Author John Robbins, Other Progressives Denounce ‘Thrive’
The Santa Cruz–based author is joined by Deepak Chopra and others in a statement distancing themselves from the film.
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Politics,
John Robbins
by Eric Johnson on Apr 10, 2012
John Robbins says filmmaker Foster Gamble, a friend of his, is "naive" about the political consequences of his new film 'Thrive.'
Last fall, the acclaimed environmentalist and nutrition guru John Robbins was invited to the home of his friends Foster and Kimberly Carter Gamble, near Santa Cruz, to view the Gambles’ just-completed film, Thrive. Robbins, who makes a brief appearance in the film, says he was “overwhelmed” by what he saw.
“There were parts I liked, but there were other parts that I just detested,” he recalls. “I didn’t want to be rude—we were there with our families—so I just didn't say anything.”
Thrive, which was released online in November and had its theater debut at the Del Mar last month, is an uncanny hodgepodge of pseudo-science, Utopian fantasy and veiled right-wing conspiracy theory. Strangely, it also includes onscreen interviews with a number of bona fide progressives, environmentalists and spiritual leaders.
In addition to Robbins, author of the groundbreaking Diet for a New Americain 1987, the film features conversations with Deepak Chopra, the superstar self-help author; Paul Hawken, the green entrepreneur and environmental economist; Elisabet Sahtouris, the evolutionary biologist and philosopher; Duane Elgin, the futurist and author of Voluntary Simplicity; Vandana Shiva, the physicist and advocate for sustainable agriculture; and former astronaut Edgar Mitchell.
In the months since the film’s release, Robbins says, he has been in communication with all of these folks. He wasn’t surprised to find that many of them agreed with his assessment of the film.
While they might have hoped the film would just disappear, Thrivehas become something of a Web cult phenomenon—by some estimates it’s been seen by more than 1 million people. And now they have decided to speak out.
In a just-released statement, Robbins, Chopra, Hawken, Sahtouris, Elgin, Shiva and Mitchell write that they have “grave disagreements” with some parts of the film.
“We are dismayed that our participation is being used to give credibility to ideas and agendas that we see as dangerously misguided. We stand by what each of us said when we were interviewed. But we have grave disagreements with some of the film’s content and feel the need to make this public statement to avoid the appearance that our presence in the film constitutes any kind of endorsement.”
Update, April 13: Two more progressives who make appearances in "Thrive" have added their names to the letter denouncing the film: Amy Goodman, the host of public radio's "Democracy Now," and John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."
Talking about Thrive last week, Robbins enumerated a long list of complaints. Much of his critique is centered on the film’s politics.
“Foster says he’s not advancing a political agenda,” Robbins says, “but his sources certainly are.”
Robbins is particularly galled by the presence of G. Edward Griffin and David Icke—both of whom who are featured prominently in the film and on the Gambles’ elaborate website (thrivemovement.com). Griffin is a prominent member of the ultra-right-wing John Birch Society, while Icke has one-upped the world’s most ambitious conspiracy theorists with his notion that the world’s secret rulers are actually descended from a hybrid species of evil half-human “Reptilians.” (Ironically—or hypocritically—neither of these facts is revealed in Thrive.)
Both Griffin and Icke have long defended themselves against charges of anti-Semitism with needle-threading arguments pointing out that while the enemy is decidedly Zionist, it is only coincidentally Jewish. Similarly, although his movie echoes Joseph Goebbels’ The Eternal Jew, Gamble insists in Thrivethat the conspiracy he describes “is not a Jewish agenda.”
But Robbins isn't buying that. He says that in private correspondence, he learned that his friend was being influenced by the ideas of Eustace Mullins, whom he calls “the most anti-Semitic public figure in U.S. history.”
Foster Gamble did not respond to an email request for an interview to respond, but there is certainly evidence in Thrivethat Mullins’ views influenced him. One of the central features of the film is the supposed revelation that the Federal Reserve Bank is a criminal enterprise; Mullins is the man who gave birth to that theory, in his 1952 book The Secret of the Federal Reserve.
The following year, Mullins published his most notorious tract, "Adolf Hitler: An Appreciation," which praises the Fuhrer for his crusade against the “Jewish International bankers” who were attempting to take over the world. In subsequent books, Mullins argued that the Holocaust never happened and that the Jewish race is inherently “parasitic.” Incredibly, Mullins also insisted until his death that he was not an anti-Semite.
