To: "Lauren Darges" <lauren@bfi.org>
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Re: What use is passion without effect?
Cc: "Jaime Snyder", "Ron Campbell", "Jeff Rowlings",
"P.M. Dekker", "Peter Meisen, GENI, ...
To: Lauren Darges, Chief Administrator, Buckminster Fuller Institute
March 11th, 2003
Dear Ms Darges,
We all would be doing well to ask ourselves every now and then, "what would Bucky's passion be today, if he were alive?"
What problems would he be trying to solve?
What solution would he be proposing?
Bucky could easily and correctly be described as having become strongly "anti-nuclear" by the time he died (insofar as the term is applied to those who question the use of nuclear power on scientific grounds (or any grounds, the term is used indiscriminately to describe anyone who expresses any hesitation about society's nuclear aspirations, regardless of the merits of the complainer's comments. That is, they are called "anti-nuclear" when they are not being ignored.))
Having already studied both Bucky Fuller and Nuclear Power for more than a decade by 1979, I cried when Bucky spoke publicly about his misgivings after Three Mile Island that year. I thought: Now, AT LAST the world will understand that it is SCIENTIFIC to be against nuclear power! It is LOGICAL! It is RIGHT!
It has nothing to do whatsoever with passion. It's simply the scientifically logical position we all need to come to grips with, despite it being the harder choice. Doing without artificially cheap energy is the first step towards solving our energy problems logically.
To have Bucky Fuller fully on our side would surely be (I thought) a tipping point. No living person that I knew of -- or have known of since -- had more legitimacy in the eyes of engineers, scientists, the all-important government officials, and so many others -- including passionate environmentalists who, despite their passion, are often confused about how to solve problems, such as understanding the basic human needs for BOTH electricity AND communication WITHOUT damaging the environment -- it can all be SO confusing, can't it?
My educational software work is, in a very real sense, all based on having read EDUCATION AUTOMATION while in High School. I didn't actually start using a computer regularly for about six years after high school, and didn't reread EDUCATION AUTOMATION until I was "doing the play" two years ago, and in the process, reintroduced myself to the great depth of Bucky's teachings. Now, happily, I have several thousand customers, in scores of countries, who are served vast amounts of information electronically, and on rereading Bucky's book, by golly, it's just the sort of thing Bucky was saying could be done! I'd say then, that all of my educational software work, is an embodiment of Bucky's concepts, as described in EDUCATION AUTOMATION.
The reason I mention this, is to point out that Bucky was a complex man. But I believe Three Mile Island was a turning point for him, and it can be said that SINCE THE TIME BUCKMINSTER FULLER REJECTED NUCLEAR POWER, NOT A SINGLE NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANT HAS BEEN CONSTRUCTED IN AMERICA.
Most people blame Three Mile Island for that, either because it showed the dangers (if you are against nuclear power you tend to believe this) or because it made them politically unviable (if you are for nuclear power you tend to believe this.)
But I submit to you that it was more likely to be a person than a thing that turned us away, as a society, from nuclear power. And that person was probably Bucky.
Bucky recognized, as many scientists have (including Einstein), that "nuclear power" (in all its various forms) was the most important topic humanity has to grapple with if we are to survive. We are still grappling. We have not yet proven we are surviving.
I do not believe there is any expert on the subject of nuclear power's dangers, and especially on the subject of Bucky's FEELINGS on the subject, at BFI. I have never met such a person from the organization. I haven't seen anything published in any BFI or GENI literature about the danger to humanity posed by nukes, despite these incredibly dangerous times we are now in. Nuclear terrorism now rears its ugly head, but Bucky knew there were MANY nuclear gremlins which might bite us. And are biting us. The scientific arguments against nuclear power have grown orders-of-magnitude stronger since Bucky's death in 1983. But he saw the trends, and the problems.
When Bucky died he was well aware of the problems -- but alas, from what I've seen, most of his fans just can't seem to acknowledge the greater importance of Bucky's last positions on issues, compared to any earlier ideas he expressed. He had learned, over time, what mattered most.
In honor of your request, and in light of the above facts, I have also, with regrets of course, removed all the other Bucky-related names ("cc'd" above) from my circulation list. You have, in effect, spoken for all of them and for the current mood of the Bucky Fuller Institute.
