Z-Day 2015

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement will host its annual Z-Day event on Sunday March 15, 2015 at the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library from 1:30 to 4:30 PM. This is concert with the global Zeitgeist Movement  effort to engage the community at large with our train of thought on helping to make the world a better place for all people.

We will be screening documentary films, presenting information about a resource based economy and discussing the root causes and potential solutions to many significant social ills that face us as a global family. Please join us!

Attending the Environmental Awareness Club's Earthfest 2013 Event

The Environmental Awareness Club of UTPA is hosting a series of events for this Earth Week, and has graciously invited the Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement to attend their Earth Fest event! On Thursday, April 25th, from 12 to 1, we will tabling at their information area on the UTPA Library lawn. We will be distributing information about the Zeitgeist Movement, giving the One Planet Project quiz, and engaging the community with the ideas of a resource based economy and a better world for all people. As we celebrate and contemplate the only planet that the entire human family shares, it is imperative that we recognize the major factors affecting the environment and our society as a whole and work to address them with technical solutions that we have available. We are thankful for the EAC for the invitation, and we hope to see you there!

Announcing Our 2013 Z-Day Event

The +Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement will be holding its annual Z-Day event on Sunday, March 17th, between 1:30 and 4:30, at the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library in Edinburg, TX. Our event will focus on a screening and discussion of the ongoing web series +Culture in Decline, which examines major aspects and foundational assumptions of our culture and society. The major topics will include our dysfunctional economics, our corrupt political system, major value disorders and our propensity for war. While exposing these problems, we will also be exploring their potential solutions, rooted not in political or religious ideologies, but from a perspective that takes into account all people, and our technical ability to solve common human problems. We are excited to share this show with you, and engage in discussion about these and many other aspects of a culture in decline, and what we can do to help make it better for all people. We invite the public, and we hope to see you there!

Thanks to +Sopphey Vance for providing this beautiful flyer.

Zeitgeist Media Festival Flyers

Our good friend Sopphey from the OccupyMcallen movement has created some wonderful fliers for our upcoming Zeitgeist Media Festival on Saturday. Please share them with friends and family and invite them to the event!

Planning Our Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement Media Festival

The global Zeitgeist Media Festival event is approaching fast, and we are planning and preparing our event right here in the Rio Grande Valley. The Zeitgeist Media Festival is a celebration of art, music, advocacy and communication. We want to use the power of art and expression to help make the world a better place for all people. We are working with local performers, artists, poets and organizations to help spread a message to our community in a way that more formal settings are generally unable to. In addition to our message, we want to encourage giving back to our community by asking attendees to donate non-perishable food items to local groups like the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley and the local chapter of Food Not Bombs. While we recognize that we cannot rely upon charity to resolve the root problems, we do recognize the need to reduce what suffering we can while we can.

If you would like to help us organize and plan this event, participate or volunteer in any way, please contact us, and we will be happy to have your assistance. Thank you for your time and attention, and for joining us in our effort to help make the world a better place for all people.

Interview With Local RGV Pride Website

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement was recently interviewed by the local website/blog RGVPride.com. We thank them for their interest, the opportunity to reach more local community members and their desire to help make the Rio Grande Valley and the world a better place to live for all people. We welcome all readers from their site and encourage you to contact us for more information about our ongoing efforts and the progress of the Global Movement. Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know how we can help you learn about these fascinating and important ideas.

Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement Announces Z-Day Event

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement will hold their annual Z-Day event on Saturday, March 10th at South Texas College. The event will begin at noon, and will continue on until 8pm. We welcome the public to come and learn about the Zeitgeist Movement, a Resource Based Economy, and how start demanding a better world for all people.

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 21

The Zeitgeist Broadcasting Network streams original programming, relevant media and live events relating to the Zeitgeist Movement and a Resource Based Economy. Yesterday, ZBN live streamed the TEDx Ojai event in California, an event that featured both a live lecture given by Peter Joseph and a video presentation given by Jacque Fresco of the Venus Project. There was also a live musical performance and a presentation on innovative building technologies. These presentations will be available for download some time in the future, but stay tuned to ZBN for ongoing shows and videos, and future events!