Robbins does not in any way accuse Gamble of bigotry—but rather of dangerous naievete. “Foster isn’t anti-Semitic,” Robbins says, “but he is listening deeply to and promulgating the ideas of Eustace Mullins.”
Privilege and Responsibility
In issuing their statement distancing themselves from Thrive, Robbins and his colleagues point out that they are “dismayed” that the Gambles refused to let them know what the film was about until the time of its public release. In interviews with the Weeklyseveral weeks ago, Paul Hawken and Elisabet Sahtouris both said Foster Gamble misrepresented the film when he asked them to participate.
Robbins says it’s clear that Gamble used him and the others to draw people to Thrive. He is distressed that the film weaves progressive ideas into its paranoid, radical libertarian narrative. But he stops short of accusing Gamble of deliberately deceiving his audience.
“Foster is extremely naïve about the political consequences of his film,” Robbins concludes.
But how could someone be so naïve? Robbins says he is in a unique position to be able to answer that question.
“The bubble of entitlement that he has lived in is almost impossible to understand if you haven’t lived in it.”
As it happens, John Robbins and Foster Gamble have lived uncannily parallel lives. Robbins was born heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream fortune, and Gamble was born heir to the Proctor & Gamble cosmetics fortune. Both men rejected the destinies their families had chosen for them, and both moved to Santa Cruz.
Although the men would later become friends, a couple of crucial decisions set them on very different paths. In the early 1980s, Robbins decided to disinherit himself from his family’s wealth. After his Diet for a New America, which wedded personal and environmental health, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he went on to live a very public life, writing books and heading organizations advocating for the environment and a plant-based diet. His newest book, No Happy Cows: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Food Revolution, was published April 1.
Gamble also walked away from his family’s business, but chose to accept his inheritance—and use it to go on the personal quest which led him to the series of extraordinary conclusions documented in Thrive.
Robbins points what he sees as a crucial error in Thrive, which he believe is the result of a blind spot caused by Gamble’s “bubble.”
“Foster wants us to follow the money, and leads us to a group of obscenely wealthy families using their extravagant wealth for ill,” he says. “But nowhere in his film does he mention the Koch brothers.”
Robbins points out that David and Charles Koch, the multi-billionaire heirs of the second-largest privately held company in the nation, who are using their vast wealth to bankroll the radical right, espouse the same libertarian agenda promoted by Thrive. (He also points out that their father, Fred C. Koch, was one of the founding members of the John Birch Society.)
Like many progressives, Robbins sees the Koch brothers as two of the most dangerous men in American politics.
“If you want to follow the money, it leads to the Koch brothers,” he says, “If Foster had gone after them. I’d be right there with him.”
Comments (80)
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Martin Mon, Apr 16, 2012 - 9:28 am
Missing in all of this is personal responsibility. Living within our own means, avoiding debt in all forms.
Reject the consumer culture and get informed and become active intelligently and politically. Spread the meme of self responsibility first.
Stop blaming everyone else. That is a very convenient form of denial.
Mortem ad Duis cartels Thu, Apr 12, 2012 - 9:24 pm
Koch brothers are the distraction from the real owners. Koch brothers money is like the forgotten change in the couch cushions for the Rothschilds. Robbins is obviously and idiot, shill or both.
LeeW Thu, Apr 12, 2012 - 10:31 pm
Foster and Kimberly are currently on tour hosting THRIVE screenings and meeting with various solutions groups in cities around the US. They look forward to offering a full response as soon as they have time. Meanwhile, Foster never received an email requesting a comment, and they never intentionally misled anyone in the movie. This statement has been in the credits of THRIVE all along:
“The people in THRIVE do not necessarily agree with the themes, statements, claims or conclusions presented in the film or website, nor does their inclusion imply our full agreement with all of their views. The people interviewed have each contributed in some deep way to our understanding and we are grateful to them all.”
We do not know of any film- documentary or otherwise- that could get made giving final say to the people who are in it. As those disassociating acknowledge, they stand by what was quoted in THRIVE and gave full authorization for their presence in a film that was described at the time as “a bold look at what is in the way of our thriving and what we can do about it”. A fuller response is coming. Thank you for your patience.
The THRIVE team
Horus-Torus Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 9:44 am
Liar! Liar! THRIVE on fire!
