Unless you've been in a coma for the last six years, you can see that the political situation is FUBAR in the US and around the world today, and it all can be traced back to US political policy. The real story of what is happening, and what has been happening, will not be apparent if you rely on the corporate dominated US mass media for your news. The Internet on the other hand, as a source of global news information, and as a source of information from other comprehensive thinkers (albeit, nobody was as comprehensive as Bucky), is of key importance to anybody who wishes to understand what has really been happening around the world, especially since September 11, 2001. With that in mind, deeply consider all the following statements from Buckminster Fuller, who was very precise with his language:
From "Cosmography', page 1:
THE DARK AGES STILL REIGN over all humanity, and the depth and persistence of this domination are only now becoming clear.
This Dark Ages prison has no steel bars, chains, or locks. Instead, it is locked by misorientation and built of misinformation. Caught up in a plethora of conditioned reflexes and driven by the human ego, both warden and prisoner attempt merely to compete with God. All are intractably skeptical of what they do not understand.
From "Critical Path', foreword, pages 10 and 11:
In my 85 years I have often been privy to what was at the time secret, critical information. Time and change have "declassified' those secrets. In piecing together the significant components of world-around humanity's evolutionary trending, my insights have frequently been illuminated by information confided (Top Secret information) in me by others. In recollecting once-confidential information, which is now essential to an adequate comprehension of relevant evolutionary trendings, I hope no one will make the mistake of thinking that I'm being a traitor to my friends. Not only am I being loyal to all my friends but to all humanity --without whom there would be no life.
My reasons for writing this book are fourfold:
(A) Because I am convinced that human knowledge by others of what this book has to say is essential to human survival.
(B) Because of my driving conviction that all of humanity is in peril of extinction if each one of us does not dare, now and henceforth, always to tell only the truth, and all the truth, and to do so promptly --right now.
(C) Because I am convinced that humanity's fitness for continuance in the cosmic scheme no longer depends on the validity of political, religious, economic, or social organizations, which altogether heretofore have been assumed to represent the many.
(D) Because, contrary to (C), I am convinced that human continuance now depends entirely upon:
(1) The intuitive wisdom of each and every individual.
(2) The individual's comprehensive informedness.
(3) The individual's integrity of speaking and acting only on the individual's own within-self-intuited and reasoned initiative.
(4) The individual's joining action with others, as motivated only by the individually conceived consequences of so doing.
(5) The individuals never-joining action with others, as motivated only by crowd-engendered emotionalism, or by a sense of the crowd's power to overwhelm, or in fear of holding to the course indicated by one's own intellectual convictions.
From "Critical Path', Legally Piggily, page 103:
The Wall Street lawyers' grand strategists put the Wall Street lawyer John Foster Dulles in as Ike's Secretary of State to dictate the American foreign policy of "Soviet containment,' and Foster Dulles's Wall Street lawyer brother Alan Dulles was put in as head of a new brand of absolutely invisible, U.S.A.-financed, capitalistic warfare department, the CIA, established ostensibly (as a pretext) to cold-war-cope with the secret-agent operations of our enemies. So secret was their operation that the people of the United States and its Congressional lawmakers had no idea of the size of the unlimited funds given to the CIA, nor for what those unknown funds were expended. The CIA and Alan Dulles had a U.S.A.-signed blank check for X amount of money to do X tasks. I call the CIA, "Capitalism's Invisible Army.'
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Since anybody who has read Buckminster Fuller's "Critical Path' and "GRUNCH of Giants' understands, he was apolitical from a scientific viewpoint; he was nevertheless, a student of all things political, economic, and social, especially from a historical viewpoint. A deep understanding of US politics and its elitist military mindset, its secret foreign policy, along with its fake economy and fake science of Economics is absolutely necessary to understanding world affairs in a comprehensive light. It is in this light that the Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science revolution with its impending "Global Livingry Service Industry' will be elucidated. People of the United States at this point in time still do not understand the pyramid scheme of corporate-political-lies and fake-economics, and it is time that BFI did something about it!
I find it quite alarming that the Buckminster Fuller Institute finds it of no interest, whereas Buckminster Fuller himself found it to be one of the most important necessities of human survival. Ignorance about history will get us nowhere; actually, it can be shown that it will get us all killed. A comprehensive understanding of what is going on, --the big picture is what is necessary.
Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:
(1) As explained in Critical Path (1981), page 188, it was the CIA that lured the USSR into Afghanistan in 1980. Yet the White House and its corporate-political-puppet President claimed that it was an unprovoked attack on Afghanistan. Since Bucky's death in 1983, it has been learned that the CIA trained-and-financed mujahideen guerrilla fighters, who have since become known as the terrorist organization, al-Qaeda (and probably does not exist at all as an independent organization. The name was coined by the US Pentagon, which literally means "the database' of mujahideen fighters), crossed the USSR border in 1979 to commit acts of terror with the explicit purpose of eliciting the USSR into Afghanistan for their own "Vietnam War', i.e., a war that they would lose. As you can see, this CIA sponsored war and its subsequent cover-up was a propaganda attack on the American public and the world at large, and it was an illegal war, and a crime against humanity as all wars are. It did not take much for Bucky to see through this shallow facade. Unfortunately, he departed this world before he could get the rest of the story and inform us.
(2) The existence of a now declassified document known as the "Northwoods memo' (1962), clearly shows that the United States was willing to engage in fake domestic (staged terrorist attacks on US soil) and foreign terrorist attacks as a psychological-attack, or operation (PsyOps as it is known in US military lingo) on the American public with the pretext to start a war with Cuba. I can tell you that I have been studying the many ways in which the military can trick the American public and humans in general. There are hundreds of forms of propaganda, social control (social engineering), and mind control, and I don't find it a bit amusing that we are being manipulated in all these ways! I've been studying the human brain, and psychology for 10 years now, and it is just sickening what is coming out of the American government and our corporations, all for fake profit, just as Bucky has described. From the drugs that are forced on our children, to the pathetic standardized tests in our schools to the omni-fake evening news. For example; around March 2000, a quote from Major Thomas Collins of the US Army Information Service as having confirmed the presence of these Army psy-ops experts at CNN, saying, "Psy-ops personnel, soldiers and officers, have been working in CNN's headquarters in Atlanta through our program, 'Training with Industry'. They worked as regular employees of CNN. How conveniently timed for the attacks of 9/11!
(3) In light of recent domestic spying in the US, one could say that what the general public knows now is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a clear pattern of infiltration by US military personnel, i.e., FBI, DIA, DHS, CIA and NSA (etc) who have assumed key positions in domestic and foreign corporations and organizations, with the explicit purpose of running, spying, undermining and minimalization, overthrowing, and sabotaging such organizations, including peaceful anti-war organizations, and animal rights groups, etc, against US law. They play on both sides of the fence. It is well known and documented that the same military personnel act as "agents provocateur', which means, for example, that they have intentionally engaged in violence at a peace rallies, dressed in civilian cloths, as a pretext for a police crackdown on the otherwise peaceful crowd. As Bucky said we live in a quasi-democracy (fake). Many "covert assets', people controlled by the government, do not even know for whom they work, because they have been recruited and tricked into thinking that they are fighting a just cause, or are "just in it for the money', but in reality they are just patsies, people who have been duped.
(4) Without going into the list of "leaked" secret documents that have been exposed since September 11, 2001, that prove the Iraq war was pre-planned, let me just say for the record that I, Andrew Owens, with my extensive knowledge of weapons and explosives, mechanical and structural engineering, advanced composite technology, inventions and patents, product design, manufacturing and process control, advanced materials, electronic engineering, supercomputer architecture, software engineering, advanced robotics, aerodynamics, computer simulation and structural analysis, the brain sciences, human psychology, artificial intelligence, physics, education, and history with an emphasis on the CIA, US politics and foreign policy, the subject I know least about is physics, and let me state this very clearly, "anybody who understands basic physics can tell you that the World Trade Center towers and the WTC Building number 7 could not have fallen in the manner that they did', as described by the governments official conspiracy theory. It is a physical impossibility for a body (a mass, as in the building itself) to fall through itself at freefall speed, without the assistance of high explosives, and those explosives would have to be placed in very specific places to cut the steel beams in a very specific sequence to disassemble it, and it would take weeks if not months to plan such demolitions and to place the explosives. Those were massive and incredibly strong structures, and they just exploded outward and downward at freefall speed Impossible! It was as if the WTC towers were just a house of cards toppled by a sequence of firecrackers. In addition, WTC building 7 just fell straight down starting from the top, when the very small fires, which should have been doused by the sprinkler system, were on the bottom floors. It fell into a nice convenient pile. Just these facts, -these feats of physical impossibility alone, disregarding the thousands of holes in the US government's "official conspiracy theory' is grounds for indictment, and clear evidence of a massive cover-up. Therefore, the only possible conclusion to what happened on 9/11 is that it was a psychological operation (Psy-ops) against the citizens of the United States of America from our own government, which has used it as a pretext to start a fake war on terror. This statement can easily be corroborated, with the extensive research and findings from the many independent investigations into the events on 9/11, none of which will be looked at by the corporate mass media.
