|
Buckminster Fuller in his consciousness-raising masterpiece "Critical Path" presented the idea that precession, i.e. the laws governing the interbehaviors of all bodies in motion, had relevance to human history. In essence he believed that consciousness itself was far too significant a reality in the cosmos for it to be without purpose. He therefore asserted that nature was supporting the success of human development despite mankind's error, stupidity and corruption. He conceived of a force that actively helps and assists those who use their individual talents for the greater good of the greatest number. He named this phenomenon; "precession". He explains it as follows: "The big question remained: how do you obtain the money to live with and to acquire the materials and tools with which to work? Since nature was clearly intent on making humans successful in support of the integrity of eternally regenerative Universe, it seemed clear to me that if I undertook ever more humanly favorable physical-environment-producing artifact developments, that did in fact improve the chances of all humanity's successful development, it was quite possible that nature would support my efforts, provided I was choosing the successively most efficient technical means of doing so. Nature was clearly supporting all her intercomplementary ecological regenerative tasks-ergo; I must so commit myself and must depend upon nature providing the physical means of realization of my invented environment-advantaging artifacts. I noted that nature did nor require hydrogen to "earn a living" before allowing hydrogen to behave in the unique manner in which it does. Nature does not require that any if its intercomplementing members earn a living. Because I could see that this precessional principle of self-employment was a reasonably realistic probability, I resolved to adopt such a course formally. I assumed that nature would "evaluate" my work as I went along. If I was doing what nature wanted done, and if I was doing it in promising ways, permitted by nature's principles, I would find my work being economically sustained and vice versa." Please note that Mr.Fuller made this commitment when he was broke, disheartened and had just suffered through the death of his first baby girl. He went on to become one of the most influential modern design engineers of all time. 2.
The Natural Law Of Money Issue: In a life spanning over 70 years, one of the greatest students of money, and it's meaning, was the American E.C. Riegel. In his book "Flight From Inflation", he identified money as the mathematics of value and argued, that for a democracy to thrive, the money power must be free. He spent his life pointing out that this money power is YOU AND ME. He was amazed that very few knew this life-changing secret. The freedom of exchange is the foundation of all freedoms, according to Riegel, and the freedom of exchange unencumbered is the truest democratic freedom of mankind. He felt the best way to vote was to vote every day with your actions. In a free community money is issued by a buyer. Such a money issuer must, in exchange for the goods and services he buys from the market, place other goods or services into the market place. Thus money as a money instrument is evidence of a purchase that is issued by a purchaser to a seller. Therefore, MONEY IS ACTUALLY BACKED BY THE VALUE SURRENDERED BY THE SELLER AND POTENTIALLY BACKED BY THE VALUE IN THE POSSESSION OF THE NEXT SELLER. Thus, in essence: money is issued by a purchaser, but it must be issued by a purchaser who can, and is, prepared to issue value; it is a tradesman's agreement to carry on split barter among themselves. From this analysis we can deduce that commercial banks do not "lend" money. They, in fact, permit the "borrower" to issue money {which everybody should have the personal unencumbered right to do if a free democracy}. Once given "permission", the borrower now has the "legal" authorization to write cheques to the extent of the loan and tenders them in trade. ONLY UPON THEIR ACCEPTANCE by a seller, who in fact provides value, does new money come into existence. From this reality of the natural law of money issue, it must be understood, that governments cannot qualify as issuers because they are not in the real situation of personal enterprisers who can provide value. Thus, in essence, money is a social phenomenon based on mutual respect, co-operation and interest. When this natural contract is broken, through abuse of power, the result is usually inflation. Simply put, inflation is the over issue of money without the required provision of value. Such a situation can be entertained in the short term but in the long term this fraud destroys the social system. 3.
Metanoia: The present World psyche needs to move from a zeitgeist of paranoia to one of metanoia. In other words we need to move beyond fear and learn to embrace joy and hope and faith. The World recovered swiftly from two world wars and moved forward but the present mind-set of permanent and unending war is wearing down even the most optimistic of souls. Currently everything seems increas- ingly to be scripted by socialist engineering types who care more about change for the sake of power rather than for the benefit of some common good. We need to believe again in each other and the community of good. This belief would allow us to transcend the mundane, the cynical and drudgery of modern systems. We need to accept the limitations of scientific reason and engage the reality of the unknowable. Life is a mystery. Metanoia could give us inner space for joy and courage and grant us the confidence to try the road less traveled. Human beings need freedom and meaning as well as security. Let us limit our need for money and accordingly increase our capacity and opportunity to grant our life its unique and special meaning. 4.
