The New Human Rights Movement Media and Press
Aug. 2017 Interview with Abby Martin / Telesur: Empire Files
July 2017, “Tangentially Speaking” with Christopher Ryan
[Better quality audio version here]
June 2017 Interview with Lee Camp
June 2017 Interview with David Pakman
June 2017 Interview with Thom Hartmann, The Big Picture
May 2017 Interview with “Watching The Hawks”
April 2017 Interview with BoomBust
The New Human Rights Movement book review
by New York Journal of Books
“This is a book for everyone who has ever questioned the validity of the “war on drugs,” the “war on poverty,” or any other governmental attempt to solve social ills . . .”
Despite the efforts of governments, NGOs, religious groups, and other organizations to alleviate the problems of crime, poverty and myriad other social ills, they remain with us, growing rather than decreasing. Countless billions of dollars have been spent, with minimal, if any, results.
In The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression, Peter Joseph offers a revolutionary and thought-provoking explanation of why this is. Simply put, these social problems cannot be solved until the underlying systemic issues that cause them are first recognized, and then addressed, but doing so is not in the interests of the world’s movers and shakers.
In this book, the true nature of the capitalist system, which rewards the rich as it penalizes the poor and working class, is described in clear and surprising detail. The artificial creation of money, which again benefits only those who control it, is explained. The propaganda efforts of those in control, to convince the populace of the glory of the “free market,” to its own detriment, is described.
As Joseph explains with well-researched and carefully documented facts this is not a new phenomenon. Rather it dates back to the so-called Neolithic Revolution, the transition from a society of nomadic hunter-gatherers to agricultural pursuits and permanent settlements. It was with this social transition that the class system as we know it today was born.
Because the tradition of capitalism and the general acceptance of separate “have” and “have not” populations are concepts that have become so ingrained, they are seldom questioned. In this book Joseph questions them and arrives at surprising conclusions.
Using historical facts and the writing of economists and philosophers, Mr. Joseph brings the reader logically through the numerous connections of capitalism, foundational to so many social evils, to racism, classism, war, crime, poverty, alienation, depression, etc.
This is a book for everyone who has ever questioned the validity of the “war on drugs,” the “war on poverty,” or any other governmental attempt to solve social ills, and wondered why, with so much time and money spent on these “wars,” drug use levels remain constant, poverty levels increase, inner-city crime continues, imperial wars expand, and whatever other targeted ill supposedly addressed does not end.
The author explains that ending these problems is not in the interest of capitalism; for-profit prisons need more prisoners, the poor need to stay poor so they will work for low wages, and weapons manufacturers need war so their products can be sold to governments around the world, profiting the few at the expense of the many.
Joseph, the founder and president of the Zeitgeist Movement, is not a prophet of doom; while clearly enunciating the many challenges of modern life, most of which have their foundations in philosophies thousands of years old, he offers specific steps that can be taken to alleviate all the problems that capitalism creates.
The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression, is a book for our time, and one that should be required reading in every university in the first world. Students, possibly for the first time, will need to question so many of the assumptions with which they have grown up. Doing so will enable future leaders to break out of the traditional roles that clearly don’t work.
Third World university students will also benefit, as they learn about the foundations of the systems that have relegated their nations to poverty. They may know from sad experience that foreign aid always comes with strings attached, strings that, when followed, have a noose at the end. This book explains why that is, and how it can be changed.
This book is a fascinating read, and a vitally important one for anyone who is tired of the status quo, seeks to understand why it is so entrenched, and wants to do something about it.
[ READ ORIGINAL ]
Santa Barbra Independent Review
No one can accuse Peter Joseph, founder of the global organization The Zeitgeist Movement, of thinking small. Joseph thinks in terms of systems and structures, and in his new book, The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression, he offers a comprehensive critique of the market-dominated economic system that has been in place in the United States and large swaths of the world for the past four decades.
Joseph argues that the difficulty with structural oppression — be it economic, racial, or environmental — is that while we all participate in the architecture to some degree, it’s almost impossible to discern its impact and effect. What this means, according to Joseph, is that society is constantly focused on symptoms rather than causes. Unlike most contemporary analysts, Joseph devotes scant time to blaming Republicans, Democrats, or greedy capitalists for the ills of the world because the American government — like the governments of most nations — always supports dominant economic interests. The individuals and corporations who profit from the arrangement aren’t necessarily intent on subjugating the masses and dominating the world, but this is often the end result because the framework in which they operate rewards perverse values and incentives.
Joseph repeatedly makes the point that the root socioeconomic orientations of a society organized around neoliberal economic principles are competition, dominance, and scarcity. He writes, “It is fruitless for us to demand idealized or more just behaviors from our existing institutions, since they have been built around a value and incentive system that thrives on the very behaviors we wish to change.” This is particularly apparent when it comes to the environment. The capitalist system with its insatiable demand for constant growth is inherently at odds with sustaining human existence on a finite planet.
The magnitude of the cultural shift Joseph writes about looks unlikely to occur in the current political and economic moment, but the overall tone of The New Human Rights Movement manages to be hopeful without being unrealistic. Sociological transformation will not come easily or without disruption, and can’t happen until the dominant economic model is replaced with one that, in Joseph’s words, “favors behavior that condones sustainable, collaborative, and socially just outcomes.” [ READ ORIGINAL ]
Supportive Quotes:
“Peter Joseph is one of the great visionaries of our time. If there’s a beautiful future—and I think there will be—then his fingerprints will be all over it.”
—Marianne Williamson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Since 9/11, security took over and retired human rights into a small closet. We need to get back to the issue of rights for all. Hopefully this important work will draw us closer to that reality and promise. Without economic realignment with nature to secure our habitat, along with conquering the sociological roots of fragmentation and bigotry, the human family is in peril.”
—Jack Healey, Head of Human Rights Action Center
“One of this generation’s greatest visionaries delivers a startling exposé about the violent oppression that defines our economic order, while issuing an urgent call for global activism to unite to change it. Amidst a deepening crisis of capitalism and inequality, coupled with an intensifying assault by the Empire’s elite, ‘The New Human Rights Movement’ provides a crucial roadmap for the movement toward the next system. It’s not if, but when, as author Peter Joseph proves—through mounds of data—there’s no other way our species can survive.
–Abby Martin, The Empire Files