I could go on with hundreds if not thousands of examples like this. And all this is virtually unknown to most of the citizens of the United States, because they get their propaganda masquerading as news from all the major mass media outlets on a daily basis. Only since the advent of the Internet, has widespread knowledge of such abuses of power been made widely available, and the BFI has been sitting on its hands, this is not a good example of comprehensive thinking, is it?
It is now clear that the global elite and their corporations (GRUNCH as Bucky defined them), who now control, and are fundamentally intertwined with the United States government at the judicial, legislative, executive and military levels, had never intended to promote democracy and world peace after the fall of the Soviet Union, but have instead opted for global empirical domination by military force and coercion. If this fascism is allowed to continue, here will be only one class of citizen, the elite, and the rest of humanity will be slaves, including the American public. This is, of course if the current state of affairs doesn't escalate into nuclear war, which many government and security experts predict! Oh Again, lets not forget that the GRUNCH controlled-and-embodied mass media refuses to entertain such trivial dialog.
Buckminster Fuller challenged us with a bold vision:
"To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.'
By "disadvantage of anyone' I take it Bucky meant the billions that now live in poor and impoverished conditions, and I am very sure he was not referring to the "opulent elites' who already consume millions of times more than they need and also control the world by proxy.
So I say to you, isn't it time for the Buckminster Fuller Institute to show a little bit more integrity and expand its web site to include these extremely important matters?
I was a computer consultant for 20 years and worked on a full spectrum of projects with hundreds of clients, and I personally can think of hundreds of ways that BFI can improve its visibility, and its mission, via the internetand I can also think of hundreds of subtle ways to cripple it, and I see them everywhere
Nothing personal, just a casual observation
Please post your responses.
Sincerely,
Andrew Owens
Andrew,
I really appreciate the questions and thinking contained in this recent thread. I have felt many of the same frustrations about BFI and recognize the flaws that you speak about.
For years I have also experienced a kind of bureaucratic paralysis that plagued BFI. A few elements that compose part of the root of this calcification; a lack of alignment, ambition and committed time at the board level, too many cooks in the kitchen, a strange comfort with remaining isolated, a lack of disciplined focus exacerbated by a constant tsunami of great ideas all brimming with potential, and lastly and most surprising an inability to apply the design science approach to its own problems.
All this has been a very tough nut to crack but this thick shell is finally beginning to wear thin and cracks are appearing. But nothing short of splitting the shell wide open (and soon) will suffice if BFI is going to make the impact that is needed in the world and that we know is possible.
And Andrew's list of challenging questions and the level of ambition is **right on target** as far as I'm concerned!!!
It is worth repeating:
Where is the comprehensive intellectual dialog?
Where are the university programs?
Where are the prototypes?
Where are the computer simulation models?
Where are the collaborative efforts with like-minded others?
Where are the plans for the shift from weaponry to 'Livingry', by designing self-sustaining cities?
I'm fed up with the trinket selling too as well as donor premiums and the like. Its just time consuming baggage from the past. BFI has bigger fish to fry for sure.
Check out the recent posting on the BFI home page announcing an online dialogue entitled:
"Sustainability: The Five Core Principles -- ., New Framework"
I think this is an example what BFI needs to do more of that addresses the 1st question on Andrew's list: Where is the comprehensive intellectual dialog?
Lets all find some time to participate in this timely dialogue!
To me its clear that bfi.org is an important example of what is also emerging from a more aligned, focused and committed level of energy flowing through BFI. Its due for another upgrade and our collective input on what is really needed and wanted will be critical to its success.
Andrew asks "why doesn't the BFI community just use the BFI website to brainstorm solutions in a democratic fashion....instead of the pre-planned top-down way that they are now being handed to us? Just because corporations are totalitarian structures, does that mean the BFI has to follow suit?
Andrew, please make specific suggestions as to how you would envision restructuring these forums to remove totalitarian structures and facilitate a democratic process for brainstorming solutions.
Lets make sure we all *constructively* contribute to this website's forward momentum (not just criticize it) so we can really help drive its development. Andrew, this would certainly be a part of "the collaborative efforts with like-minded others" that we all want to see take place at BFI.
Imho, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were not comprehensively conceived, nor are they explicitly guided by any principles. They are a woefully inadequate political compromise that falls way short of what is really needed.
