Who is Peter Joseph?

I've been aware of the Zeitgeist movement and film for a while now, although I haven't waded through the three hours or so it takes to watch. Recently there has been some criticism of the movement, saying it is attempts to create a cult, and it's about brainwashing. Personally, after just listening to this interview, even if those criticisms are true, it's a good sort of brainwashing, and one of which I would approve! After all, what do we have now but a very clever system of brainwashing - that of consumption - which, as he says, is leading us towards extinction.

I may take issue with him on one or two points - namely his obvious despisal of trailer-park people, who have children without thinking about it. This strongly implies that it's OK for rich and educated people (like his parents) to have kids, but for me this is not the point: the point is the carbon footprint of everyone on the planet, and often the rich, ultra-rich, elite, middle and upper classes have the most enormous carbon footprints, with their yachts, holiday homes, expensive cars, designer labels, plastic surgery etc. A dirt-poor family with ten children in Africa will have a much smaller carbon-footprint, and will know the meaning of graft, so should be (in my book) prioritised over the two-kids-one-dog family in the West, who very self-righteously recycle the bottles of Champagne every Sunday.

But these are minor points, and I'm not advocating eugenics here. Peter Joseph's overall presentation is an excellent articulation of some of the overwhelming problems that face humanity, offering some solutions. Take a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw9IHJNB75E&feature=player_embedded#at=2956