By Rossella Frigerio
Ask any man on the streets what he thinks of our world today, and you’re likely to receive a response riddled with negatives. The environment is deteriorating, politicians are failing to deliver, the recession is eating up savings, and surviving the everyday has become difficult if not impossible.
In these turbulent economic times, the tsunami wave of panic that his been offset by the frenzy of the media and politicians is causing many to barricade themselves indoors awaiting the end of the world. Driven by the shouts of panic, few are listening to the voices of calm solutions, such as those of Jacque Fresco.
An incredibly versatile individual who may be described as everything from an industrial designer to a pioneer, Fresco is the founder of The Venus Project (www.thevenusproject.com). Offering a revolutionary yet feasible blueprint for living a life in symbiosis with our planet and without the artificial need for money, The Venus Project turns our current social structure upside down and demonstrates how fantasy can truly become a reality.
Chic Today is honoured to present an exclusive interview with an individual whose incredible ideas, projects and visions are set to open your eyes in ways unimaginable.
Do you believe the current global recession is one of the steps in the move away from the free-market to the resource-market approach you propose?
Yes, this will assist in helping to establish a new social concept. A resource-based economy can only grow out of the failure of the monetary system. Only when conditions become an acceptable to most people will change occur. When people lose confidence in leaders who don’t solve social problems, they will seek alternatives. This might not necessarily be for the better. Change that would be acceptable to most people will be somewhere between the dominant system of values today, and the emergent values of The Venus Project. The degree of change will depend on the severity of the recession. This does not imply that the future will be better unless there is a relevant direction to work towards. I feel that The Venus Project will serve these needs.
No system has ever looked forward and said this is where they are going. They cannot normally think outside of their social institutions. They tend to merely perpetuate themselves. The monetary system does not represent goods and services. It is merely an arrangement amongst people as an exchange for goods and services. It does not represent resources available for solving problems, but rather, inhibit social development. Money is a social convention, an agreement if you will. It is not a natural resource and it doesn’t represent one. It is actually no longer necessary and relevant to our survival.
