Some few days ago the
Zeitgeist Addendum was released. I blogged about the
first Zeitgeist movie [see it at my link] a couple of weeks ago when I first discovered it and I was already back then eagerly waiting for the Addendum Movie.
The first movie was full of "conspiracy theories", though by following some of the online information available on the subjects, most of them seems to be highly accurate. Also none of the conspiracy theories are actually new but actually rewrites of "ancient truths". I seriously encourage you to see the first movie if you haven't yet. I think it is one of the most important movies I have ever seen. And it's freely available for download.
Though there's a huge difference between the first and the second which is that while the first one is about the truly big conspiracy theories, in retrospective when watching the second one I must confess that the first one was just "warm up" for the REAL Zeitgeist movie. The second movie gives really detailed background information about the current state of the world with all the problems we are currently facing. In addition it gives a very accurate diagnose on the disease we're all suffering from in present time. But even more importantly is that it also gives us a very good and probable *SOLUTION* to these problems. And for the most parts I must confess I completely agree with the director on his viewpoint here.
Sure it have some parts which I disagree on, but mostly I feel that the conclusion in the second movie are things I have "felt myself" ever since I was given my own intellectual capacity and self-aware consciousness in my late teens. Pure brilliance!
While most of the stuff in it is "old news" for me, there was one really interesting thing which I feel I have to dwell with which directly affects MY OWN life as an Open Source developer and Evangelist which is the accepted theory of "financial incentives". The movie says basically that we're
"trained to believe in that financial incentives are the only thing making the wheels turn". I am by far no communist, in fact I am way more of an "ultra-capitalist" than a communist according to any definition. I personally love the ideas of
Milton Friedman and his "ultra free markets". Though I must say that when I think about what really drives me in regards to my greatest achievements here in life it is by far NOT financial incentives - which makes me wonder if my previous beliefes in "financial incentives" have been wrong...
I work a lot on
Ra-Ajax, and Ra-Ajax is an LGPL licensed Ajax library. This basically means that it is virtually impossible for me to at least directly earn money on developing it, still I spend *EVERY FREE MINUTE* of my time working on it. And I guess this is the same for a lot of other Open Source developers in this world. So obviously there must be "something else" that drives me when working on Ra-Ajax.
Sure I do in fact need Ra-Ajax myself, both on any future "commercial" projects and also while working with consultancy. And probably by creating Ra-Ajax really brilliantly I will get the possibility of both getting more work for me and Kariem, in addition to being able to charge higher prices and such. But that's really NOT what makes me "tick" in regards to Ra-Ajax. If I were to make a list of the reasons it would probably consist of things like;
a feeling to contribute to the world, doing the right thing, learning, growing, sharing, feeling connected to a community etc...
And in fact now that I think about it VERY FEW of the things we are doing as a human race is done due to the possibility of gaining Money. Would Leonardo DaVinci create an "even better version" of Mona Lisa if he was given a shit load of money? Would Albert Einstein create an even better Theory of Relativity if we gave him a Ferrari? Would I create an even better version of Ra-Ajax if I was given a a free Platinum Card? I don't think so...
Probably to some extend if I had the "financial freedom" to not work on anything else then Ra-Ajax would definitely benefit since then I wouldn't have to do anything else than to actually develop Ra-Ajax and I could focus 100% instead of like I am doing now which is at 50%. And *maybe* down the road Ra-Ajax would have a more sustainable support mechanism and such if there was a huge load of people being involved in a company actually making a lot of money on developing it. But for the "creative process" this is more often than not actually a head wind instead of a benefit. Could 500,000 painters outperform Leonardo DaVinci? How many painters does it take to create something better than the Sixtinth Chapel? And so on...
And this can be taken up and down to any level in this world...
My neighbour is a "frenetic lawnmover person" and has the by far best garden in the neighbourhood. She doesn't get one cent on making her garden beautiful. Most of the things we do in life, especially the GREAT things we do for something completely different than "Financial Incentives". So is the whole
"Invisible Hand" argument from Adam Smith really dated and needs revision? I don't know, maybe for some things we really do need financial incentives, maybe some tasks won't ever be done without having financial incentives behind them, but I really hope that mankind is something more than a selfish, ego-centric, self-preserving organism. I really do believe in man kind, and now I am going over to the
Zeitgeist Movement to register and do my part. Most of the stuff in the Zeitgeist Movie I'd more than happily sacrifice myself for!
I am a believer!And to quote one of the greatest men in the entire human history;
"I hope some day you'll join us - and the world will be as one"Unleash Flower Power 2.0