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 20

Over the past decade, he internet has radically changed how people find, connect, communicate and collaborate with each other. The rapid rate of social movement awareness and adoption is directly attributable to the ability to instantaneously share information across town and around the world. Live video streams of protests and popular breakthrough film series like Zeitgeist would not be possible without the technological engineering feats of the infrastructure that is the world wide web. Social media sites and services, such as Twitter, Facebook and Google products, are increasingly vital to the rapid development and planning for these various causes, however, and that concentration of resources is causing them to become targets for the powerful and influential. Facebook, as a corporation, has recently gone public, opening themselves up to investor influence, pressuring them to further monetize their user-base, causing potential privacy issues with users of the site. Twitter recently altered their censorship policies to be in line with various governmental demands to censor undesirable information. Google's YouTube and search services have also been subject to government restrictions around the world, making it harder to share and find pertinent information. PayPal, the global payment processor that many organizations use to accept donations also has a long and growing history of abusing their powerful position by freezing assets, closing accounts and even refusing to accept donations on behalf of certain groups, like WikiLeaks, because of government pressure. Fortunately, all of these sites and services have alternatives, many of which are open source, non-corporate owned, and not adherent to arbitrary government opinion. The TZMNetwork is a social networking site for Zeitgeist Movement activists, and has recently undergone major renovation. Occupii is a similar site, mainly for Occupy Movement activists. The Diaspora* project is a general use social network that is based on an open source platform. Bitcoin is a digital currency that is not based on debt, not controlled by a government or corporate interest, and is open source, so anyone can use it. All of these, and more, are being continuously updated and improved upon by volunteers, who are working together for a better world for all people.

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 19

Several months ago, the Zeitgeist Movement held the Zeitgeist Media Festival, a global artistic expression and live performance focused event that worked with local food banks and other charitable organizations. It served to both bring awareness to the movement, reach out to the local community via local food charities and to celebrate the arts and media that help support the cause of a better world for all people. The main site for the event hosts videos of many of the performances, and will be updated with more content as more such annual events are planned. The Rio Grande Valley is home to many local artists and performers, and we look forward to hosting such an event and being able to host this incredible local talent, while hopefully working with the RGV Food Bank as well as the local chapter of Food Not Bombs. Keep watching this space for more news!

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 18

Before there was a Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement, there was RGV No State, a group dedicated to informing people in the RGV about the false institutions of government, law and other abuses of the social and economic structures that have been the foundation of the major problems we face as a species. This organization, lead by Armando Lopez and composed of many different people from all over the Valley and other parts of Texas, has helped the RGVGZM in many ways since the beginning of the chapter. Not only have they hosted the audio recordings of our meetings, but also share many audio lectures of the Venus Project's director, Jacque Fresco. These lectures, while from many years ago, still hold valuable insight into the radical social changes we seek to implement, and are worth listening to if you would like to know more about such ideas. We are grateful for their past and ongoing support, and their desire to help make the world a better place for all people.

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 16

The Zeitgeist Media Project is the website devoted to hosting, sharing and discussing media produced by, for and about the Zeitgeist Movement. It currently hosts hundreds of pages of pictures, flyers, videos, songs and written expression, each advocating a better world for all people. Everyone is able to contribute something, as everything posted to the site is meant not only for individual appreciation, but for sharing and distributing, use in awareness advocacy and events and to inspire others to contribute their own creations. I can't mention this site without also pointing out two contributions from one of our own local RGVZGM members. Many people in our chapter, and in the movement in general are highly talented artists, and we recognize their powerful and motivational expressions as necessary and beneficial to our cause.

