Jacque Fresco
In order to design a future of positive change, we must first become expert at changing our minds.Collection: Positive
I don't believe in the Great Man theory of science or history. There are no great men, just men standing on the shoulders of other men and what they have done.Collection: Science
With the observable fact that scientific knowledge makes our lives better when applied with concern for human welfare and environmental protection, there is no question that science and technology can produce abundance so that no one has to go without.Collection: Environmental
If our system continues without modification involving environmental and social concern, we will face an economic and social breakdown of our outdated monetary and political system.Collection: Environmental
The future is fluid. Each act, each decision, and each development creates new possibilities and eliminates others. The future is ours to direct.Collection: Future
Today we have access to highly advanced technologies. But our social and economic system has not kept up with our technological capabilities that could easily create a world of abundance, free of servitude and debt.
If we really wish to put an end to our ongoing international and social problems we must eventually declare Earth and all of its resources as the common heritage of all the world's people.
Law is when you don't have a method of solving a problem... It's just nailing a proclamation on a wall saying, 'Don't do this.'
It takes a different value system if you wish to change the world.
Earth is abundant with plentiful resources. Our practice of rationing resources through monetary control is no longer relevant and is counter-productive to our survival.
I would like to see an end to war, poverty, and unnecessary human suffering. But I can't see it in a monetary-based system where the richest nations control most of the world's resources.
Despite advances achieved through objective scientific investigation, and the breaking down of long-standing fears and superstitions, the world is still not a reasonable place. Many attempts to make it so have failed because of selfish individual and national interests.
To prepare for the future, we must be willing to test new concepts. This means we must acquire enough information to evaluate these concepts and not be like travelers in a foreign land who compare everything with their own hometown.
Whatever happens in the world is real, what one thinks should have happened is projection. We suffer more from our fictitious illusion and expectations of reality.
While we cannot predict the future, we will most surely live it. Every action and decision we take - or don't - ripples into the future. For the first time, we have the capability, the technology, and the knowledge to direct those ripples.
You can play a role in the shaping of tomorrow's world by asking yourself questions like, 'What kind of world do I want to live in?' and 'What does democracy mean to me?'
I don't get upset if people think I'm crazy. If you go to a mental hospital and someone calls you a name, would you get upset? Of course not. Well, that's the way I think about the world. They don't know any better.
The shape and solutions of the future rely totally on the collective effort of people working together. We are all an integral part of the web of life.
If we arrive at a saner world in which the maximum human potential is cultivated in every person, our descendants will not understand why our world produced only one Louis Pasteur, one Edison, one Tesla, or one Salk, and why great achievements in our age were the products of a relative few.
Man, in the collective sense, is the hero of science. Man, in the collective sense, is the hero of Earth.
Many events in our lives are the result of things beyond our control. While it is comforting to think, 'I'm in charge,' in truth, most changes effected by individuals are very limited in scope.
With media companies today owned and sponsored by large corporations, it is difficult to know whether the news can be trusted.
If science has a lot to do with what works, then clearly there's much about today's social and economic setup that isn't scientific, because things aren't working very well for a majority of the world's population or the environment.
Many people feel that we need the rule of law to eliminate our problems. But is it more laws that we need? We have many laws - thousands upon thousands of them - but they are constantly being broken.
Even if the most ethical people were elected to high position and we ran out of resources, there would still be lying, cheating, stealing, and corruption. It is not ethical people that are needed but rather a way of intelligently managing the Earth's resources for everyone's well-being.
If we look at things scientifically, there is more than enough food and material goods on Earth to take care of all people's needs - if managed correctly.
Although many of us consider ourselves forward-thinkers, we still cling tenaciously to the old values of the monetary system. We accept, without sufficient consideration, a system that breeds inefficiencies and actually encourages the creation of shortages.
Our leaders pay lip service to the freedoms that democracy provides while actually supporting an economic structure that imprisons its citizens under more and more debt.
