78. World History Re-Imagined -- from Buckminster Fuller, excerpts from "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth"

Excerpts

from

"Operating Manual
for
Spaceship Earth",

by

R. Buckminster Fuller,

Southern Illinois
University Press,
1969

I am enthusiastic
over humanity's
extraordinary
and
sometimes very timely
ingenuities.

If you are
in a shipwreck
and
all the boats are gone,
a piano top
buoyant enough
to keep you afloat
that comes along
makes
a fortuitous
life preserver.

But this is not to say
that
the best way
to
design a life preserver
is
in the form of
a piano top.

I think that we
are clinging
to a great many piano tops
in accepting
yesterday's
fortuitous contrivings
as
constituting
the only means
for
solving
a given problem.

Our brains
deal exclusively
with
special-case experiences.

Only our minds
are able to discover
the generalized principles
operating without exception
in each and every
special-experience case
which
if detected
and
mastered
will give
knowledgeable advantage
in all instances.

Because
our spontaneous initiative
has been frustrated,
too often inadvertently,
in earliest childhood
we do not tend,
customarily,
to dare to think
competently
regarding our potentials.

We find it
socially easier
to go on
with our narrow,
shortsighted specializations
and
leave it to others --
primarily the politicians --
to find some way
of
resolving
our common dilemmas.

Countering
that
spontaneous grown-up trend
to narrowness
I will do
my, hopefully "childish", best
to
confront
as many of
our problems
as possible
by
employing
the
longest-distance thinking
of which
I am capable --
though
that may not take us
very far
into the future.

[...]

I came to the conclusion
that it is possible
to make
a fairly reasonable forecast
of
about twenty-five years.

That seems to be
about
one
industrial "tooling" generation.

On the average,
all inventions
seem to get melted up
about
every twenty-five years,
after which
the metals come back
into recirculation
in new
and
usually more effective
uses.

[...]

... I have learned
about public reaction
to
the unfamiliar
and also
about
the ease and speed
with which
the transformed reality
becomes so "natural"
as mis-seemingly
to have been
always obvious.

[...]

... more than half
of humanity
as yet
exists
in
miserable poverty,
prematurely doomed,
unless we alter
our
comprehensive
physical
circumstances.

It is certainly
no solution
to
evict the poor,
replacing
their squalid housing
with
much more
expensive buildings
which
the original tenants
can't afford
to
reoccupy.

Our society
adopts
many
such superficial
palliatives.

Because yesterday's negatives
are
moved out of sight
from
their familiar locations
many persons
are willing to pretend
to themselves
that the problems
have been solved.

I feel that one
of the reasons
why we are struggling
inadequately
today
is that
we reckon our costs
on
too shortsighted a basis
and
are later overwhelmed
with
the unexpected costs
brought about
by
our shortsightedness.

Of course,
our failures
are a consequence
of many factors,
but possibly one
of the most important
is the fact
that society
operates
on the theory
that specialization
is
the key to success,
not realizing
that
specialization
precludes
comprehensive thinking.

This means that
the
potentially-integratable --
techno-economic
advantages
accruing
to society
from
the
myriad specializations
are
not comprehended
integratively
and therefore
are
not realized,
or
they are realized
only
in negative ways,
in
new weaponry
or
the
industrial support
only
of
warfaring.

All universities
have been
progressively organized
for
ever finer specialization.

Society
assumes
that specialization
is natural,
inevitable,
and desirable.

Yet
in observing
a little child,
we find
it is interested
in everything
and
spontaneously apprehends,
comprehends,
and co-ordinates
an
ever-expanding inventory
of experiences.

Children
are
enthusiastic
planetarium audiences.

Nothing seems to be
more prominent
about
human life
than its
wanting
to understand all
and
put
everything together.

One of humanity's
prime drives
is
to understand
and
be understood.

All other living creatures
are
designed
for
highly specialized tasks.

Man
seems unique
as
the
comprehensive comprehender
and
co-ordinator
of
local universe affairs.

