Jacque Fresco - Environment Shapes Behavior - JF's Centennial Event

The Venus Project is the culmination of Jacque Fresco’s life work. He is the cofounder of The Venus Project along with Roxanne Meadows. Since his early childhood, he has searched for answers to our social dilemmas. The 1929 Great Depression was pivotal in pushing him to search for social alternatives. Unable to find an acceptable solution, he spent a lifetime working toward a cooperative social direction that’s equitable to all, while protecting the environment. What do you think that is? [Roxanne] Somebody said a boat. - Who said a boat? - Yeah, over there. - Okay. That’s what it is. Now [laughter] tell me who this is. This is a personality. - Let me give you another one… - Who said Lincoln? - Yeah they got it…. - You had it. You got it right. The brain- you can put things together before they’re finished. All you have to see is a little bit. And that’s where I got my training. On the island of Tuamotu. My teacher said that the male has… a natural behavior toward a female. I said that “How do you know that? How do you know it isn’t conditioned by society?” She said “Well what else can it be?” So on Tu- when I got to Tuamotu, the people wore no clothing. And it was tropical, and they wore no clothing. And the males of the island never stared at the female body. They always looked at the eyes of a female when they talked to them. I went in to all their huts, and none of them had a picture of a nude woman, because they were nude ever since they were knee-high to a grasshopper, ever since they were little. So they… they never looked at the female body. And there were no Peeping Toms on the island. I wonder if you can understand that. So the boys and girls walked around nude until they were… of departure age. In other words, they were shaped by the culture they lived in. There was nothing to see. Then the missionaries came, and they built a temporary church of canvas. And they made T-shirts for the girls, because they didn’t want the girls to come in nude to the church. So they made T-shirts for them. And the girls put the T-shirts on, and they cut two holes in the T-shirt, because they were uncomfortable. Can you understand that? If everybody in America had a nose a foot long, you’d have surgery done, so you look like everybody else. There's no such thing as beauty. If normal people had a pointed head and two horns, you’d fall in love with them. There’s no such thing as beauty. This is made up by man. Man says “That’s a beautiful woman, and that woman’s not too attractive.” That’s all a question of values, the way you’re brought up. If you were brought up in the Arab world, it would be normal to your daddy to have 4 wives, if he can afford it. And if he beat each one of them 3 times a day, to teach them things, that would be normal to you. Do you understand? So whatever you see out there is normal-… normal to that culture. If you were brought up in China as a baby, you’d speak Chinese and walk like a Chinese girl, and you’d have your arms in your sleeves, and you’d bow like a Chinese. You wouldn’t know anything American. So, what you see- if you’re brought up in France as a baby, you’d be a Frenchman. You’d speak only French, if you’re brought up as a baby, if you don’t read any books or travel anywhere. So, your environment shapes your behavior. If you ask an American Indian- tell them you can have anything you want, what do you want? He will never ask for a Mercedes. He will never ask for a twin engine Beechcraft, because doesn’t know they exist. He will only ask for a bow and arrow that’s straight. So people cannot reflect anything but the environment they’re brought up in. Now you were told that Beethoven was a great musician. If Beethoven or Bach were dropped by parachute over a headhunter village in the Amazon as a baby, without any training, and you met him when he was 30 years old, [and] said “What do you do?” [he'd] say “I’m a headhunter.” He wouldn’t have written any of his symphonies. Do you understand that? That’s where people get their ideas. They do not come from outer space, and into the head. A man doesn’t sit down and say “I’m gonna make a shovel” or “I’m gonna make a movie camera,” or “I’m gonna make a camera.” Somewhere in the line of his life, he experienced that. They used to make houses out of mud in the holy land. But they had no windows - no glass for windows - so it was very dark in there. So they made a hole in the mud. The minute they made a hole in the mud, the outside scenery was projected on a wall upside down. And they called it the house of virtual images. And they charged two pieces of silver for you to see the upside down world. They didn't know what made it happen. Well that’s what made it hap- that’s where the box camera came from. And somebody said “Well Tesla invented the wireless!” How can a man sit down [and] say “I’m gonna make a wireless!” or “I’m gonna make an electric light”? He can’t do that. He sees something in nature, and this is what he saw. When you bought electric wire from an electric company, they wrapped it around a cardboard tube, and you took that wire home. But sometimes the wire was broken. So they ran electric current through the coil to make it sure it wasn’t broken. If there was a coil nearby, this activated coil induced a current in the stationary coil that was laying on the table. It wasn’t even connected. That’s where Tesla got the idea for the wireless. He didn’t think about it, he didn’t say “I’m gonna make a wireless.” No man ever said “I’m gonna make a flying machine.” They tell you that the Wright brothers, in school, made the first airplane. They