Structuring the Design Science Labs around the MDGs was a strategy chosen by Medard Gabel and one that he insisted upon when challenged on numerous occaisions. He felt it was a savvy way to connect the work of the Lab to a set of very well recognized global objectives.
Significant human resources and funding are flowing from the major NGOs toward MDGs. Medard felt it would be foolish not to try and ride this wave.
Despite the benefits that might accrue frorm riding the MDG wave, using the MDGs as the basis for a problem solving agenda is still suspect due to their flawed nature. My reservations about placing the focus of a BFI educational program on the MDGs continues to grow and I think it should be seriously reconsidered. Meanwhile, exposing the UN to Fuller and shining the light of design science on the MDG's is not all bad.
BFI's in person educational programs, currently in the form of the 2006 DSLs, are certainly works in progress. It was thrillling to witness a diverse and talented group people from around the world converge at the NY Design Science Lab (DSL) that just ended last week. When 60 people immerse themselves for 10 days in a Fuller inspired, Internet enabled, workshop its amazing to see how imaginations and intuitions can be sparked and fruitful collaborations formed.
For BFI, a key challenge that must be addressed in its 2007 educational program design is how best to cultivate these sparks and facilitate these collaborations so that they produce more rigorously developed solutions from the initial workshop which can then attract the funders and know how that can help take these ideas to the next stage of R & D and eventually all the way through prototype development.
The experience BFI is developing in designing and operating the systems to market and produce the labs as well as the feedback from Lab participants has revealed numeous ways to leverage this nascent but potent platform to begin addressing other key questions in Andrew's list such as collaborations with universities (which could include UNC Asheville where another DSL will take place in about two weeks).
Ideally, BFI's educational programs should be providing rigorously developed conceptual tools related to both the underlying principles of sustainability and the design science approach to problem solving. BFI's programs could also be be about inserting this potent conceptual framework into well facilitated sets international teams that include the experience and resources of leading thinkers and doers. Focus these teams on one or more problem areas for an optimal period of time and you've got the basis of a world class program able to produce out of the box fundable solutions.
I think these investigations are worth pursuing. Conspiracies happen. I don't buy Oswald as the lone gunman either. But I don't think BFI should make these a focus. Others already have that as their mission and are putting in the hours, doing lots of homework.
Also, I think it's safe to say Bucky had many admirers in the intelligence community. Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, the Man X played by Donald Sutherland in the Oliver Stone movie JFK, quotes Fuller appreciatively. And then of course Ed Applewhite was a career CIA guy. Per another recent post of mine to a BFI forum, I think there's more to be revealed along these lines.
Apropos of that, maybe check out this post in my blog:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2005/01/some-space-program-history.html
Maybe you'd like to tell me what's so unbelievable about the standard explanation off-line (I don't think this forum is the place for such a thread)? Here's an address: kirby.urner@gmail.com. Also, are you one of those people who thinks the Pentagon was hit with a missile, not a jet?
Dear A. W. Pemberton,
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The 'The Self Disciplines of Buckminster Fuller' are certainly something that all of us should endeavor to apply to ourselves, but you must consider that certain self-disciplines were meant as a 'scientific litmus tests' only within the context of Bucky's personal 54-year experiment to help him determine if he was on the right path. Bucky's 54-year experiment was a resounding success, and only now requires proper implementation of Design Science. But that implementation cannot proceed unless people are educated on Bucky's ideas and the 'Big Picture' in general. If people don't know that our current system is rigged, they cannot see another solution and hence cannot change it or protect themselves from it. Bucky would have never have written any books if he never intended to inform people of other possibilities for human success or survival.
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If your reasoning is true to the BFI's programs, then why is the BFI trying to vainly apply Design Science to the UN's 'political solutions'? It just will not work. Bucky clearly stated that politics could never solve humanity's problems. The UN is a political body, and on top of that, it is primarily a political body that is controlled by the United States and the other trickily-economically powerful countries, which are in turn controlled by corporations and banks, which are controlled by the "very rich" who always have open and hidden political agendas. And why doesn't the BFI community just use the BFI website to brainstorm solutions in a democratic fashion, instead of the pre-planned top-down way that they are now being handed to us? Just because corporations are totalitarian structures, does that mean the BFI has to follow suit?
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You said; 'In other words, BFI should concern itself with developing technological artifacts that would help to render the current socio-political-economic structure obsolete, rather than trying to fight it directly.'