If the total scheme of nature
required man to be a specialist
she would have made him so
by having him born
with one eye
and
a microscope
attached to it.

What nature needed
man to be
was adaptive
in many
if not any
direction;
wherefore
she gave man a mind
as well as
a co-ordinating
switchboard brain.

Mind
apprehends
and comprehends
the general principles
governing flight
and
deep sea diving,
and
man
puts on his wings
or his lungs,
then takes them off
when
not using them.

The specialist bird
is
greatly impeded
by
its wings
when
trying to walk.

The fish
cannot
come out of the sea
and
walk upon land,
for birds
and fish
are specialists.

Of course
we are beginning to learn
a little
in the behavioral sciences
regarding
how little we know
about
children
and
the educational processes.

We had assumed
the child
to be
an empty brain receptacle
into which
we could inject
our
methodically-gained wisdom
until that child
too,
became educated.

In the light
of
modern
behavioral science experiments
that
was not
a good working assumption.

Inasmuch as the new life
always
manifests
comprehensive propensities
I would like to know why it is
that we have
disregarded
all children's
significantly spontaneous
and
comprehensive curiosity
and
in our formal education
have
deliberately instituted processes
leading only
to
narrow specialization.

We do not
have to go very far back
in history
for the answer.

We get back
to great, powerful men
of the sword,
exploiting their prowess
fortuitously
and
ambitiously,
surrounded
by the abysmal ignorance
of
world society.

We find
early society
struggling
under economic conditions
wherein
less than one per cent
of humanity
seemed able
to
live
its full span of years.

This
forlorn economic prospect
resulted
from
the seeming inadequacy
of
vital resources
and from
an illiterate society's
inability to cope successfully
with
the environment,
while
saddled also
with
preconditioned instincts
which
inadvertently
produced many
new human babies.

Amongst the strugglers
we have cunning leaders
who said,
"Follow me,
and
we'll make out better
than
the others."

It was
the
most powerful
and shrewd
of these leaders
who,
as we shall see,                                                         
invented
and
developed
specialization.

[...]

... throughout history
99.9 per cent
of humanity
has occupied
only 10 percent
of
the
total Earth surface,
dwelling only
where life support
was
visibly obvious.

The favorable land
was not in one piece,
but
consisted of
a myriad
of relatively small parcels
widely dispersed
over the surface
of
the
enormous Earth's
sphere.

The small
isolated groups of humanity
were
utterly unaware
of
one another's existence.

They were
everywhere
ignorant
of
the vast variety
of
very
different environments
and
resource patterns
occurring
other than
where
they dwelt.

But there were
a few human beings
who gradually,
through
the process of invention
and experiment,
built and operated,
first,
local river
and bay,
next,
along-shore,
then
off-shore
rafts,
dugouts,
grass boats
and
outrigger sailing canoes.

Finally,
they developed
voluminous
rib-bellied fishing vessels,
and
thereby
ventured out to sea
for
progressively
longer periods.

Developing
ever larger
and
more capable ships,
the seafarers
eventually
were able to
remain for months
on
the high seas.

Thus,
these venturers
came to live
normally
at sea.

This led them
inevitably
into
world-around,
swift,
fortune-producing
enterprise.

Thus
they became
the
first
world men.

The men
who were able
to establish themselves
on the oceans
had also
to be
extraordinarily effective
with the sword
upon
both land and sea.

They had also
to have
great anticipatory vision,
great ship designing capability,
and
original scientific conceptioning,
mathematical skill in navigation
and
exploration techniques
for
coping in fog,
night,
and storm
with
the invisible hazards
of
rocks, shoals, and currents.

The great sea
venturers
had to be able
to command
all the people
in their dry land realm
in order
to commandeer
the
adequate metalworking,
woodworking,
weaving,
and other skills
necessary
to
produce
their large,
complex ships.

They had to establish
and
maintain their authority
in order
that they themselves
and
the craftsmen
preoccupied in
producing the ship
be adequately fed
by
the
food-producing
hunters and farmers
of
their realm.