could not do that because they wouldn’t know how big to make the wings. Do you make them 3 feet long? 8 feet long? You don’t know. Do you make the propeller this size? This size? You don’t know. So you try different things. Those that don’t work, you set aside. Those that work, you use. The Wright brothers corresponded with a guy named Otto Lilienthal, who wrote the first book on aeronautics. He wrote a book on aerodynamics. And the Wright brothers read [his] books. Otherwise they couldn’t know how possibly big to make the wings. A Frenchman saw a bird flying, and he said “You know, I can fly if I made two wings and strapped them onto me.” He didn’t know how big to make the wings. He made them 3 feet long on each side, and he beat the air and says “I am sure that I can fly!” And he jumped off the Eiffel tower, and he died. And his brother-in-law wrote “Make the wings larger next time.” It's the only way you learn! There is no other way. Nobody invented anything. They all got it from nature, from some phenomena they observed. [Applause] And I wanted you to know you are all equivalent to Leonardo da Vinci, if you’re brought up to be creative. What is a creative person? They say “Well it’s inborn.” It’s NOT inborn. There’s nothing inborn. A male says to another male “Hey look at that chick, she’s well stacked!” That’s where the men get the ideas from: other men. They’re not born that way. You’re not born any way. If you’re raised by 3 effeminate women that use their hands when they talk - “Oh, did I see a gorgeous hat!” - a boy raised by 3 women that are very effeminate will behave just like a woman, exactly. He’s not born gay. If you were brought up by 3 effeminate woman, you’d walk like a woman, you’d talk like a woman, and think like a woman. Do you understand what I’m saying? And if you’re brought up in China or France as a baby, and if you’re brought up in Germany, after Hitler burned the books, you’d say “Heil Hitler! Deutschland uber alles!” [means] Germany above all. Because that’s all you’re taught. And you behave like Americans, not because it’s instinct, but because that’s what you’re taught. There’s no such thing as a human nature. They tell you “Well it’s human nature." There’s no such thing. It’s the way you’re brought up that makes you react to the world around you. And if you don’t believe that, travel to islands. And you’ll find out that even in America, they say “Give me the good old days!” There never were any good old days. They burned thousands of women in Salem Massachusetts as witches. How many of you knew that? Thousands of women were burned alive because they were accused of being a witch. And they were accused of getting on a broom, and flying all over. So, there never were any good old days. There were slaves in the old days. So I’m just telling you the truth! I’m trying to give you a cerebral enema… to clean out all the shit that they pumped in your head! [Applause] Now a lot of you have the name of the chair company - you’ve been sitting here a long time - on your butt. And I’m sure that you understand what I’m saying, when I say no one can sit down and say “I’m gonna make a wireless.” There’s no referent for a wireless. No invention ever came from outer space. It came from directly from the environment. And all of you can be as creative as Leonardo da Vinci, IF… if you’re brought up in an environment that generates creativity. What kind of environment is that? You have to show a kid pictures of Chinese people. And you have to show that kid that there are millions of Chinese people in China, and there are millions of black people in Africa. You have to show a kid more. The more you show a kid, the broader the mind. If you don’t show a kid anything, if he's just brought up in Weehawken County, and he never sees anything but Weehawkenites, he just has the limitations of a Weehawkenite. Do you understand that? That’s where the difference comes, the difference of exposure. The more you’re exposed to, the broader the mind. And the less you’re exposed to, the dumber you are. And America is a very dumb country. Where did we get this land? [Applause] We stole it from the Indians! The Indians didn’t ask us to come over, and build whatever you want. They were told that they’re savages, and we know what to do with the land. And we took the land away from the Indians by shooting Indians, or by starving them. So… the government offered money to people that killed Indians, or they shot buffalo, that the Indians ate. We tried to starve the Indians, or slaughter them, because we call them savages. WE’RE the savages. We shot the Indians; we shot them with guns, and they fought us with bow and arrows, which is no way to defend yourself. So the Indians to this day have no voice in anything. And women were not allowed to vote in America. Just 60, 70 years ago, they weren’t allowed to vote. They became- it was only recently that women had the right to vote. Women in the future will be in politics. They’ll be as many women as there are men, no more, no less. And women will have equal rights. If a woman becomes an engineer, she doesn’t earn as much as a male engineer. Did you know that? So I’m just telling you women are still abused by this country. And they will be continue to be abused, and even if you tell women that they’re equal to men, they don’t believe that. Because they really believe the propaganda that women are not curious enough to be engineers. Yes, they’re just as curious as men, and they can be anything they want to be in the future. [Applause] Thank you for your time. I deeply appreciate your coming here, and I appreciate all the questions that you ask. Thanks again.