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My response; EXACTLY! Where are they? The BFI should concern itself with the development of those artifacts. Where are the comprehensive solutions? Where is the comprehensive intellectual dialog? Where are the university programs? Where are the prototypes? Where are the computer simulation models? Where are the collaborative efforts with like-minded others? Where are the plans for the shift from weaponry to 'Livingry', by designing self-sustaining cities? The BFI could do this as easily as it is now doing whatever it's now doing! The BFI is now fiddling with 'selling' trinkets to a few people, when it should be fully engaged in 'brainstorming' and 'giving away' comprehensive solutions to the masses.
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You said; 'There are plenty of other "truth-gathering operations" on the web, and Bucky was always against being in competition with others on any project.'
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My response; Yes, there are plenty of 'truth-gathering operations on the web, but then your logic falls apart. 'Collaboration' in truth gathering is not 'Competition'. And Bucky was only against being in competition with others as part of the context of his 54-year experiment, and particularly if 'somebody was doing something better than he was'. A geodesic dome was a building design, but he didn't refrain from developing them because others were designing buildings. If he could do something better, he did it. Buckminster Fuller fully promoted 'collaboration' instead of the status quo of 'competition'.
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You quoted Bucky in defense of its current strategy and programs; 'I determined never to try to persuade humanity to alter its customs and viewpoints."
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My response; I never suggested that the BFI try to persuade anybody either, but there is a big difference between 'persuasion' and 'education', especially to the current socio-political-economic-military lies that we are now embroiled in. As Bucky wrote, and as you will see below, he promoted such self-education and thinking. Suspiciously missing from the BFI website is 'comprehensiveness', about Bucky's ideas and about economic and power structures of world politics.
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Now, I will quote from the last two pages of Bucky's book 'Grunch of Giants'. Please note the complete lack of (C) through (G), and the whimsical implementation of Design Science at the BFI. If you examine the BFI comprehensively, you will see that it's programs are designed to attempt to promote Bucky within the context of the 'status quo'. That should be the definition of nonsense! The status quo must go!
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Bucky Quote: 'The only happily promising recourse of each human individual is to our highest intellectual faculties and their mutual, ego-deflated, unselfishly loving preoccupation with comprehensivity and our employment of the most powerful tools of all:
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(A) The family of generalized scientific principles governing the operational design of eternally regenerative Universe itself;
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(B) Comprehending and effectively employing Synergetics, with the books Synergetics and Synergetics II presenting the comprehensive omni-image-able mathematical coordinate system employed by nature, thus avoiding the mentally debilitating, vast majority-of-humanity-excluding quasi-mathematical coordinate system employed by present-day science;
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(C) Comprehending the major objectives and operating strategies of the major opposing power structures of world politics, their present status quo and probable future trending;
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(D) Comprehending the fundamentals of economics, of wealth vs. money, of the principal features and functioning of industry, banking, and securities;
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(E) Comprehending the educational system in general as well as the discovery of the shortcomings of science, engineering, and education in general;
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(F) Synergetically comprehending "what it is all about," as propounded in Critical Path and this book, Grunch of Giants, and discovering what our options are to confront imminent race disaster; and
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(G) The individual discovery of God by a vast majority of human individuals-not the discovery of religions, but the discovery that each and every individual has an always-instantly-open, no-intermediary-switchboard-authority-to-contend-with, no-interference of-any-kind, direct "hot-line to God": i.e., the weightless, nonphysical communication occurring teleologically between the differentially limited, weightless, nonphysical, temporal, special-case mind of the individual human and the comprehensively integrated, macro-micro unlimited, weightless, eternal, generalized mind of God.'
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To conclude; not only can I see the major flaws of the BFI, and not only am good a bitching about them, and not only do I understand Bucky's ideas Synergetically, I can actually do what the BFI should be doing. But that isn't the issue... the issue is why isn't the BFI already doing them? The BFI is supposed to be the 'official' window to humanity on Buckminster Fuller's ideas, but it lacks comprehensiveness, and why should I have to compete with it? There is more going on here than meets the eye. Perhaps it has some kind of bureaucratic infection that needs to be gotten rid of?
Hi,
I understand your position, but I think I know why BFI is not following this direction.
From Critical Path
Chapter 4: The Self Disciplines of Buckminster Fuller
Point 11
"I sought to cope with all humanly unfavorable conditions, customs, and afflictions by searching for the family of relevant physical principles involved, and therewith through invention and technological development to solve all problems by physical data and devices that were so much more effective as to be spontaneously adopted by humans and thereby to result in producing more desirable life-styles and thus emancipate humans from the previously unfavorable circumstances.