LeeW Thu, Apr 12, 2012 - 10:48 pm
Foster and Kimberly are currently on tour hosting THRIVE screenings and meeting with various solutions groups in cities around the US. They look forward to offering a full response as soon as they have time. Meanwhile, Foster never received an email requesting a comment, and they never intentionally misled anyone in the movie. This statement has been in the credits of THRIVE all along:
“The people in THRIVE do not necessarily agree with the themes, statements, claims or conclusions presented in the film or website, nor does their inclusion imply our full agreement with all of their views. The people interviewed have each contributed in some deep way to our understanding and we are grateful to them all.”
We do not know of any film- documentary or otherwise- that could get made giving final say to the people who are in it. As those disassociating acknowledge, they stand by what was quoted in THRIVE and gave full authorization for their presence in a film that was described at the time as “a bold look at what is in the way of our thriving and what we can do about it”. A fuller response is coming. Thank you for your patience.
The THRIVE team
PS I am filming the process of posting this, a third time! Thx.
Horus-Torus Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 11:54 am
Oh, puh-leeze stop it with the unctuous and self-righteous PR flacking! Gag me with a spoon! All right, Ms. or Mr. Lee, let’s how you spin this little tawdry episode of misrepresentation in the THRIVE movie concerning Adam Trombly and the energy devices that were shown in Thrive.
http://abundanthope.net/pages/Political_Information_43/Correcting-the-Record-Adam-Trombly-Thrive-and-the-Homopolar-Generator_printer.shtml
Correcting the Record: Adam Trombly, Thrive, and the Homopolar Generator
By Global Energy Systems
Mar 15, 2012
A new movie has been produced by Foster Gamble, called Thrive. In it, the filmmaker interviews Adam Trombly about suppressed technologies. Trombly talks about a generator that he and Kahn developed, but the generator that he shows in the photos (both on his website and in the film) are NOT of his closed path homopolar generator, they are photos of a device invented and built entirely by David Farnsworth in 1996. Farnsworth was also the man who invented, designed, and built the solid state generator with the 54:1 output ratio that was shown working by Farnsworth & Trombly to the U.S. Congress in 1989 right before Adam went and spoke to the United Nations.
How do we know this? Farnsworth is one of the consulting engineers who sometimes works with GES, and he has graciously agreed to allow us to post a few of the original photos of his generator taken with a Polaroid in his lab in Oregon. To help you compare them to Trombly’s photos, we have also included one of them below. There is a world of difference between those who can and do, and those who only talk and build their own egos. The GES team is real.
“Adam Trombly has never requested, nor have I ever given, permission to use my photos in any way. Nor was my permission sought or given prior to my photos being used in the movie Thrive, or at any time since.” — David Farnsworth
We can only presume that Gamble, the filmmaker, does not understand the situation. If a man will tell a “small” lie, then how can anyone believe anything they say? Such behavior only harms the credibility of the real alternative energy science community.
[Scroll down below the photos to read the full letter written by David Farnsworth.]
Eric Johnson Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 12:53 pm
Please see my response above.
Hollywood Tomfortas Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 5:51 am
Muertos, the intrepid and indefatigable THRIVE-Debunked blogger—- who may or may not be a paid government disinformation intelligence agent out to destroy the credibility of THRIVE—- has posted a new article about the impending implosion of the movie, including a statement by John Robbins himself, which John posted as a comment on the blog.
http://thrivedebunked.wordpress.com/
I’m not sure why Eric Johnson, the author of the above article did not publish the letter in its entirety, but since John Robbins did make it public on the Thrive-Debunked site, then I copy the document here with the signatures of the notorious “Gang of Nine.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
from John Robbins:
“We are a group of people who were interviewed for and appear in the movie Thrive, and who hereby publicly disassociate ourselves from the film.
Thrive is a very different film from what we were led to expect when we agreed to be interviewed. We are dismayed that we were not given a chance to know its content until the time of its public release. We are equally dismayed that our participation is being used to give credibility to ideas and agendas that we see as dangerously misguided.
We stand by what each of us said when we were interviewed. But we have grave disagreements with some of the film’s content and feel the need to make this public statement to avoid the appearance that our presence in the film constitutes any kind of endorsement.
Signatories (in alphabetical order)
Deepak Chopra
Duane Elgin
Amy Goodman
Paul Hawken
Edgar Mitchell
John Perkins
John Robbins
Elisabet Sahtouris
Vandana Shiva
Aber Aflem Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 8:56 am
Nuff Said!
to wake up is important- but are people awake if they open their eyes to a lie?