Here we see
the
specialization
being greatly amplified
under
the supreme authority
of
the
comprehensively visionary
and
brilliantly co-ordinated
top swordsman,
sea venturer.

If his "ship came in" --
that is,
returned safely
from
its years' long venturing --
all the people
in his realm
prospered
and
their leader's power
was
vastly amplified.

There were
very few
of
these
top power men.

But
as they went
on their sea ventures
they gradually found
that
the waters
interconnected
all
the world's people
and
lands.

They learned this
unbeknownst
to
their illiterate sailors,
who,
often as not,
having been
hit over the head in a saloon
and
dragged aboard
to wake up
at sea,
saw
only
a lot of water
and,
without
navigational knowledge,
had no idea
where they had travelled.

The sea masters
soon found
that
the people
in each
of the different places
visited
knew nothing
of
people
in other places.

The great venturers
found
the resources of Earth
very unevenly distributed,
and
discovered that
by bringing together
various resources
occurring remotely
from one another
one
complemented the other
in
producing tools,
services,
and
consumables
of
high advantage
and
value.

Thus resources
in one place
which previously
had seemed
to be
absolutely worthless
suddenly
became
highly valued.

Enormous wealth
was generated
by
what the sea venturers
could do
in the way
of integrating resources
and
distributing the products
to the,
everywhere in the world,
amazed and eager
customers.

The shipowning captains
found that
they could carry
fantastically large cargoes
in their ships,
due to nature's floatability --
cargoes so large
they could not possibly
be carried
on
the backs of animals
or
the backs of men.

Furthermore,
the ships
could sail across a bay
or sea,
travelling shorter distances
in much less time
than it took
to go around the shores
and
over
the intervening mountains.

So
these
very few masters
of
the water world
became
incalculably rich
and
powerful.

To understand
the development

of

intellectual specialization,
which is our first objective,
we must study further
the
comprehensive
intellectual capabilities
of
the sea leaders
in contradistinction

to

the myriad

of

physical,
muscle,

and

craft-skill specializations
which
their intellect
and
their
skillful swordplay
commanded.

The
great sea venturers
thought always
in terms
of the world,
because
the world's waters
are continuous
and
cover
three-quarters
of
the Earth planet.

This meant
that
before the invention
and use
of
cables
and
wireless
99.9 per cent
of
humanity thought
only
in
the terms
of
their own
local terrain.

Despite
our recently developed
communications intimacy
and
popular awareness
of
total Earth
we, too,
in 1969
are as yet
politically organized
entirely
in the terms
of
exclusive
and
utterly obsolete
sovereign
separateness.

This "sovereign" --
meaning
top-weapons enforced --
"national" claim
upon humans
born in various lands
lead
to ever more
severely specialized
servitude
and
highly personalized
identity classification.

As a consequence
of
the slavish
"category-itis"
the scientifically illogical,
and as we shall see,
often
meaningless questions
"Where do you live"
"What are you?"
"What religion?"
"What race?"
"What
nationality?"
are all
thought of today
as
logical questions.

By the
twenty-first century
it
either
will have become
evident

to
humanity

that
these questions
are absurd
and
anti-evolutionary
or
men
will no longer
be living
on Earth.

If you
don't comprehend
why
that
is so,
listen
to me
closely.

Obviously
we need
to
pursue further
the origins
of
specialization
into
deep history,
hoping thereby
to correct

or
eliminate

our
erroneous concepts.

Historically
we can say
that
average human beings
throughout
pre-twentieth-century

history

had each seen
only about
one-millionth

of
the surface

of
their spherical Earth.

This limited experience
gave humans
a
locally-focused,
specialized
viewpoint.

Not surprisingly,
humanity
thought
the world was flat,
and
not surprisingly
humans thought
its
horizontally-extended plane
went circularly outward
to
infinity.

In our schools today
we still start off
the education
of
our children
by
giving them planes
and lines
that go on,
incomprehendibly "forever"
toward
a
meaningless infinity.

