With the death of Steve Jobs, this piece his legacy live on. And in the middle of it - very appropriately between John Lennon and Thomas Edison - is my teacher and mentor Bucky Fuller.
Here's the "commercial with Steven Jobs narration.
“If the success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do; how would I be, what would I do?” - Buckminster Fuller
Most of us like to believe that we are “rugged individualists,” that we can stand up on our own and that we have to “just do it” if anything is going to get done correctly. Yet, even though Buckminster Fuller was the one person who more than anyone championed individual initiative he also constantly reminded us that we’re all in this together and it’s everybody or nobody. Back in 1927, he recognized the global nature of our problems and always argued for the success of all life on the planet he named Spaceship Earth.
To be clear, Buckminster Fuller constantly preached about the power of one individual taking action because only individual humans can think and take action. No corporation, religion, government or other institution can do these two things, and he trimtabbed (leveraged with those two activities into consciously creating a successful life that made a difference. John Denver even wrote a song for Bucky titled “What One Man Can Do.”
Still, that one man did not do it alone. He contemplated situations and when he came up with an idea for an initiative or solution, he shifted from solo to massive inclusion. His initiatives and solutions required the involvement of lots of other people, and Bucky was always “recruiting.” That’s not to say he was seeing out converts or followers. Rather, he was sharing his ideas and allowing others to support them or - better yet - take them on as their own so that the idea or solution would grow without him. Then, he was free to move on to yet another idea and initiative. And that’s how he achieved so much in one short lifetime of 88 years.
Fuller realized that the more people who were involved and felt like they owned an idea, the more successful it would be. Instead of holding tight to his ideas and initiatives, he was more than willing to give them away. Two of the critical elements in his successful operating strategy were inclusion and gratitude as reflected in the following quote:
“I don’t have any favorite places or people. I love the whole show. A large number of beautiful people have taught me a great deal, and I am deeply indebted to them for their support.”
So, next time you find something that needs to be done (and that could be right now if you just look around because there’s plenty of things that need to be done) remember that you’re not alone. In fact, you can’t succeed trying to do it alone. The seed of an initiative can only spring from an individual, but the initiative requires community input and support if it is to be successful.
May our initiatives soon bring Bucky’s vision of “a world that works for everyone” into fruition soon.
Bucky & livingry - Dome & Dymaxion Vehicle
"It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary. War is obsolete. It is a mater of converting the high technology from weaponry to livingry."
- Buckminster Fuller
Although most of the Occupy Movement people do not realize that their vision is nearly 90 years old, Bucky was constantly contending that big corporations and the military industrial complex were the cause of many of humankind’s problems. It must also be noted that he said that multi-national corporations also hold the best hope for creating a successful global strategy because they have broken through national boundaries.
In other words, corporations already have the international systems we need to create a world that works for everyone. They just need to shift their focus from making money to making sense.
On an even larger scale, shifting our resources and attention from weaponry to livingry is the solution to all humankind’s physical problems here on our tiny, fragile Spaceship Earth. It’s just that simple. All we need to do is shift less than half (approximately 40%) of our global military budget from things that take life (weaponry such as the US protecting itself from a Soviet Union invasion or trying to control oil in the Mideast) to things that support life (livingry – food, education, roads, housing, etc.). In the 1930’s Bucky made a manual inventory of all the world’s resources with no computers or calculators.
He correctly determined that we were doing so much more with less resources that we would reach a point when there would be enough to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than anyone has known. He also determined that the paradigm shift to sufficiency and abundance for all would take place in 1976.
It has now been proven that in 1976 we reached the point where there was enough food on Earth to feed everyone. Still, 50,000 people continue to die of starvation every day while a huge percentage of our resources remain focused on weaponry rather than livingry. This is true of all areas of human existence.
We are living on abundant planet where each of us can have all that we want and need without taking from another. Thus, war and the politics of competition are obsolete. We just need to wake up to the reality of cooperation in which we are all rich beyond our wildest dreams. Then everyone can focus his or her time and energy on the things we love so that we may each make our full contribution to others.
This Bucky Fuller Vision as expressed in “A Fuller View”
and his path to global and personal success as expressed in “Buckminster Fuller’s Universe.”
It helps manifest the abundant Universe in which we all thrive and prosper while supporting a sustainable culture on Spaceship Earth. And it is available to us all - right here, right now - if we chose to step into it.