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The new favorable-to-humans environment constituted by the technological inventions and information must demonstrate that new inanimate technology could now accomplish what heretofore could not be accomplished by social reforms. I sought to reform the environment, not the humans. I determined never to try to persuade humanity to alter its customs and viewpoints."
In other words, BFI should concern itself with developing technological artefacts that would help to render the current socio-political-economic structure obsolete, rather than trying to fight it directly. There are plenty of other "truth-gathering operations" on the web, and Bucky was always against being in competition with others on any project.
Your point about exposure is a tougher question. Bucky would never promote an idea unless spontaneously asked to by a third party, as he believed he was following to natural gestation rates for the technology. I think a lot more exposure for Fuller's ideas and BFI is needed, but initiating this may well fly in the face of Fuller's ideals, which is what BFI is trying to preserve, I presume.
greetings andrew,
you wrote to us recently indiciating that you were in the process of launching your own website devoted to Fuller's legacy. I look forward to seeing this effort, for it portends to allow for a more satisfying platform for you to vent your frustration re: BFI, it's staff and board members. please post the url.
we wish you all the best with you new endeavor.
William,
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Do you really want me to respond, ... I mean deconstruct Joshua Arnow's 'well done' reply to my serious post? I would be happy to, especially if Allegra Fuller Snyder, Jaime Snyder, and Jay Baldwin could find some time in their schedules to join in on the conversation. That is if Joshua hasn't subliminally ingratiated them into a state of hyper-egoism over the past 22 years.
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Sincerely,
Andrew Owens
Hi Andrew
No response to the posts on this subject
Hi Andrew
Well I think that Its right to criticize the church, look at the corruption of the Vatican and all there off shoots over the years especially the fundamentalists who think it's right to kill in the name of God they all seem to feed on that little scroll in revelations, it might taste good at the time but it will turn sour in there stomachs. Governments, well Bush and Blair seem to do nothing but upset the world's balance and peace with their greed, violence and lies. Economic and social institutions should be defensive because they do nothing but hinder the freedom of the individual for there own objectives (the guys at the top of the organizations objectives of course.) They all say that they are doing it because they wish a greater stability in society but the number of people they mash up is unbelievable and if you disagree with one of their formulated systems woe betide you. I often been apart of large organizations in the past and have always came up against a brick wall if I suggested a more positive path in going forward to the point of being put in
Jail, my daily work being taken away and left in complete poverty for years until as they say, come around, now I understand that there has to be some organization around any activity but where does an individualist stand and where can he/ she go from that point even if they get funding for a particular activity after which they will be shot down by the establishment and any other with a want at the correctiveness of their activity (Darwinian survival of the fittest)It never fails to astonish me that everybody wishes to crowd the initiator of a certain project because they can see something in it for themselves tell me Andrew is that not what you were up to when you were younger and keeping all those secrets, is it time for you to make amends because of your age that you are now telling us all the truth, tell me Andrew how dose a poor man like me get a copy of you book and are you prepared to earmark all the information you have gleaned over the years and give it back to the ordinary people of the world free.
All the best
Hi Andrew
Bucky also says in _Cosmography_ that the church, the bank and the government will fight against the universal success of everyone on the planet because that success will make the church, the bank and the government obsolete. Personally I think they are already irrelevant to the big picture.
Well done, Joshua
Dear Andrew,
Thanks for taking the time to share your deep concerns with all of us.
In reading your posting I found myself in great sympathy with your sense of urgency but not with your sense of priority regarding BFI's need to focus its resources on bringing to light the clandestine efforts of the U.S. corporate/military/political machine that is bringing us closer and closer to the brink. Lets not lose sight of the fact that BFI's status as a not for profit organization requires us to steer clear of political advocacy.
I also found myself raising an eyebrow (but not always both) when pondering your various claims about the US staging the attacks. My only comment about your claims and other similar theories is that perhaps they give the ultimate perpetrators too much credit for such conscious anticipatory strategy. It seems to me that plain old bungling hubris, fear, ignorance, arrogance, pride and opportunistic greed can and do yield the same results and probably have done so on vastly larger scales for centuries upon centuries. Witness Iraq.
I too often find myself reacting with disgust and fighting off brief bouts of despair about the fate of our world and the decline of democracy. However, the dominant response on both sides and at all levels of the political equation is more often typified by antagonistic and emotional reflex responses than not. This reflexive behavior will do nothing but divide us more everyday and continue to render us ineffective as problem solvers on behalf of all humanity. I assert that Bucky's more politically oriented public statements and writings were more about demonstrating what can be grasped by doing your own thinking. It was not an attempt to pursuade people into a state of politcal group think. By design, BFI's approach is to inspire and provide tools for independent thinking.