When the bulk of the intervewees(is that a word?) that gave the film credibility- withdraw their support-publicly- I think it is important to keep that in mind when considering the message the film was giving. If we are talking about waking up- great i am all for it, but if we are talking about blindly following, or using as a reference, an agenda that has no credibility, then i am gonna pass. Thrive is in the category of another propaganda film- that happened to successfully tap(market agenda to) a demographic of people that had yet to be tapped in a larger scale way- those that love sacred geometry, or i could put that in a nicer softer way and say- it’s fiction, not a documentary- which is totally okay- but let’s recognize it for what it is. I do really like Nassim( he didn’t renounce his support) -though i was interested in his perspective long before Thrive.
LeeW Fri, Apr 20, 2012 - 4:42 pm
Please see the response from Foster and Kimberly below.
Ronald McDonald Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 8:23 am
Golly gee-willikers, boys and girls, please, . . . pretty please, . . . let’s just not be so negative about the THRIVE movie shall we, and instead, let’s look at things on the bright side and see how we can all best make our conflicts transform into a fun-fun, win-win situation, and then we can all be happy, but most of all, we can all . . . . T-H-R-I-V-E!!!
Now since I’m the mascot of the happiest company and biggest food franchise on the entire planet earth, I hope you might consider my humble idea for helping all of you boys and girls here experience real thriving fun!
What say that everyone reading this article go out today to the Baskin-Robbins store in your own hometown with your friends and family and order up your favorite ice cream cone or sundae or cake and just gorge on all that delicious dairy and sugar stuff. (Of course I would advise first a visit to my Golden Arches for a wonderful Happy Meal of our scrumptious protein. Then it’s on to dessert!)
Then on the way home from B-R, be sure to stop in at your favorite super-market to buy an appropriate product made by the Procter & Gamble company! In this case of coming home from Baskin-Robbins, I suggest that everyone buy a tube of Crest Toothpaste, which has been the signature product of P&G since 1955.
Then once you get home, boys and girls, and before you collapse from near insulin shock, please be sure to brush your teeth thoroughly with Foster’s favorite Crest Toothpaste, and then you can wash away all the icke bacteria—- (OMG, David, I’m so sorry, I meant to type ICKY bacteria, please forgive my typo)——that just love to eat their own favorite “happy meals” which consist of all the sugar they can find stuck on your teeth, especially after eating so much B-R ice cream and cake!
As you might imagine, I am just bursting with wonderful family fun ideas for both B-R and P&G to cross-promote the movie THRIVE. Can you say action figures? Bobble-head dolls? But let’s wait on the store promotion stuff. I think it’s sufficient now just to enjoy that B-R ice cream and brush your teeth with Crest.
Toodle-oo for now!!
Ronald
Armando Blanco Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 11:51 am
One needs to look no further than the DVD cover… A woman who is blind folded exposing one eye (All-Seeing Eye), the hand lifting showing the “okay” sign (666), and a rising sun emanating from the “v” in thrive all should be a red flag. We then have lizard-men Dr. Steven Greer and David Icke not helping with their illusions. We also have a former astronaut… If one wants to leave the planet, one must be a freemason. This thing is filled with masons and lizards.
It’s just their old tricks folks, lure you in with some truth, then mess you up with their Old World Order programming.
Take what you need, then move on.
Horus-Torus Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 1:06 pm
Hi Armando,
You forgot to mention the release date of the movie: 11/11/11
Of course 11 + 11 + 11 = 33
Now what degree Mason was Buzz Aldrin when he performed that Masonic ceremony on the moon in 1969?
Armando Sat, Apr 14, 2012 - 9:37 pm
33!
Mortem ad Duis cartels Fri, Apr 13, 2012 - 5:52 pm
Don’t know about the free energy and alien stuff, but the bank/military industrial complex stuff is right on the money. Love that pyramid diagram, it says volumes. Right Rothchilds, Rockafellers, warburgs, Morgans, Mellons, etc. Koch brothers have nothing on this banking cartel that owns the Federal Reserve that enslaved us!
Koch brothers are a distraction and are not the problem. Look at who owns the fed, IMF and world bank…that’s the problem also soros, turner and buffet
Occupy, moveon.org, CNN, hbo, buffet rule….these are all disinformation and distractions from the real criminals and thieves!!!
