Hero Worship: Jacque Fresco

I first met Jacque when I was making a short film called Ottica Zero that was celebrating people who were proposing solutions, rather than just pointing out problems. He’s a futurist, and his big social design, which he’s been developing since he was a teenager in New York during the Great Depression, is a new economic system that is based on available resources rather than monetary value. He has an honesty in his analysis of the world, which I think is unique. He looks at very pragmatic possibilities of change, but he operates in an area with a lot of peace organisations and other communities that are not seen as scientific in any way, but he’s very much a scientist trying to design a world of peace.

He’s a kind, sweet man, but when I first met him I was quite provoked, and I think a lot of people are. And it’s one thing I deeply admire about him: he’s incredibly undiplomatic. He’s also incredibly, incredibly honest. He won’t finesse his words or change his behaviour to better fit with your world view, which is something I think we’re quite used to. People tend to repackage their opinions and phrase them in a way that will suit you, and Jacque really doesn’t do that. He sort of goes the other way and questions things he realises are precious to you. So with me we had lots of debates about things that are close to me, like art. Jacque is very much of the opinion that any kind of poetic language is dangerous, he prefers the scientific language – direct communication – because then there can be no misunderstanding. For him a blueprint is more beautiful than any painting, because you can send it to anywhere in the world and another scientist who can’t speak the same language can turn out the same car or whatever. That’s the language that he loves.

I’m not sure Jacque would be very keen on being the subject of this article. His whole philosophy is about being able to be free and a society with no kind of leadership. He talks all the time about the importance of not making statues of people and not cementing ideas on to one person. He’s a social scientist, and, like any kind of scientist, you invent something and then other scientists build on it, it’s just a progression of ideas, through people, through history, so he’s very against the notion of hero.

Since meeting Jacque I’m a lot less angry, I’m less frustrated with the world. By showing me the analytical tools that allow you to look at why things are the way they are takes away a lot of frustration. That’s a really huge gift he has given me.