Oh Bob, the job of the documentary filmmaker is to document his story. If he can’t do that, he shouldn’t make the film. I think it is way over the top of credibility, and the job of the filmmaker is to convince me otherwise.

You have a valid critical point regarding the film: Not enough references presented to adequately support everything presented. But Richard Presser (above) has valid a point, too: basically, that the film is too comprehensive in its scope to be able to make a convincing case (with references, testimonies, other evidence) for every single thing presented. To do that, it would have had to be at least six hours long (my estimate). So, its strength and its weakness both are due to it large scope — and it does cover a whole lot. It does paint the large picture pretty faithfully, in my judgment.

Gamble had a choice: make a 6 hour (or whatever length) movie with lots of supporting material for everything said that probably few would watch, or make a standard-length movie that many would watch, presenting the broad picture for them and then give them a way (the website’s references) to convince themselves, or not. The important thing here isn’t really the movie, it’s the subject — what’s going on. The movie is meant to give enough material and evidence to get the attention of whoever has an ear to hear and a motivation to look deeper. And I tell you, the evidence IS there; there’s a whole lot of it — down that scary rabbit hole. But people without that motivation to look deeper will do what we have all done: maintain the version of the world they habitually believe in, even though it may be a dream. In other words, we make a choice concerning our “reality.” Yeah, the red pill or the blue pill.

By the way, I don’t buy some of the extreme things David Icke says, either. But I don’t sense that he’s a liar; he’s sincere. I try to evaluate the different things he (or anyone) says, not make a blanket judgment on him. He may be way off on one subject and right on on another. Critical thinking is definitely in order. Truly, his analysis of the monetary-financial system is absolutely brilliant in its accuracy, comprehensiveness, and conciseness (a tough combination).

Blessings and take care,
Bob B.

I personally find Icke to be reprehensible — Queen Elizabeth as a Reptilian, which he urged everyone to spread around online cause it is such vital info, was not my cup of tea, and seeing him as an authority in the movie was distressing to me. As I said to Bob, when a movie makes claims it has to back them up, and that doesn’t happen here. You may already be convinced of the veracity of its claims, but that’s beside the point. We all know how dysfunctional the current system is , so that wasn’t news, and the movie would have had to go on from there to make it a real contribution to awakening humanity. Hopefully your read Eisenstein — some interesting musings on the troubling 9/11 situation and there’s lots of back and forth about that in the comments on his piece. That all said, Graham Hancock is one of my favorite sages, and I am glad you like what I do!

Wow, Bob, thanks for taking the time to spell all this out. Charles Eisenstein is writing a response that will take on many of the things you said , so I’m going to wait for that rather than give you a lengthy answer. But a short one would disagree that the film doesn’t contain “unwarranted assertions and leaps to unsupported conclusions.” If the website goes further, so be it, but no fair. If you are making a documentary the film has to carry responsible info, and this one doesn’t. In fact, however, I’m on their case for the circle info on the website. I helped them get the film right about the circles but they didn’t show me the written info they present — I’ve rewritten it for them but as of now it’s still not up there.

Large organizations is us. It’s all us, in the wrong system. it’s systemic change we need.

I respect your view and understand that many people don’t think there’s any concerted negative intent as the (main) cause of the condition in which we find ourselves and our world. And until sometime in late 2002, I was one of those people. The events on 9/11/01 forced me down the rabbit hole of “What’s going on in the world?” Initially for a year and a half and then two years more, I read and studied and tried to reason and feel the whole thing out. And, to the detriment of my own emotional wellbeing and health, I had to conclude that there certainly is and has been for some time a plan on the part of the financial elite to do exactly what Foster Gamble now is warning us about. And that’s not what I was prepared to believe at all. Up until then I had believed the state of the world and our lives had solely to do with a broken socio-economic system, government incompetence, and the tragically flawed nature of human beings. When I realized the full extent of it, I fell into a significant depression… but that’s a private story.

You use the word “evil.” I’m not sure that Foster uses “evil” to refer to the elite (maybe I just don’t remember). In any case, I don’t believe in the existence of evil. I believe in the existence of the profound ignorance of unbridled selfishness and sense of privilege. These “elite” are just ordinary people who have been fed the fantasy of their own superiority and right to rule, over the millenia, so that they truly believe that it’s their right to dominate the planet. (Standard history shows this, as incomplete and skewed as it is.) Gamble does refer to “us” and “them,” and there is that dualistic aspect in terms of the socio-economic dynamics. But in the end, “they” are part of all of us, part of the evolutionary struggle we’re all involved in in this earth.

The failure of the film, if it can be called a failure, is that it presents the whole, comprehensive picture straight-up, in only two hours. There’s no preparation. Those of us who have spent years “preparing” ourselves by study and reasoning and reflecting on this nasty stuff are not floored by what the film presents. But people who have not really gone down the rabbit hole, or have just put their head into it a little bit, are likely to feel that the film makes unwarranted assertions and leaps to unsupported conclusions.

For myself, I have tried my damnedest to truly get to the bottom of why things are the way they are in the world and never seem to change for the better…why, when people individually seem generally disposed to treat one another decently, is there consistently so much war and famine and misery? I’ve tried to examine a number of different subjects honestly and mercilessly: the world of finance, the workings of politics in the US and worldwide, conventional and free energy, medicine, food production and distribution, genetic engineering, secret societies (yes, they do exist and have for a long time), and the meaning of current events — in short, all of the subjects “Thrive” hits on and more. I say that only to affirm that my words here are not just off the top of my head — they come from much deeper.

Gamble says that every statement made in the film is documented on their website. So, before anyone decides that something presented in the film is false, they might do due diligence and research and think critically, and not just go with what they already think they know to be true. These days nobody wants to be called a “conspiracy theorist”; I’ve heard many ordinarily rational people just turn their minds off when they hear that something has been called “conspiracy theory.” It’s like Pavlov’s dog salivating at the sound of a bell. Yes, we are conditioned more than we know. And that’s another whole rabbit hole in itself.

An afterthought: Any student of history should preceive that history is replete with conspiracies. And yet, we’re encouraged to believe that only kooks see conspiracy at work today. Why is that? …What is conspiracy? Simply the concerted and covert effort of a group of people to get their agenda realized. That’s not so unusual, is it?

Anyone who is shocked by what “Thrive” presents and feels that much of it just can’t be true would do well to consider doing some extensive research. I can think of no better place to begin that than Fred Burks’ excellent website, http://www.wanttoknow.info. Fred was a language translator for 3 presidents, I believe, and other notables, and now he devotes his time and money to helping people discover just what is going on and what they can do about it. Overall, Fred holds a very optimistic view of our destiny. I do, too.

In sum, I judge that, as shocking at it may seem, “Thrive” is absolutely correct on all major points. And I’m happy that it also holds a very optimistic view of our destiny.

Truly, it’s time for us all to wake up. The problem is that everyone thinks they they’re already awake. But probably everyone is asleep to at least some things. We just have to be willing to entertain that possibility and start asking questions freshly, despite our conditioning.

Thanks for the chance to express, and blessings to all,
Bob B.

I like Chris Hedges a lot and sometimes pass his things along, but I’d be shocked if he was in accord with the points made in the movie. If we are in line for a military dictatorship and for forced radical population reduction, a movie that states that better show me the evidence, which this movie doesn’t. And did you read Eisenstein? We are all slaves to money — acting out in different ways. It’s the worldview that’s holding us all enslaved.