Bucky Explains Limited Liability of Corporations
& How It Has Damaged Humankind
Although people rarely consider Buckminster Fuller’s disciplines
or “image,” he was a master at presenting a specific, purposeful persona to the public. Because he did not come into prominence until his Geodesic Dome became popular in 1954 when he was already 59, most people remember him as the kindly, grandfather-like architect, inventor and futurist. Some recall that he was labeled “the Leonardo da Vinvi of the 20th Century” or the “Grandfather of the Future” in a popular John Denver song “What One Man Can Do.”
Bucky’s image was also that of a rebel who challenged the status quo. Still, he tempered continually championing the success of all humankind with a need to be viewed as a “normal, average man.” To do this, in the 1940’s he made a conscious choice to never allow his personal appearance or behavior to stand in the way of his message that we can create “a world that works for everyone.” In order to manifest that decision, he looked for the most innocuous personality type he could find and settled on the nearly invisible bank clerk. At that time, a bank clerk was a man in a dark suit, white shirt and tie who worked behind a caged window.
Once he made the choice of a persona, Fuller immediately changed from wearing khakis (the jeans of the day) and a t-shirt to dressing in a much less comfortable, dark three-piece suit, white shirt and plain dark tie - a look that he continued to employ publicly until his death in 1983. At some point, he did, however, add the chain of his Phi Beta Kappa key emerging from his vest pocket - which was no small accomplishment for a man who was thrown out of Harvard twice and never completed any formal education past high school.
Also, in 1942 at the age of 47 when the US was getting into World War II, Fuller dramatically changed his behavior and image by doing something to which many of us can relate. With no support or tapering off, he quit two of the most common practices of that era - smoking and drinking. As he later stated in a Time Magazine cover article,"I drink very well, but I found that if I was talking about my inventions and drinking, people just wrote them off as so much nonsense. The war was something serious, and I wanted to be properly accredited. So I stopped drinking and smoking.”
Bucky was willing to do whatever it took to further his mission, but such tenacity is not necessary to apply what he learned and regularly shared in his speaking, writing and inventions. We can all learn from Fuller’s very successful and productive life, and use him as a model for what one person can accomplish when she or he focuses on a worthy goal.
Bucky’s way of operating is not some complicated discipline that requires a great deal of time or effort. It’s also not a pie-in-the-sky idealism. Rather, it’s a system of applying common sense, mirroring nature’s principles and keeping your awareness on what the other person is experiencing during any communication.
In other words, we all need to focus on bringing more consciousness into our relationships and not trying to do something in conflict with the natural order of Universe. Such disharmony with the whole of Universe is what causes breakdowns in society and our day-to-day lives. Fortunately, Bucky was a master at going with the flow of nature while offering alternative, highly inclusive solutions to all our problems - personal, organizational and global. Because of this, his life serves as a model for success that allows each of us to avoid the many learning experience - mistakes that Bucky had to overcome.
Bucky Fuller's Amazing View of Spaceship Earth
“They” say that is that the Occupy Movement is too broad, generalized and not targeting a specific issue and that it does not have one spokesperson. Although this statement is usually couched as a criticism, actually it’s a great thing!!
Finally, we’re coming around to appreciate and honor Buckminster Fuller’s view (as revealed in detail throughout “A Fuller View”
) that “we the people” need to take charge and recognize that specialization is how the less than one percent dominates the rest of us. For them, it’s all about “divide and conquer, and to keep conquered, keep divided.” That’s how they’ve done it since kings made other men who had knowledge and skills into lords and dukes who served the king, and that’s what continues. Check out the video below to hear Bucky himself talk about what he was up to in 1977 that is now being re-created through the Occupy Movement.
Specialization is killing life on our tiny Spaceship Earth, and the Occupy Movement is now beginning to encompass everyone and everything in order to champion life, love and happiness rather than war, fear and suffering. People are emerging to follow in Bucky’s footsteps as a “Comprehensive, Anticipatory Design Scientists.” For simplicity, just call us “Comprehensivists,” and join us in returning to the days when you were wide-eyed, young and interested in EVERYTHING!
As Bucky wrote in 1970 … “I observe that every child demonstrates a comprehensive curiosity. Children are interested in everything and are forever embarrassing their specialized parents by the wholeness of their interests. Children demonstrate right from the beginning that their genes are organized to help them to apprehend, comprehend, coordinate and employ - in all directions.”
