The Venus Flytrap - About Self-purification

Appendix D. About Impossibility of Self-purification

14-01 Some people argued that even if resource-based economy becomes corrupted, the future mankind that started the revolution won't neglect it for long and, if necessary, overcome corruption of the system through struggle. It is not important to them as to what problem exists in Fresco's detailed plan, since the future mankind with improved consciousness will resolve problems by filtering his plan and only accepting core ideas.

14-02 It is a surprise that such argument was widely accepted by critical supporters of The Venus Project who argue that they do not agree with the entire plan but sympathize with the purpose of overcoming the current system. According to their perspective, The Venus Project is nothing special compared to revolutions in the past. But if this is true, exactly what can make its outcome so special?

14-03 The communism experiment promised a better society but corrupted. To speak about consciousness, it would be impossible to find any difference between Russians immediately after the revolution and supporters of The Venus Project now. Because they also believed that human instinct is virtuous, that human thoughts and socieies are created by ideology, and that they overthrew such ideology through the revolution.

14-04 We might even be able to claim that no nation built up through revolution can corrupt. If we call the general state of conviction that we can change the system as improvement in consciousness, all revolutions show improvement in consciousness. The only method of rescuing the logic presented by supporters of The Venus Project is to assume that only The Venus Project reflects improvement in consciousness and other revolutions do not. However, only a small number of critical supporters understood this point.

14-05 But exactly why is their argument wrong? Whether it is The Venus Project or not, the argument that people brave enough to start a revolution to get rid of exploitation will not neglect beginning of a new exploitation sounds very plausible. Weren't they sufficiently independent people who could resolve any problems created in the new system? Why did they fail to do so?

14-06 Time taken for the communism experiment to spoil in Russia and China was unbelievably short that it sometimes makes people most hostile towards communism to be surprised. Stalin came to power 11 years after Bolshevik successfully started the revolution, and he established a completely dictatorial power within 1 year. Instead of modifying the errors of the Cultural Revolutin, young revolutionists of China took the initiative in accepting it and destroying everything. This happened 17 years after starting of the experiment.

14-07 This is probably not an astonishing outcome to those who remember the discussion made in Chapter 8. Utopian engineering always appealed more to our emotion than reason. As a result, the dominant psychology in everything such appeal became successful was esthetic enthusiasm dreaming about the world with unprecedented beauty instead of cool-headed criticism and sense of responsibility. It was impossible for rational efforts to modify huge problems of the system under such intoxication.

14-08 The truth is exactly opposite from what people who claim to be critical supporters believe. Underlying psychology on the back side of collectivistic solution is distant from positive things like 'improvement in consciousness.' It always meant abandonment of reason, not the use of reason. It is truly correct to point out that The Venus Project is not special. Far from not being an ideology, it is actually the most dogmatic ideology. Therefore, there is nothing more uncertain than the expectation that it will be able to resolve problems on its own.

14-09 The time taken for the experiment that was begun to create a better society to fall into worst form was so short that it still requires special explanation. Perhaps it would be helpful to review a study by an American psychologist named Leon Festinger. An ordinary housewife called Marian Keech received a letter one day. The letter said that the world was going to end on December 21, 1954 at midnight and it can only be saved by those to believe in a God named 'Sananda'.

14-10 She trusted the letter and created a religion to prepare for the end, leaving behind her family members who did not believe in 'Sananda'. The believers disposed of their properties and threw away all gold ornaments on their bodies. This is how they believed they could survive from the great flood. Leon Festinger secretly sneaked into this religion as a disguised believer in order to observe them. The promised day approached, but nothing happened after all.

14-11 Here, Festinger witnesses an extremely irrational and incomprehensible thing. Keech yelled out, 'our belief gave light to the world, and God has decided to save the world.' None of the believers was suspicious or disappointed about this. They competitively called newspapers and broadcasting companies to propagate that they saved the mankind from catastrophe.

14-12 In 1957, Festinger announces the 'theory of cognitive dissonance'. It describes the tendency of people to devise a new theory or ground to sustain their belief when a clear counter-evidence to their belief appears. When religious groups began to turn into a despeate defense mechanism, it happened at the exactly same time as when their belief became uncertain. As they sacrified more for their belief, their efforts to not give up on that belief grew larger.