Hollywood Tomfortas Sat, Apr 14, 2012 - 9:05 am
The Daily Bell is an online Libertarian publication that focuses on free-market issues and champions Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of Economics. They have also published the most comprehensive and revealing interview with Foster Gamble to be found online to date.
But here they have responded to and even quoted extensively from Eric’s article
http://www.thedailybell.com/3788/As-Predicted-Attacks-on-Thrive-the-Movie-Have-Begun
As Predicted, Attacks on Thrive, the Movie Have Begun
Their problem is with all the New Agey and UFO stuff that they believe threatens to drown out Foster’s strong Libertarian message.
Gus diZerega Sat, Apr 14, 2012 - 12:33 pm
A movie such as Thrive makes powerful claims about the whole of history and the suppression of technologies that if available would do enormous good for the world.
If true it upends almost everyone’s understanding of how our politics, technology, and economy work. As such, its producers have to meet very rigorous standards if they are to deserve being taken seriously. There may indeed be conspiracies, but a movie with so many weaknesses serves more to discredit conspiracy theories than shed light on any real conspiracy.
This is over and above the libertarian bafflegab that the movie promotes, and the web site promotes even more.
To be open, I do have a dog in this fight, for I am one of the authors in a critique of the movie’s ;libertarian agenda published by the Praxis Peace Institute in Sonoma. http://www.praxispeace.org/ (To see the piece the PDF download text is just below the red “libertarianism debunked”
Bruce Tanner Mon, Apr 30, 2012 - 10:07 am
@Gus, this PDF you link to is a 56 page tract, which, having read only 6 pages in, seems to me a highly convoluted potpourri of emotionally-driven and confusing ideas.
It purports to be a defense of democracy, arguing that the message of Thrive is anti-democratic. Yet, while making a complex exposition of the ideas of George Lakoff about what he seems to see as the absolute reality of the Left-Right Paradigm, Kelly argues there’s no such thing as a political center, or the possibility of a reasoned agreement between views. She says that people who have views from both of what she or Lakoff identify as “Liberal” or “Conservative” viewpoints are (unfocussed?) “bi-conceptuals,” whose actual decisions are then based on how their thinking is “framed” at a given moment. This assertion of Lakoff’s she calls a “discovery:”
“Lakoff’s discovery is an important contribution to understanding how and why people vote
the way they do. It explains the role of emotions, metaphors, and psychological history, all
of which determine which buttons we push in the voting booth as well as which buttons
have been pushed by the manipulators who know how to influence our behavior.”
If this is then true, which I believe the Gambles would agree with, then the notion of anything approaching a workable Democracy would arguably be insane.
Later, regarding taxes, Georgia writes:
“Oliver Wendell Holmes reportedly said, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.”
Foster Gamble, like other libertarians, considers taxes to be theft and does not realize that
an informed citizenry might create a government by, of, and for the people who pay the
taxes. Yet, this would require a mature citizenry, not one stuck in the adolescent phase of
development that focuses doggedly on individual rights with little regard for the
individual’s responsibility to civil society.”
Well, obviously then, Georgia and those agreeing with this document are mature, and those (including myself and many I’ve met who started out as left-identified, and who have worked as diligently as possible to approach something more true for us) who have come to see that “government” is a concept used by people who seize a monopoly on violence and use of other peoples’ wealth in the name of “responsible public good,” are “stuck in an adolescent phase.” This is simply an ad hominem attack.
I don’t think that Georgia Kelly is in the least interested in benefiting from any of the good information or insights that (in my opinion) abound in Thrive. I guess if it is “libertarian,” then it would be irresponsible to listen to anything in it. To do a comprehensive analysis of her PDF, without being consumed by judgment and negativity, adhering to fairness and clarity, would be the work of weeks, and would, most likely, result in more reactivity from people who agree with Kelly’s assessment of Thrive and people who might find it interesting and somewhat credible.
It would be far better if those who believe it’s possible to uphold liberal-progressive views while still believing that our current system is not controlled by powerful elites, could come together with those who find Thrive a refreshing entree to a bigger picture of what is going on, in good-faith and compassion, with deep listening, and find a workable common ground that might lead to real solutions.
xsited1 Sun, Apr 15, 2012 - 6:48 am
The Koch brothers are two of the most dangerous men in American politics? Well, okay. But Obama is currently in the White House and the last time I checked the Koch brothers are not supporting him. Obama is perhaps the biggest crony capitalist ever to occupy the White House. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle. This extremism on both sides is really getting old.