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 15

The Zeitgeist Movement is a global movement, with chapters on every continent, and in many different countries around the world. One of the challenges we face as we continue to grow and reach new people, is translating the vast information resources produced from one language into many others. This is particularly a challenge with video content, which normally does not come with caption data when it is initially produced. Fortunately, there are many volunteers engaged in the effort to both transcribe original language audio and video, and translate that information to many other languages for all the world to access. One of the criticisms of social movements and information dissemination organizations receive is the lack of native language material for non-English speaking populations to consume and understand. The Zeitgeist Movement's Linguistic Team is responding to that concern and has been producing outstanding translations for many of the most important media pieces the movement creates. If you are interested in helping in this effort, please join the team as we would very much like to help spread the ideas of a better world for all people to as many different cultures as we can.

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 14

Recently, the Venus Project was interviewed by Playboy Mexico. This is an exciting development for the Spanish speaking world, as the message and ideas of a better world for all people can now be accessed in their native language and in one of the more popular publications in the country. While many people claim to read Playboy for the articles, this is definitely one interview that should be read by everyone who can get a hold of it. Fortunately, the Venus Project has made the full article available on their website for download. A small excerpt from the article is quoted below.

Imagina que no llevas un peso encima y lo mejor de todo es que no importa. Tus hijos van a la Universidad del Proyecto Venus, donde estudian química, física, arte y ciencias sociales en un concierto multidisciplinario. Lo que hoy forma parte de tu realidad se imparte como la absurda historia del Siglo XXI: lo obsoleto que era utilizar dinero, sus clases sociales, sus leyes y líderes políticos. Imagina no tener que pagar absolutamente nada. Jacque Fresco, el gestor de semejantes ideas, parafrasearía a John Lennon: “Podrás decir que soy un soñador, pero no soy el único”.

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 13

The Venus Project Magazine is a new website, developed by the Venus Project, that is intended to be the primary interface between the organization and those interested in learning more about them and even learn more about how they can help. It is divided into multiple sections, including News, Interviews, Events and Science and Technology news articles. There are even articles asking for volunteers to help the various TVP Teams in their endeavors. Currently, there is an interview with Andrew Buxton, an article about the massive internal software project, ALICE, that they're building, and information about their recent trip to Occupy Miami. This will be another useful information source for those who are interested in the Venus Project and want to keep up with their progress.

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 9

The Zeitgeist Movement Technology Team developed and runs one of the best sources for hard technology news and developments happening in the world today. It would be difficult for me to describe the site better than their developers have:

ZeitNews.org is a science-oriented website dedicated to technology news.  We operate as a branch of the Zeitgeist Movement's Technology Team as an information hub which aims to inform as many people as possible about the current advancements and capabilities of science and technology.  Technology is rapidly developing -- faster than many of us realize -- and with this website we aim to provide a clear picture of just how quickly this is happening through daily reporting of developments and breakthroughs around the world.

30 Days of Zeitgeist - Day 2

Following yesterday's video interview is this related Zeitgeist Blog post announcing the Israel event and discussing what the discussion will include. There are links to the Israeli Zeitgeist Movement chapter homepage which is in the Hebrew language. The finalized produced and subtitled video of the event will be available soon and will be a future entry in the 30 Days of Zeitgeist series.

"ZFEST" World Peace and Sustainability Event

Notes on our 20th Meeting and #OccupyMcAllen Event

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement held an abbreviated meeting on Wednesday, October 5th, at 6:00 PM on the University of Texas-Pan American campus. The 4 members in attendance were very excited about and discussed the recent Occupy Wall Street movement that was growing across the nation and around the world, as well as the local Occupy McAllen event scheduled for the next day. We were also very pleased to have Sandy Lopez be in attendance after being out of town for an extended period of time. We ended the brief meeting after an hour or so and the majority of our group went to the sign making meeting for the Occupy McAllen meeting in Edinburg, hosted by a very generous family.

