I've been spending my morning reading about Buckminster Fuller. I could not believe how amazing of a man he was. I never thought to read about him but lately i've been really inspired by Kevin Kelly and while reading about the whole earth catalog, which I have only once gazed upon, I was squirreled away into a wiki rabbit hole and came upon Buckminster Fuller.
In his young adult life, up until 35 he worked in meat packing plants and as a machinist. He was very poor and at one point he contemplated suicide to leave a life insurance policy to his wife and child. Instead of suicide he had a moment of great clarity:
His first child died due to cold and drafty houses and thus began his research into geodesic domes and sustainability and using "waste" as resources.
It's also been surprising to find the connections between his life and the ones that have shaped mine. Mostly having to do with his time at the Black Mountain College, and it's influence on many universities, one of them being New College of Florida, my alma mater.
The equally amazing thing I really garnered in reading about his life is his theories about connection and humans, and utopia needing everyone and being non exclusive. It seems strange that some of the things that would spurn from his ideas were ones that just didn't seem to work, ie Drop City, but also that it seems that many of his foresights are indeed coming into being and as i hope for the future, will involve renewable energies.
I think this lends itself to some of my obsession with the tiny houses and has to do with the idea that we could all live off grid and sustainably without sacrificing health, warmth, and knowledge. Many of them contain composting toilets and solar panels that power the entire house. They also fit in with the way that society is becoming more mobile.
Water source is the one thing you have to rely on outside of your home. And it is of course of dire concern as the future follows a path lined out by Big Business and Families like the Bush family who seem to have their future interests in it squirreled away: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/oct/23/mainsection.tomphillips especially as fracking grows in the USA poisoning more and more of our pure water sources.
The thing is, Bucky was an optimist. "Fuller was a pioneer in thinking globally, and he explored principles of energy and material efficiency in the fields of architecture, engineering and design.[25][26] He cited François de Chardenedes' opinion that petroleum, from the standpoint of its replacement cost out of our current energy "budget" (essentially, the net incoming solar flux), had cost nature "over a million dollars" per U.S. gallon (US$300,000 per litre) to produce. From this point of view, its use as a transportation fuel by people commuting to work represents a huge net loss compared to their earnings.[27] An encapsulation quotation of his views might be, "There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance."[28][29][30]" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller
A crisis of Ignorance is about the most well put statement on the everlasting condition of humankind. Even when people think they are not, they are.
Which brings me back to my favorite song by Justin Hinds:
The greatest thing is to know, that what you don't know you don't know.
Here's to the future and stop ignoring with our ignorance but instead become aware and able to understand dichotomies and the grey matter that is our lives. 2014!
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