14-13 Somebody may already have noticed the fact that collectivistic society immediately after the revolution is the most appropriate environment in which cognitive dissonance can occur. As we found out in Chapter 4, it is not desirable to democratically determine matters such as where to construct cities and build power plants in planned economy. Most people do not have technological capability to make the decision. What we will end up selecting is the system in which such decisions are made by something else.

14-14 The problem is that it is impossible for us to have definite criteria to determine whether or not our system is properly operating, no matter what specific system we choose. There is no means for the general public without technological capability to monitor whether the planners applying the method of substantiation and experimentation are doing the right thing. They can merely believe in one of many factions created by engineers who have different views.

14-15 At a glance, it seems that such situation can be helped by a simple logic. If there is no actual improvement in qualify of life, it would indicate that the system has a problem. However, this declaration cannot be supported. As we verified in Chapters 3 and 5, actual improvement in qualify of life cannot be accomplished immediately after the revolution in any case.

14-16 New cities and power plants have not been built yet. It is clear that actual improvement in qualify of life can become possible only after such constructions that require time are complete. Side effects during early stage of revolution are foreseen, because the method of substantiation and experimentation requires many trials and errors. In the history, no collectivistic alternative was proposed in an immediately verifiable form. The beautiful world was always promised to appear after the mankind endures sufficient times of tribulation.

14-17 Therefore, our question is about what kind of social atmosphere will be formed if there is no hope for improvement after 10 or 20 years. Counterrevolutionnary movement can grow by people who were skeptical about The Venus Project. However, there is a group of people who have sacrificed too many things for The Venus Proejct. As future of the system becomes increasingly uncertain, their efforts to protect the system will become blind.

14-18 Unfortunately, the theory of cognitive dissonance does not predict that this conflict will be resolved peacefully. Faithful supporters of The Venus Project might blame all failures on division and conflict, trying to remove division based on the method of Jacque Fresco to make everyone has the same hope. As failure of the system becomes clear, it is very likely that an absurd public sentiment will be formed that the situation will be improved by isolating counterrevolutionists, and that it is the only thing they can do for their descendants.

14-19 In case of people who have fallen into fraudulent pyramid companies and pseudo-religions, there are ways to get help from family members or friends who can diagnose the situation more objectively. However, everyone whom we encounter during transition period of The Venus Project is someone already participating in the same experiment as we are. Under such environment, incorrect thoughts are more likely to be endlessly reproduced than to be resolved.

14-20 In Chapter 7, I threw out a symbolic question to supporters of The Venus Project about the resolution required by re-revolution: If nothing is improved despite the troubles you went through for 10 years, are you willing to give up on the expectation that supported your efforts for 10 years, the expectation that everything will be better one day, return back to where you were? Most supporters of The Venus Project have never given any thoughts about this matter. Their expectation that the problem will resolve itself is empty.

14-21 Critical supporters wrongfully presumed that The Venus Project will be accepted only after sufficient social discussion. The truth was opposite. The Venus Project, as collectivistic alternatives in the past were, can only be accepted impulsively when the romantic desire to discard old things and construct a completely new world becomes dominant. Now is the time when we need to have critical view on this.

14-22 We can never postpone the use of reason. If we cannot use reason right now, we won't be able to use it in the future. Under an environment like planned economy in transition period, we cannot expect much from even the most rational people in the world. Much less can we expect from supporters of The Venus Project floundering in the state of euphoria.

14-23 Furthermore, the attitude of persisting on positive view on The Venus Project because most of problems will be resolved by the time it is applied is ridicuolous. If the problems can be resolved so easily, why was Jacque Fresco unable to do it after investing decades on it? The Venus Project fell into a tedious cult, exactly because of many supporters who cover this up.

14-24 Finally, it must be pointed out that his effort will be unsuccessful even if he were to recover his senses and fix the problems of The Venus Project. This is because, as we have seen in this writing, nothing in The Venus Project is right. If we had to reject things we should reject and accept things we should accept in The Venus Project, our choice is obvious: complete and full disuse.