Hollywood Tomfortas Sun, Apr 15, 2012 - 9:25 am
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Santa Cruz Community—- both Thriving and Non-Thriving Members alike!!!
I take this opportunity to re-post here a comment I just made on the Thrive-Debunked blog concerning a possible 10th signatory to the now iniquitous letter of dissociation from the movie. The “Notorious Gang of Nine” may now become the “Tarnished Gang of Ten.”
http://thrivedebunked.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/free-energy-fracas-adam-trombly-attacks-me-and-thrive-but-is-there-a-silver-lining
This 10th signatory may be that of Adam Trombly, who appears in the movie as the expert on free energy devices and indeed you can see a photograph of Mr. Trombly himself as he is being interviewed by Foster Gamble in the previous article by Eric Roberts here entitled: “The Hidden Right-Wing Agenda at the Heart of ‘Thrive’.”
I am replying to a commenter who identifies as “Mr. Anon.” (And I must split the comment into two parts because of length constraints.)
==============================
Uh, Mr. Anon, it’s not that Farnsworth has finally definitely said it—- rather it is you who are finally definitely realizing what he has been saying all along! Now this is not meant to chide you; rather, it points up the real problem with the actually existing, real life, nut & bolts world of inventors of energy devices that do not violate any laws of physics.
You see, it is deluded dreamers like Gamble and Trombly who destroy the credibility of the real new energy device inventors and the industries that could actually spring up and do the world so much good.
Instead, the delusions that Gamble peddles in THRIVE about so-called “free energy” are so ridiculous that I sometimes chuckle and wonder—facietiously of course— if Gamble and Trombly and others of their ilk are themselves paid government disinformation agents whose mission is to destroy the real energy industry that knows that—- just as there is no “free lunch,” there is also no such thing as “free energy.”
I would now like to commend Muertos for publishing Trombly’s diatribe against Farnsworth here in its entirely because it is such a vivid documentation of what real energy device pioneers like Farnsworth must endure in their quest to create devices that actually work a little better than existing devices.
But let’s face it. There’s a great market out there for cultivating wishful, fantastical nostalgic thinking that celebrates regression to an earlier child-like——even infantile—-state of mind.
When I was a good Catholic boy, I strongly believed in a personal God who was infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, ubiquitous and eternal—- that is, a Being with no limits, all-powerful, all-knowing existing everywhere at all times. Somehow, I managed to outgrow those delusions, mainly realizing around age 20, that I was just trying to improve on the deficiencies and defects I believed all resided in the person of my own actual personal father.
So now, when I view the movie THRIVE—- and especially when I watch the Gamble-Trombly interview parts—- I realize that they have merely substituted a belief in some impersonal free energy for my childhood belief in a personal father-like God.
You see, when Trombly and Gamble speak of free energy, they invariably get around to meaning ZPE, because Zero-Point Energy—- as a placeholder for a personal Father-God—- is a perfect adult substitute for the infinite, all-powerful, all-knowing everywhere all at once figure that I would bet uncannily resembles each one of their own respective personal fathers.
[end of Part 1]
Hollywood Tomfortas Sun, Apr 15, 2012 - 9:26 am
[beginning of part 2]
Consider :
[1] Where I once believed in an infinite personal God, they believe in an infinite impersonal free energy. (which is actually true of ZPE.)
[2] Where I once believed in an all powerful, personal God, they believe in an all-powerful impersonal free energy. (which is actually true of ZPE.)
[3] Where I once believed in a personal God that was ubiquitous and eternal, they believe in an impersonal free energy that is everywhere at all times. (which is true of ZPE)
[4] . . . (I’ll leave off the omniscient part here—- only because it’s not fully relevant to the free energy debate. But belief in the all-knowing field of information throughout the universe is consistent with ZPE—- and still gives Steven Hawking a hard-on in his wheelchair! Wait, did I just misspell hadron? I did! Sorry!)
So hopefully, Mr. Anon, this will help explain why the waters of “free energy” are so muddied today. And I hope my psychoanalysis helps you clarify the utterly infantile delusions of Gamble and Trombly versus the—at least sturdy adolescent—realism and practicality of Farnsworth.
In short, both Foster and Adam express the childish and grossly self-indulgent fantasies of the “puer aeternas,” the “eternal boy.” Yes, the Eternal Peter Pan who will never grow up.