Given the **very** challenging times in which we find ourselves, I think we should all give pause to recall the opening lines of Critical Path. Bucky was very conscious of these reflexive tendencies and our great proclivity to separate the world into good and evil, much the way GWB does. Bucky started off Critical Path with his 'working assumption that the words good and bad are meaningless' and his verified assertion that this was 'based on science not opinion.' Bucky then proceeded to explain that science had discovered 'a fundamental complimentarity of disparate individual phenomena to be operative in universe'. Bucky then concluded (and I quote selectively from the 1st page of the forward) that 'the interposed phenomenon known heretofore as good and bad are essential to the 100% success of eternally regenerative Universe. They are both good for Universe. We walk right foot, left foot, not right foot, wrong foot.'
I believe Bucky was revealing to us one of the secrets of what made him an effective change agent/trimtab.The human predicament is indeed dire, but everyday I see great difficulties leading to 'emergence through emergency'. Since there are no guarantees and its definitely so touch and go, our active and applied faith and optimism is needed now more than ever. We must transcend reflex at every turn and we cannot afford to submit to despair.
So with the spirit of Bucky's wisdom and faith in mind, and with many years of having supported BFI to the best off my ability, I wish to respond in some detail to your statements (see your paragraphs below) about what I perceive BFI may or may not be interested in and how those interests or lack thereof may relate to the integrity of the content on the BFI website and the organization's mission
Excerpts from: Submitted by Andrew Owens on Sun, 2006-02-05 05:10.section: BFI's mission and programs
1."I find it quite alarming that the Buckminster Fuller Institute finds it of no interest, whereas Buckminster Fuller himself found it to be one of the most important necessities of human survival. Ignorance about history will get us nowhere; actually, it can be shown that it will get us all killed. A comprehensive understanding of what is going on, --the big picture is what is necessary."
2."So I say to you, isn't it time for the Buckminster Fuller Institute to show a little bit more integrity and expand its web site to include these extremely important matters?"
3. "I was a computer consultant for 20 years and worked on a full spectrum of projects with hundreds of clients, and I personally can think of hundreds of ways that BFI can improve its visibility, and its mission, via the internet ... and I can also think of hundreds of subtle ways to cripple it, and I see them everywhere... "
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BFI is certainly trying to avoid when possible duplicating the efforts of others.
There are so many individuals in the blogoshere and other media/print channels that are brilliantly articulating and disseminating the wake up call in an attempt to reform people's world view and understanding of our present predicament. There are many non profit organizations dedicated to various aspects of the wake up call. It is amazing to me how effective they are becoming. MoveOn.org is a great example in the politcal realm who pressed the envelope of what a non profit could do. Eventually they were forced to form a political action committee to carry out much of their agenda.
But there are far fewer working to directly empower individuals to actually envision, design and implement design science solutions to humanity's most pressing global challenges. Accordingly, BFI's flagship program, the design science Lab is focused precisely on that objective. Not surprisingly this objective is entirely missing in most conventional educational frameworks including design schools. This is the unmet need to which we are diligently attending.
The lab, now in its second year of a planned 10 year initiative, engages high school and college students, young professionals, and experienced design science mentors from around the world in developing solutions to global and local problems by applying the design science methodology inspired by Buckminster Fuller and others. If your thinking this could be the rebirth of Bucky's design Science decade, but this time around augmented by the internet, we're starting to get on the same page. All signs so far indicate that the Lab is on its way to being the kind of profoundly collaborative, life changing work that will generate precessional impacts which will be seriously felt in this world. And yes, during our lifetimes. And most interesting is the Lab seems to be attracting a high percentage of people who are barely, if at all, familiar with Fuller. I invite you and all who read this to check out www.designsciencelab.org for the 2006 Lab offerings and to keep your eyes peeled on the bfi.org home page for news of the soon to be published 2005 DSLab report.
As for BFI.org, which launched in its new form only about 120 days ago, it is still of course, very much a work in progress. And the more input we get from Fuller inspired, savvy tech folk like you the better. The site is providing cutting edge news, experienced insight, thoughtful discussion forums, educational resources, program platforms and access to tools aimed at the same objective as the Lab. I think it is safe to say that the site also provides the most comprehensive and accessible online portal to Bucky. BFI.org is also on its way to delivering an ever clearer window to the extensive network of people and projects aligned with Fuller's design strategy - a strategy which exemplifies a systems approach to developing resilient solutions; doing more with less, based on nature's principles of design; and a determination to meet human needs without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone.