Individuation: According to Carl Gustaff Jung in his "Man and his Symbols", to fulfil one's destiny is the greatest achievement. But to Jung this was a goal not only for champions but for every human being; for him to be human meant to be oneself. During the course of a lifetime of study he discovered that within the human personality there was a psychic energy available within us, which could assist us in our personal self-development. Jung called this process individuation. The centre of the psyche is the self. When a person is individuated or individuating they have a successful dialogue between the unconscious and the conscious. This " narrative" is normally executed through dream image, intuition and symbols. The main result of this activity is a more resourceful, balanced, courageous, creative and self-reliant individual. It is useless to compare yourself to others when one realises the importance of individuality and uniqueness. Modernity has tried to impose crushing conformity through educational indoctrination and generic mass media. A society that supports individuation is the exact opposite to a mass socialized culture. It nurtures creativity, self, purpose and meaning. In the words of Jung: "As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through. The change must indeed begin within an individual; it might be any one of us. Nobody can afford to look around and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do." Thus the psychological process of individuation allows the individual time and space to open up a framework of development between the unconscious and the conscious; the possible and the actual; the past and the present/future. To "escape the horror of history" we must all help to find new ways to live; everybody matters. 5.
Civitas: Giambattista Vico in his classic book "New Science" pointed out that the greatest achievement of mankind was the growth of civil society out of the terror of barbaric nature. In his view God had created man, but man and man alone had constructed civilization. Thus, for Vico, the greatest investigation man could undertake was to truly understand how this miracle of order and achievement was made manifest through the passage of time. In the course of his study Giambattista came to comprehend the importance of moral order in the development of societies. This Civitas, or sense of the greater good, formed the bedrock of the social contract that built Alexandria, Sparta, Greece and Rome. Unfortunately it is all too obvious that this old natural civic sense is dying in modern society and unless we educate our youth about the fragility of society I fear civil order will continue to breakdown. The end result could be an ongoing civil war within "developed" nations that will eventually lead to a new Dark Age of city-states and self-preservation. In his book "The Evolution of Civilizations" Prof. Carroll Quigley summed up the problem succinctly: "The third age of conflict of our society began to display the ordinary marks of such a stage about 1890. At that time, in the principal industrial countries, it became clear that the rate of expansion had reversed itself.... All the characteristics of an age of irrationality began to appear on all sides. Increased gambling, increased smoking, the growing use of alcohol and narcotics, a growing obsession with sex and perversions of sex, an increased mania for speed, for nervous tension, and for noise; above all, perhaps, a growing tendency to regard violence as a solution for all problems, be they domestic, social, economic, ideological or international. In fact, violence as a symbol of our growing irrationality has had an increasing role in activity for its own sake, when no possible justification could be made that the activity was seeking to solve a problem. All the characteristics of any age of conflict are too obvious to require further comment. They arose because the organizational patterns of our culture CEASED TO FUNCTION AS INSTRUMENTS........Religious organizations no longer linked men to God but adopted diverse mundane purposes. Our intellectual theories no longer explained anything or made us at home in the Universe. Our social patterns no longer satisfied our gregarious needs, even when we fled from the lonely anonymity of the city to the rat-race uniformity of sub-urbanism. Our political organizations increased the burden of their demands on our time, energy and wealth but provided with growing ineffectiveness the justice, public order, education, protection, or incidental amenities we had come to expect from them. And on the military level costs rose at an astronomical rate without being able to catch up with our increased danger." Thus, the culture of the west needs to reconnect with its roots. Philosophy, learning, investigation, discipline, self-sacrifice, future orientation all these attributes need to be focused upon and nurtured for out youth. Sport, lotteries, quiz games, celebrity, reality shows, crime, are all very well but if they become the essential core of modern mentality then it bodes a society trending towards narrow self interest and terminal decline. We need to start believing in meaning again and the place to start is to believe in yourself and the power of a human life. References: "Critical
Path" Buckminster
Fuller
CONTACT
INFORMATION The opinions of FSU contributors do not necessarily reflect those of Financial Sense. |
