the link,
beacuse from there passed all the ecconomic powers of the country no matter if
they were from the right the center or the left.
At the end it was only about money, profit, money , profit translated in incinerators
that burnedtrash instead of reciclyng it producing nanoparticles, concrete concrete concrete
constructions even though we have a lot of dismissed construction sites, half buid ospitals,
We keep building new buildings instead of restructuring the old ones.
We speak about energetic efficiency but now we want to build nuclear centrals
when 25 years ago with a refferendum we said we don't want nuclear energy.
Now government says we make nuclear plants so we made anoher refferendum
and 99.5 % of the population said NO but they keep saing "Well maybe next year we do it"
What are you talking about?????
And they keep puting obstacles to the progress of the country.
Is so ridiculos.
There is an italian sayng:"scrape of the barrel"
immagine this big bottles with wine or water.
when you drnked all the wine or the water of the barrel, in the bottom alcoolists
take the spoon to scrape of the last drops of wine.
Well scrape off the barrel is when you try to take the last drop but there is not anymore left.
We are nor scrapeing the barrel. We have consumed all our fingers, we have destroyed the bottom of the barrel
and we are scrapeing on the ground.
We are out of our head , crazy is a disastrous situation.
Is more and more ovvious that with the poilitical and social-economic system you can not change anything.
a very interesting change is happening in Italy , and for what i know is unique in the world
is called the 5 stars movement(Movimento stelle),
It is a social movement similar to zeitgeist movement, that decided using the political structure, to take out money from politic
They also say let's elect ideas and not persons. So who enters in an istitution with a hidden camera
videorecords and after shows :look this is what they are hidding you!
So complete transparency, enviroinmental sustainability, cycling lanes, fotovoltaic, water recycle....
I see in them an optimum start for a transition to an resource based economy
Many of the 5 stars movement even if they know what to do now, if you speak them about
an RBE in future some can't understand well beacuse they belive in free market, etical profit
even dough is absurd being ethical in a bussines on the free market.
If there wouldn't be the competitivity problem , you could have an ethical profit,
but you could not stay in the market beacuse to stay you don't have to be ethic but
you have to think only at profit other wise they put you out of the bussiness.
So they still have some steps to do but they are in the right direction.
Infact we as TZM Italy don't say vote for them beacuse it would be a too extreme position
but we try to cooperate with M5S we try to bring the ideas of an RBE in their discussions
to have benefits when they will pass from 0.1% to now they are at 10%.
It was the biggest growth in history and is all born from the net , their last campaign
alltough they had 2 bilion euros given by the state to finance it,
they said no we don't want that money, use it for pubblic things, rennovable energy for things tahat are useful.
We make our campaign on the internet.
They made the campaign it hole italy spending like 15.000 euro.
Just for comparison the other group that obtain 9% spent 10 milion euros and them 15.000
So they proved that you can take away money from politics that with ideas and working aon culture people starts to think
and this can be done with internet.
Too bad that here in italy proceed like this:
They saw that people is not absolutely stupid but only if you make it stupid
they tried to lock internet the only thing that takes complete control away from us.
For 4 times in last 5 years they make a law to lock internet.
This are the yes sites this are the no sites and so 4 times happened a sort of a revolution
and the country said you are crazy.
Italy is terrible.We have 46% of houses conected to broadband internet.
We are the last in Europe after Portugal, Greece, and scandinavian countries that are at 85% 95% . In Estonia Finland France in Sweden is a constitutional right.
You born and have the right of broadband internet acces.
In Italy altough is not a problem to pay for internet, it won't get to you, you don't have it.
The majority of small cityes in Italy doesn't have broadband internet access.
Beacuse there is Telecom Italia that has the monopoly, not a state one but private one,
that for profit destroied internaly the "bussiness" , sold everything to the Pirelli managed by the petrolhead Moratti,
petrolium=profit, yes is always the same
And so all the italian telephonic network managed by only 1 company for profit,
but nobody can do nothing.
Is called "the last mile liberalization"
For example Rome, big city, you have broadband internet.
You ho 10 km outside here isn't anymore
You are in a village outside and say:" i want broadband internet"
The answer:For our competitional advantage , we don't have enuf person that in your area could pay for our services,
so there is no profit for us to bring you broadband internet.
So the way of thinking is not: we want to give people more culture, information and so education
using internet, the biggest thing ever happend in the hisyory of human kind,
But if we don't have a profit "SORRY FUCK YOU".
So what did we said 3 years ago when there was an auction for the "WiiMAX??"?
We said we don't need all the cables from their company. we use wiimax!!!
Wireless. You have a 10.000 euro antenna that "shots a 50 km range.
Fuck, we put wi max everywhere with 500 euro for person and buy the antena for everybody.
They made the auction, and companyes could not came to the auction.
The state could not buy the wii max and say "we liberalisate it".
Let's make a private auction instead, for private company that want to make profit.
It was bought it seems to me by a multibilionaire egiptian guy that has no interess in trasmitting.
Infact after 5 years there is no one that uses wii max.
The reason is that they didn't want people to use it.
i don't know what agreement did they do but in facts nobody uses it.
So eventualy in Italy what happens
politics is "unspeakable", there is M5S going in the right direction,
wewith TZM are working to change the cultural basement of the country and also to