This is our natural state of being, and it was common before the leaders of the industrial revolution began indoctrinating us into believing that we had to “earn a living” or as Bucky so often rephrased it “earn our right to be alive.” Through the media and other avenues, those in power indoctrinated us into this mindset so that they could have more poorly paid (and a few well paid but also miserable) workers to fuel their profits. That, my friends, is the Grunch, and the Occupy Movement is the David ready to slay the entire Grunch of Giants.
Bucky talked and wrote about all this and more. If he were still operating out of a physical body today (and he just might be in a reincarnated form), he would be a spokesperson for the Occupy Movement. Fortunately, the pattern integrity Buckminster Fuller lives on, and his vast archive of his writing and speaking is available to continually inspire us to be fully participating comprehensive problem solvers in support of eternally regenerative Universe.
May we all come to awaken to our true nature as radiant, comprehensive, omni-inclusive beings.
Bucky talking about his then 50 Year Experiment that lasted
until his death in 1983.
The new documentary “Miss Representation”
encourages girls and young women to become politically active and suggest that such a shift would be a good thing. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, women who shun politics represent the leading edge of conscious change because politics are destroying our planet and society. As Bucky Fuller said …
"All politics are not only obsolete, but lethal."
Click here for more information about and commentaries on the life, work & wisdom of Buckminster Fuller.
“Miss Representation” champions the idea that the fact that we have much fewer women in politics is bad. Bucky Fuller had an entirely different perspective. His view is that politics are obsolete and actually leading to the extinction of the human species.
Politics and almost all politicians keep wars alive. They fill their pockets and the pockets of their allies at the expense of the poor and middle class (if that exists at all anymore). They are advocates of competition rather than the cooperation that will lead to Bucky’s vision of “a world that works for everyone.”
So, is it not a good thing that by the time they become teenagers most girls have no interest in politics or becoming President of the United States? Doesn’t that prove that women are much smarter than men?
Why would anyone want to participate in or support a system that is destroying our planet, killing tens of thousands of people every day and keeping most people from their birthright of living an abundant life? Women who are wise and conscious do not become involved in politics. Perhaps they have an intuitive sense of not wanting to support such a corrupt system. That’s what the “Occupy” movement is all about. As Bucky says so often …
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Building that new model of reality requires integrity on the part of each individual, both male and female. We each have to look within to see find our personal integrity and follow that heartfelt longing. No doubt, the truly great women (and men) recognize that the system is broken beyond repair, that “the emperor has no clothes,” that the United States and most countries are financially bankrupt as politicians continue to opt for devoting our precious resources to weaponry rather than livingry.
As Bucky frequently reminds us …
"If humanity does not opt for integrity we are completely through. It is absolutely touch and go. Each of us could make the difference."
It’s up to each of us and encouraging our girls and young women (or boys and young men) to become involved in and supporting a corrupt and bankrupt system we label politics will only add fuel to a fire that is destroying our tiny, fragile Spaceship Earth.
May we all remain true to the genuine heartfelt integrity that guides us on a path of happiness and success for all.
Here's a great idea. Convince more girls and young women to become involved in the obsolete, lethal, corrupt political system.
Last Friday night, I was in a workshop led by world-renowned psychic Ainslie MacLeod
. Although MacLeod’s focus was past lives and how awareness of them can transform your life, I was again blessed to feel my connection with one of my primary guides - Bucky Fuller.
The heart of the event was Ainslie’s latest book “Transformation: Healing Your Past-Life Fears to Realize Your Soul’s Potential,” but for me it was more about allowing than transforming. Allowing Bucky to experience the event through my physical senses. Allowing his wisdom to flow through me when I spoke with others. And allowing the spirit of his essential pattern integrity to explore past lives that we have shared as I “watched the show.”
Ainslie provided the audience much more than a book reading. In his laidback yet potent style, he gave them everything they needed to explore past lives and heal wounds that they may have been hold on to for lifetimes. In less than two hours, he shared a multitude of success stories from his work with clients and led participants through a brief, yet powerful guided meditation in which they could experience a past life and possibly release any trauma that the life was still causing in this life.
