The Venus Project World Lecture Tour in Bristol

We travelled up to Bristol yesterday to hear Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows talk on their one stop in England on the Venus Project World Lecture Tour.  Unfortunately we arrived late, after enduring traffic hell on the M5 motorway northbound from Devon.  We missed the start of Roxanne's talk, but we did get to hear all of Jacque's talk and the subsequent  Q&A session.  During his talk Jacque had made it quite clear that he thinks a lot of people talk bullshit, including politicians, psychologists and lovers! He had occasionally used some four lettered vernacular also. We got surprised in the foyer after his lecture by Jacque himself, who unexpectedly emerged to shake our hands and enquire if Kasia had been offended by any of his fruitier language. She assured him she hadn't been!  Having been sat near the back during the main presentation it was great to see him up close and chat briefly, even if he did take the opportunity to illustrate one of his points by suggesting that my prior conditioning might lead me to punch the guy opposite me on the nose!

It seems like quite has lot has happened since my first blog post about Jacque's proposals for a resource based economy.  The lecture in Bristol was organised by the Zeitgiest Movement, which is now "the activist arm of The Venus Project", for example. There also now seems to be lots of controversy about Jacque's ideas at a variety of locations on the internet!  Here's a few of the things Jacque himself had to say yesterday:

There's no such place as "Utopia" – Everything changes

Man cannot think or reason

There's no such thing as "Human Nature"

You and I are merely "Consumers" – Our values are shaped by the existing monetary system.

We don't talk TO each other – We talk AT each other

90% of schools are run by "Horse's Arses"

Children should be taught to be "Problem Solvers"

Don't be "Polite" – The only way to learn is through confrontation

Even the wealthiest people of today will have "a better standard of living" following a change to a resource based economy

If you don't do anything, nothing will change

Plenty more food for thought in amongst all that.  His talk did raise at least one question in my own mind, which I never actually got to ask Jacque because he and Roxanne had to rush off to talk to the press.  Here it is:

Personally I'm not very keen on elites, but it sounds like experienced engineers like myself, apparently already conditioned to "consume" and to "punch people on the nose", might very well become a new elite following a change to a resource based society. Personally I'm not too keen on committees either. How would the members of Jacque's proposed "survey committees" be selected? At random? By virtue of being part of a new elite? By some other mechanism?

Not that it answers my question, but here's a video showing some of the things that Jacque Fresco had to say during his recent visit to South West England: