Nick Lambropoulos and Zeitgeist
Nick talks about his path to transition and his connection with a powerful documentary.
I came to hear about Transition Towns in Newcastle through some people in the local community, about a year ago. For some time now, I have been keen to be part of movements and organisations that are in line with creating sustainable communities, and ultimately, a world that works in balance for all life on the planet. That’s basically what I’m about in a nutshell.
Over the past 4 years, I did a lot of digging and research, looking at many aspects of society and pressing social issues that have surfaced in recent times. I looked at what was required to make communities – large and small - become sustainable, from the ground up. I also looked at many related and important worldly issues, such as Peak Oil, human impact on the Environment, Climate Change, Human Behaviour (why we behave the way we do and act the way we do towards others), and the Monetary Paradigm that we have inherited (or in my opinion, we are ‘trapped’ in). Very quickly, I came to realise that we the people of this planet, were the source of most of the problems we now have and are dealing with. Nature has been doing pretty well without us for millions of years.
Over much of my teenage and adult life, I could see that there were some fundamental difficulties emerging for human beings; it seemed ludicrous that we were at war with ourselves and the environment. For a few years recently, I churned and struggled with these views. It made me sick in the stomach at times to consider how we behave and what we are doing to our environment. What I came to realise is that we, as the predominant species on this planet, have effectively spent the industrial civilization building the foundations to what I could only conclude was our own self-annihilation. Now for some this comment may seem to be far-fetched, radical and pessimistic (I more than anyone don’t want to see such a future). Recently I become a father, and all of a sudden, there was more at stake than just my own survival. Invariably I am not alone in this view, and this view has not emerged from mysticism or dogmatic beliefs, rather, it has come through science and the scientific method. We had to stop plundering the finite resources of the planet for short term gain, and ‘break out’ of this self-sabotaging paradigm we call our ‘economic system’, which created money out of thin air.
In 2007, a powerful documentary was released on the internet, called Zeitgeist. The documentary had a big impact on me personally - in fact I was blown away by it. More importantly, Zeitgeist gave me a lot of answers to questions I had been dwelling on for years. It presented the ‘status-quo’ of planet earth for what it was, and it talked about a new type of global economy, called a Resource Based Economy. After watching and examining this and related material, I started to think a little beyond my own needs and about the future of my child, my immediate community and the generations to follow. The documentary spawned a very large and growing worldwide movement called the Zeitgeist Movement (since then 2 other documentaries have been released).
From those documentaries and other transformation education I had been learning, I started to accept the current condition of the earth and people for what they were (even if I didn’t like some of things I saw about it). I got interested in what it could take to make a world that works for all people and in natural balance with all life. The idea of a resource based economy was exciting, and made sense, and was a much healthier option than a failing economic monetary system. Pie in the sky some might say? I wondered, really - what other choices are there for the social and environmental ‘train wreck’ we are heading towards..?
Last month I quit my full time career as an I.T. consultant. I had successfully grown my business over the past 8 years and all in all was involved in I.T. since the birth of the internet in Australia in the early ‘90’s. I was fortunate to be have a post-graduate education at little cost financially to me in the ‘80’s before the HECS scheme was introduced. I remember feeling sad that the government was being less and less involved financially, and that academic instutions were being influenced more and more by corporate interests and that education – at least at university level, was no longer something that was a ‘given’ to youth. I’m currently researching my new career (in the sustainability field) so I’m taking some time out to do that and interrupt this ‘hectic’ life and slow down a little and focus on family and other important things.
So if you’re up for making a difference to your community, your family and most importantly to yourself and the world you live in, then get on a wagon – any wagon and make a difference and create a future that works for all. What’s going to make the biggest difference is simple to say and sometimes hard to execute; it’s taking action.
The Zeitgeist Movement and the online documentaries can be viewed at www.zeitgeistmovie.com. www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
Nick Lambropoulos