For me, it was a multi-faceted exploration as I witnessed a past life in which I interacted with the essence of Bucky Fuller. And even though that life ended in what most would judge as an unpleasant manner, I felt a new sense of potential. I also felt that Bucky was watching over us and blessing us with his presence as we each did what we could to evolve and contribute to others.
For me, this is the magic of such events, and I hope to share that essence of Bucky Fuller with more people as I begin to facilitate our next phase events
. And I am honored to set out on this unique journey with the gracious support and encouragement of the pattern integrity and spirit known as Buckminster Fuller.May all people find their true Guide and Guidance, within and without.
Buckminster Fuller Talking About Human on Earth.
Politicians, “leaders” and every form of media are all talking about creating more jobs, but do people really want jobs? I think not. They want INCOME, not jobs.
Nobody want to “work for a living,” which Buckminster Fuller said is equivalent to being told that you have to work to earn your right to live.
Yes, we all want to contribute to others and the world. Yes, we all want to be productive members of society. Yes, we all want to be creative and do our fair share, but what is a person’s “fair share” in today’s world?
If we truly live in an abundant, friendly Universe on an abundant planet, then there is enough to go around. In fact, many scholars have proven that there are more than enough resources to support all life on Earth. Bucky did the same studies and determined that in 1976 we reached a point in time when there was more than enough to support all life in a sustainable manner.
In fact, he was quick to maintain that we are a planet inhabited by billionaires who don’t know that we are billionaires. And he was not talking about people like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. He was talking about you and me as well as the 50,000 people who die of starvation every day.
And, we billionaires no longer have to work for a living.
It’s all here for us when we liberate ourselves from the beliefs foisted on us by a few greedy people who hoard and have us believing that there is not enough to go around. It’s just not true.
We do, however, need to make a fundamental shift in the use of all resources, and that shift is from weaponry to livingry
, from competition to cooperation and from fear to love. That’s all it takes, and each of us can begin with our own lives. Then, we can stop begging for more jobs that we don’t really want and begin to live our birthright as billionaires.
May we all realize the abundance and bounty that pervades every aspect of our lives and share our true wealth with all sentient beings.
Actor playing Bucky shares wisdom. Everything he says was said or written by Bucky, but it's easier to understand in this form.
Steve Jobs made a huge difference in the world. I've never used a PC. Always and only a Mac. However, Jobs was not looking to do what needed to be done on behalf of the most people and all life. Jobs initial intention and focus throughout his life was making money. Bucky said, "You can make money or you can make sense. The two are mutually exclusive."
Yes, people end up making enormous contributions even though the start with the intention of making money. That's the Bucky honey-money syndrome. The bee goes out to get the honey (-money) and actually does something that serves our entire planet - pollination. Jobs was an excellent worker bee, but he did not contribute his true genius to benefit the many. Apple products are generally for the BMW crowd. (Yup, I'm an exception. I drive a Mini Cooper - BMW's poor stepchild.)Bucky's intention, on the other hand,
was always to make sense. In fact, in 1927 he committed to never work for a living, and for the last few decades he had an income of about $250,000 (translates to over $1,000,000 per year today). He always focused on making a difference and never on the illusion of making a living, or as he put it "earning your right to live."It's time for us to shift from having to earn our right to live to realizing that we are all alive and we have a right to the support of our abundant Universe. All we need to do is shift our focus and resources from weaponry to livingry.May we all make a contribution even greater than Buckminster Fuller and Steve Jobs.
Sir Norman Forster built a 4th Dymaxion Vehicle during the past couple years. Now, it is on display in an amazing exhibition, which is where he was recently speaking when he said Fuller's teachings are "more valid and relevant than when he was alive." (The video of his talk can be seen below.)
This is true as we're much closer to the edge of choosing "oblivion" rather than "utopia" during this our "final examination." From 1933 until his death in 1983, Bucky warned us that we humans were in a final examination to determine weather we were a "worthwhile to Universe experiment." The way so many are behaving with greed, war and hoarding, it appears that the answer is "no."
The issue was also reflected in the title of his book "Utopia or Oblivion," but he always optimistically argued in favor of the success of all humankind. Norman Foster recognized this, and continues to pay homage to Bucky.
I attempted to get Lord Foster to write an essay for my new book "A Fuller View," but that did not happen. Perhaps he will have time to write something for Volume #2, which is now in process.