While there, we were fortunate enough to be joined by other RGVZGM members as well as other residents and activists throughout the evening. We shared our various views about the Occupy movement, our life experiences that brought us to this movement and how we can help each other achieve the different goals that we all had. I am glad to have met the wonderful artists, activists and other individuals who attended that session and am very grateful for their hospitality and generosity of art supplies and space.

On Thursday, October 6th, over 300 people arrived at Archer Park in McAllen to march in protest of the grotesque inequalities that our current social, economic and political systems have created. We moved across the downtown district and around the local Chase Tower to demonstrate the disdain we held for the large banks and the monetary system they represent. We concluded the event with public speakers, voicing their opinions, their concerns and their calls to action. The media coverage of the event was somewhat uneven, but we were for the most part well represented. As expected, the media does not yet fully comprehend the meaning of this worldwide movement, and is unlikely to be truthful about its underlying causes and desired outcomes. This is where the ideas and understandings of a resource based economy can flourish, however, as the upset masses begin to recognize the failures of the system and demand resolutions to it. I encourage all people who want a better world for all people to learn about the root causes of the current corruption endemic to our culture and begin to think about what are the real values that are relevant to the survival of you and your loved ones. Only then can we start to demand a better world, not only for all of us, but from all of us.

Notes On Our Nineteenth Meeting

Date: Friday, September 16th, 2011
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Location: University of Texas - Pan American University Center Circle
Attendance: 5

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement held their nineteenth scheduled meeting on Friday evening at the University of Texas Pan American campus. We gathered in the outdoor University Center Circle next to a sporadically functioning and somewhat entertaining fountain. The small group of participants engaged in a wide ranging conversation going from food supply and production, vegetarianism, veganism and national political discourse to farm work, movement aspirations, religion and other events and issues that we have noticed in our personal lives. We also discussed our plans for future awareness campaigns, events and meetings. We talked about the movement and the Venus Project in general and what was happening recently regarding the Zeitgeist Media Festival and Peter Joseph's recent media interviews in addition to the amazing work being done by the Austin/Texas chapter.

Some interesting developments that have happened recently in our local chapter are the interest of Zack Quaintance from the local newspaper The Monitor, who seems to be interested in doing a story on our recent hydroponics presentation and subsequent use for home food production, and McAllen's Cine El Rey theater might be interested in screening a copy of Zeitgeist Moving Forward. These developments have not yet come to fruition, but they are both good signs that we will have some new publicity and exposure to the community, and it is very exciting to see what will happen!

For the near term, the annual HESTEC event at UTPA will be held in two weeks. This is a good opportunity to distribute literature and DVD's to members of the public who are interested in science, technology and engineering, and would likely be interested in learning about our ideas and goals. In addition, we learned that Edinburg has a community Second Saturday market day each month, where the local community gathers in a public space. This is another opportunity to engage in awareness activity and reach a general audience. I am looking forward to participating in these and other events in the near future and hope to see other members join in this important awareness activity.

Finally, we discussed future meeting venues and decided that we will start to meet in other public and outdoor places so we have a greater chance to interact with others while conducting our meetings. Our next meeting will be scheduled for Wednesday, October 5th at 6pm at UTPA. I hope to see you there and look forward to our continuing efforts to make the world a better place for all people.

Notes On Our Eighteenth Meeting

Date: August 3, 2011
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Location: South Texas College, Building H, Room 231
Attendance: 7

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement held its eighteenth meeting on Wednesday, August 3rd this month. We were hosted by the Zeitgeist Movement student group at South Texas College. The main focus of this event was the presentation and practical demonstration of home hydroponics systems by chapter member and bio-mechanical engineer Brian Cerda. He illustrated the multiple implementation methods, elaborated on the basic components necessary and provided practical advice and information on how anyone can use common household items along with inexpensive and easily attainable specialty products to start growing fruits and vegetables quickly and easily in and around your own home. Luckily, we were able to capture the presentation on video, which is provided below. Thanks to all who attended, we look forward to all of your future gardens,  and we hope to see you at future meetings and events!