Our dominant values that emphasize competition and scarcity limit continued progress.
We are approaching a time when human intelligence alone will be incapable of managing a highly advanced society. Existing technologies are rapidly exceeding the human capacity to absorb and process information.
When education and resources are available to all without a price tag, there will be no limit to the human potential.Collection: Education
Democracy is a con game. It’s a word invented to placate people to make them accept a given institution. All institutions sing, ‘We are free.’ The minute you hear ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’, watch out… because in a truly free nation, no one has to tell you you’re free.Collection: Freedom
If you think we can’t change the world, It just means you're not one of those that willCollection: Mean
Human behavior is subject to the same laws as any other natural phenomenon. Our customs, behaviors, and values are byproducts of our culture. No one is born with greed, prejudice, bigotry, patriotism and hatred; these are all learned behavior patterns. If the environment is unaltered, similar behavior will reoccur.Collection: Nature
The question is not whether there is intelligent life out there, the question is, whether there is intelligent life down here. As long as you have war, police, prisons, crime, you are in the early stages of civilization.Collection: War
We're running into a lot of new problems today because of what we emphasize in this culture. The word 'success' to the average person means earning a lot of money and having a home, two cars, children in college. Success to me is entirely different to what success is to the average person. Success is being a successful human being in terms of pursuing what you believe in. If you believe in making paintings, writing poetry, writing music. If this is what you really want, you're successful to yourself. But to be successful to your culture means to sell yourself short of what you really wantCollection: Success
If we are genuinely concerned about the environment and the fellow human beings, and want to end territorial disputes, war, crime, poverty, hunger, and the other problems that confront us today, the intelligent use of science and technology are the tools with which to achieve a new direction – one that will serve all people, and not just a select few.Collection: War
Every system tries to get people to conform to support that system. That goes for communism, socialism, free enterprise, or any other civilization. If they don't demand loyalty, they can't keep their civilization together. So what they do is they teach things that would support an established system. We do not advocate an established system. TVP talks of an emergent system into state of change. So that we always prepare people for the next changes coming ahead. So that people will not cling to the past.Collection: Loyalty
If you make people uniform, you can control them. If you teach people to read, and think, and question things, you lose control. So, the best idea is to separate people if you wish to maintain a monetary system. It's called divide and conquer. By dividing people, they're not a threat, you can control them.Collection: Reading
If you love someone and they want to leave, you help them pack. That's loveCollection: If You Love Someone
We are not taught to be thinkers, but reflectors of our culture. Let's teach our children to be thinkers.Collection: Inspirational
So, "normal" is really what society dictates as normal and if we're born in that world, we would see that as normal. But if you think about it for a second, is it really?Collection: Real
No one is born with greed, prejudice, bigotry, patriotism and hatred; these are all learned behavior patterns.Collection: Hate
We must look at alternatives objectively, and not try to fit the future into our present social mould.Collection: Trying
Armies are created to protect an established system, not people. In the future, an educated humanity will not stand for war.Collection: War
Take off all the masks, manners, fancy clothes, all the devices you use, and be the most honest person you can be with yourself. Then, whatever love you get then is real. All the false approaches, like trying to be a player, only bring false results.Collection: Real
We must stop constantly fighting for human rights and equal justice in an unjust system, and start building a society where equal rights are an integral part of the design.Collection: Integrity
Capitalism, Socialism, Fascism, Communism, the Free-Market .... What good are these approaches for? These attempts are made by men who are cerebral insufficient. I'm trying to give you back your brain, which they took away from you in schools and in your upbringing. I'm trying to show you how the world works. So if you want a better world, you have to get up off your ass and make it betterCollection: School
It’s your own expectations that hurt you. Not the world you live in. Whatever happens in the world is real. What you think should happen is unreal. So people are hurt by their expectations. You know , you’re not disappointed by the world, you are disappointed by your own projections.Collection: Life
The system you're brought up under tries to make you like the people that succeeded in that system.Collection: People