I do hope, however, that you will become better informed about nuclear power issues -- especially the POLITICAL ISSUES. I hope you will learn more about how Bucky felt about nuclear power by the end years of his life, so that you can more properly represent Bucky's most important ideas to Universe.
Warmest regards,
Russell D. Hoffman
Senior Bucky Historian
Planet Earth
HQ: Carlsbad, CA, USA
References/Collections (Donations welcome!):
List of approximately three hundred books on nuclear issues:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/mybooks.htm
List of Bucky-books and related items:
Hardcovers:
APPROACHING THE BENIGN ENVIRONMENT
YOUR PRIVATE SKY (2)
BUCKMINSTER FULLER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MONOLOGUE (2)
BUCKMINSTER FULLER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MONOLOGUE (AUTOGRAPHED BY ROBERT SNYDER AND ALLEGRA FULLER SNYDER)
VISIONARIES OF OUR TIMES (1 OF 13 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES IS ABOUT BUCKY)
BUCKMINSTER FULLER: ANTHOLOGY FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
INVENTIONS: THE PATENTED WORKS OF R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER
THE MIND'S EYE OF BUCKMINSTER FULLER
THE LETTERS OF MARGARET FULLER (VOL. II, 1839-41) (Bucky was this Margaret Fuller's grandnephew)
Paperbacks:
THREE MILE ISLAND: TURNING POINT (Introduction by Buckminster Fuller (see quotes at bottom of this email)
ENERGY, EARTH, AND EVERYONE (Foreword by Buckminster Fuller)
OPERATING MANUAL (2)
EARTH, INC
GUINEA PIG B
BUCKY WORKS
BUCKY WORKS (AUTOGRAPHED BY JAMES BALDWIN)
BUCKY FOR BEGINNERS (2)
BUCKY FOR BEGINNERS (AUTOGRAPHED BY MARY LAYCOCK)
EDUCATION AUTOMATION (3)
NINE CHAINS TO THE MOON
BUCKY: A GUIDED TOUR OF BUCKMINSTER FULLER
NO MORE SECONDHAND GOD
BUCKMINSTER FULLER: HIS LIFE AND WORK
A FULLER EXPLANATION
SYNERGETICS I & II
UTOPIA OR OBLIVION
Toys:
Tensegritoy
Dymaxion Globe
Ikoso-Kit Geodesic Dome Model (30")
Various GENI tapes
Bootleg video of The History and Mystery of the Universe (JUST KIDDING, Jeff, relax!)
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At 02:07 PM 3/11/2003 , "Lauren Darges" <lauren@bfi.org> wrote:
Hi Russell,
will you please remove me from your list? I have to cut down on the amount
of e-mail I get.
Thanks for your passionate work.
Lauren
--
Lauren Darges
Chief Administrator
Buckminster Fuller Institute
lauren@bfi.org http://www.bfi.org
707-824-2242 707-824-2243 fax
"I'm not trying to counsel any of you to do anything really special except
to dare to think, and to dare to go with the truth, and to dare to really
love completely."
-R. Buckminster Fuller
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"Humanity is abysmally ignorant regarding atomic energy."
"There has, as yet, been NO answer whatever on the part of science, government, or business on what to do about atomic wastes. They are accumulating ever more threateningly, in tentative, under the carpet sweepaways. Also, the atoms which are providing this energy are being stolen from the physical structure of Spaceship Earth. It is not wise to burn your house or your ship to get some heat for one cold winter's night."
-- (both quotes by R. Buckminster Fuller, 1980)
(From Fuller's introduction to :"THREE MILE ISLAND: TURNING POINT by Bill Keisling (Veritas Books, Inc., Seattle, WA, 1980). Fuller felt that Keisling's book would bring people up to date "technically, business-wise, legally, and morally". If enough people had taken "the relatively few hours it will take to read [Keisling's book]", perhaps humanity would understand "the game being played by big money and politics at the highest stakes in history -- humanity's continuance in Universe.")
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"The terrorists know how vulnerable the sites are. The only thing we're keeping it from is the American people." Representative Christopher Shays (D-Connecticut), sworn hearings on nuclear power, Washington, D.C, March 10th, 2003
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