Now my own personal suggestion, founded in fierce compassion for both Adam and Foster, is for them to consider some sort of New Age regressive psychotherapeutic modality that will bring up and process the early childhood traumas concerning their fathers—- off the top of my head, I can rattle off: Arthur Janov’s Primal Therapy, or Leonard Orr’s Rebirthing, or Stan Grof’s Holotropic Breathwork, something,—— anything —- to convict and convince this pair of immature aging Baby Boomer sexagenarians that they are just giving us in the movie THRIVE cartoon-like versions of their own inner painful yearnings for whatever love, power, competence and guidance they feel were sorely lacking from their own fathers as they were growing up during the two term presidency of Dwight David Eisenhower.
(Bad pun alert! “I like Ike, but not Icke!” Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!)
So. Mr. Anon, maybe if you see the nature of their delusions about free energy as their personal subjective quest to re-capture lost youth, then maybe you can begin to develop a deeper appreciation for the real down to earth practicality of energy pioneers like David Farnsworth.
As a retired high school teacher, who has developed a sense for differential levels of student emotional maturity, I would peg the emotional sensibilities of David Farnsworth as around 11th or 12th grade. When I consider the gaping puerility of both Foster and Adam, they strike me as having emotional sensibilities somewhere between 4th and 5th grade. As I’ve observed, puberty makes all the difference.
Hmmm, maybe I should make a movie about that.
Telemicus Sun, Apr 15, 2012 - 11:25 am
Looks like since Thrive didn’t align with Robbins, Chopra, and others political views there trying to discredit the documentary. There are some things I don’t agree with in the film, but the majority of the points are spot on and I’ve confirmed from my own research for the past 16yrs, prior to seeing film. One important aspect of Thrive, is it try’s to get people thinking and to do there own research, and you know in this Brave New World Order we cant have people that are brave thinking for themselves(being sarcastic). They might just see the truth for what it is and not for what the luciferian illusion paints it to be. People need to snap out of it , and get out of the left- right paradigm. Republigoblins and Demonacrats are two sides of the same evil coin, control by the same global elite. The only real truth speaker is Ron Paul, and im neither republican,libertarian, or democrat,Im an American, only reason Ron Paul is running on republican ticket is to get on the ballot. People wake up don’t you see nothing changes just gets worse from Bush SR to Clinton to Bush Jr to Obama, everything continues to get worse. You thing its gonna get better with ORommeny or Obama? Think again, or maybe you wont because because the subconscious has been hit with so much subliminal’s and pre-programing. Here is a Quote from Edward Bernays, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in a democratic society.”
Gus diZerega Sun, Apr 15, 2012 - 5:26 pm
Sad that you suppress substantive comments that are reasonable and do not make charges or use profanity.
Theodora Mon, Apr 16, 2012 - 3:54 pm
According to hacktavist writer Eric Johnson, John Robbins is disturbed by the company he keeps in Foster and Kimberly Gamble’s challenging new movie “Thrive”. Apparently, it’s not so much what is said in the movie itself, but what is not said. The movie encourages us to follow the money to the elite wealthy who have a different agenda for the world from what they publicly express, yet Robbins is upset that the Koch Brothers aren’t mentioned in this regard, and blames it on Foster Gamble’s “bubble of inherited wealth”, which he chose to keep even though he renounced further entanglement with the Proctor and Gamble corporation from which his family’s wealth came.
Robbins, unlike Gamble, renounced both his father’s corporation, Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream, and his inheritance, bravely earning his own way as a noted author/activist for healthier food policies and practices. What is not mentioned in the article is where Robbins own “bubble of renounced wealth” led him. While Robbins openly talked of the need to invest our dollars with socially/ environmentally conscious businesses, he ultimately lost his own savings by investing with Bernie Madoff, the poster boy for “I’ll make you rich but don’t ask too many questions about how I do it”, the antithesis of conscious investments.
Johnson and Robbins want to hold the Gambles and “Thrive” accountable for including thinkers for their relevant ideas, but not including everything else these thinkers might embrace. Yet, in Johnson’s article, Robbins is presented as the noble embodiment of privilege and responsibility with nary a mention of his betrayal of these principles in his desire to secure greater wealth. Sorry, Mr. Robbins, but given your association with both Eric Johnson and Bernie Madoff, me thinks the Gambles are keeping far better company than you are.