Another great feature is the way the site is set up to allow feedback and to enable the community to help create the content by using our 'submit a resource' feature. To help foster a big picture understanding of where we're heading if we stay on the disastrous business as usual course, we are developing the spaceship earth section of the site. This section is geared to offering resources and tools that can assist visitors in acquiring a comprehensive understanding and visual grasp of the status of our planet's life support systems. This is very much in keeping with Fuller's pioneering work in creating the inventory of world resources, human trends and needs. BFI.org features online versions of quite a few of Filler's key written works and others are available through our online store so that those who find their way to us will find a great source of inspiration in Fuller's profound message, just as you and I did and still do.
The home page now allows registered users to submit questions and view answers from a leader in the field of Design Science. BFI is honored that Jay Baldwin, whom I consider a living treasure, is serving in this capacity. If you have not read through his incredibly thoughtful series of replies, you'll be missing out on a trove of insight. As an invaluable resource for our community there will be, in residence on bfi.org, individuals like Jay with a range of comprehensive design science expertise covering fields from education to community planning to architectural design and engineering to synergetics, and more.
The website will of course undergo numerous improvements this year, which will be guided in great part by user feedback. And it's true that bfi.org does not place an overriding editorial emphasis on content that features the big picture political and economic crises perpetrated by Capitalism, the Bush administration and its global Grunch network. And the Lab does not make this emphasis its primary focal point either. Yet so much of the content and people represented on bfi.org, effectively address these issues through their work in the world. In addition, the economic big picture (in terms of real wealth accounting principles), is integral to and hopefully demonstrated through careful selection of content that is disseminated both online and in the Lab. I think it is far more important that BFI.org, the DSLab and the participating BFI network become known for its effectiveness as a solutions bank and do tank rather than for its radical political agenda.
As far as the BFI Mission is concerned, it probably can and should be stated in a more compelling and concise fashion but nonetheless it does contain the essence of what BFI aspires to be. I perceive that the website including the online store and the Design Science Lab positively reflect the mission and collectively represent a core program platform that is consistent with a spirit that honors Buckminster Fuller and is designed in a manner that truly reflects (but does not mimic) his integrity. This core platform is increasingly beginning, to reflect bucky's pioneering spirit, although admittedly we still have quite a road to hoe on this front.
http://bfi.org/about/introduction
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BFI's MISSION
To catalyze the effective application of the principles of science to the comprehensive design of our total environment in order to sustainably meet the needs of all humanity.
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FULFILLING BFI'S MISSION
BFI fulfills its Design Science mission by offering innovative educational programs and tools that provide the opportunity to:
- Acquire a comprehensive understanding of the status of our Spaceship Earth's life support systems
- Be inspired and informed by the pioneering legacy of Buckminster Fuller
- Connect with leading thinkers and designers who are developing and demonstrating whole system solutions to global and local problems
- Design and test solutions in the real world
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To sum up Andrew, I see in BFI's overall vision and work a high degree of integrity and synergetic substance that has enormous potential to scale. I am sure BFI members would be interested in hearing your thoughtfully formulated, concrete and practical suggestions as to how BFI can further improve its visibility and mission via the internet. I look forward to hearing from one and all.
Once again I thank you for stimulating this important dialogue.
Sincerely,
Joshua Arnow
Thank you, Andrew for posting this.
Ever since I first saw the Towers fall, I've been convinced it was 'impossible'... unless.. and you're right, it was undoubtedly a planned demolition and not by forces outside the US. Our government officials are corrupt, and the only way to get rid of them is to kill them all off. I realize this is a startling and perhaps incendiary comment. But indict them? Won't work. They'll be bailed out by their buddies. The odds, and the politics, and the massive inertia of most of the population is working too strongly against us. We can be nice, and talk, and cajole, and request changes, show how much good could come of justly distributed wealth, and we'll be laughed at, demonized and marginalized. Or we can do to them what they've got planned for us. Kill them off.
This is a war. A war of ideas, a war of a view of what the future can be, a war between greed and equality. While they're pretending to be our leaders, they're marching us off a cliff. It's truly them or us, and they're betting it will be us. I just wonder what it will take before the great ranks of suburbian masses (lemmings, all) wake up and realize they've been had. Only millions of gun toting, angry people can change what is bound to happen in the next few years, and I doubt that will go well...
See Michael Ruppert's 'From the Wilderness' website and save yourself.