Such
oversimplified viewpoints
are
misleading,
blinding,
and
debilitating,
because
they preclude
possible discovery
of
the significance
of
our
integrated experiences.

Under these
everyday,
knowledge-thwarting
or
limiting circumstances
of humanity,
the
comprehensively-informed
master venturers
of history
who went to sea
soon realized
that
the
only real competition
they had
was that
of
other powerful outlaws
who
might also know
or
hope to learn
through experience
"what it is all about."

I call
these
sea mastering people
the
great outlaws
or
Great Pirates -- G.P.'s --
simply
because
the arbitrary laws
enacted
or
edicted
by men
on the land
could not be extended
effectively
to control
humans
beyond their shores
and
put upon the seas.

So
the
world men
who lived on the seas
were
inherently outlaws,
and
the only laws
that could
and
did
rule them
were
the natural laws --
the physical laws
of universe
which
when tempestuous
were often
cruelly
devastating.

High seas
combined
with
nature's fog
and
night-hidden rocks
were
uncompromising.

And it followed
that
these Great Pirates
came into
mortal battle
with one another
to see
who was going

to

control

the vast sea routes

and

eventually

the world.

Their battles
took place
out of sight

of

landed humanity.

Most

of the losers

went

to the bottom

utterly unbeknownst

to

historians.

Those

who stayed on the top

of

the waters

and

prospered

did so

because of

their

comprehensive capability.

That is

they were

the

antithesis

of

specialists.

They had
high proficiency

in

dealing with

celestial navigation,

the storms,

the sea,

the men,

the ship,

economics,

biology,

geography,

history,

and

science.

The wider

and

more long distanced

their

anticipatory strategy,

the more successful

they became.

But these hard,
powerful,
brilliantly resourceful
sea masters
had to sleep
occasionally,

and

therefore

found it necessary

to

surround themselves

with

super-loyal,

muscular

but

dull-brained illiterates

who

could not see

nor savvy

their masters' stratagems.

There was
great safety

in

the mental dullness

of

these henchmen.

The Great Pirates

realized

that

the only people

who could

possibly contrive

to

displace them

were

the

truly bright people.

For this reason

their

number-one strategy

was

secrecy.

If the other

powerful pirates

did not know

where

you were going,

nor

when you had gone,

nor

when

you were coming back,

they

would not know

how

to

waylay you.

If anyone knew

when

you were
coming home,

"small-timers"
could come out

in

small boats

and

waylay you

in the dark

and

take you over --

just before

you got home

tiredly

after

a two-year

treasure harvesting

voyage.

Thus

hijacking

and

second-rate piracy

became

a popular activity

around

the world's shores

and harbors.

Thus

secrecy
became
the essence
of the lives

of

the successful pirates;

ergo,

how little is known

today

of

that

which

I am relating.

Leonardo da Vinci

is

the

outstanding example

of

the

comprehensively

anticipatory

design

scientist.

Operating

under the patronage

of

the Duke of Milan

he designed

the fortified defenses

and

weaponry

as well as

the tools

of

peaceful production.

Many

other

great military powers

had their

comprehensive

design

scientist-artist

inventors;

Michelangelo

was

one of them.

Many persons
wonder

why

we

do not have

such men

today.

It

is

a

mistake

to

think

we

cannot.

What happened

at

the time of

Leonardo

and

Galileo

was that

mathematics

was

so improved

by

the advent

of

the zero

that

not only was

much more

scientific

shipbuilding

made possible

but also

much more reliable

navigation.

Immediately thereafter

truly large-scale venturing

on the world's oceans

commenced,

and

the strong

sword-leader patrons

as admirals

put their Leonardos

to work,

first in designing

their new

and

more powerful

world-girdling

ships.

Next

they took their
Leonardos
to sea with them
as
their sea-going Merlins

to

invent

ever more

powerful  tools

and

strategies

on

a world-around basis

to

implement

their great campaigns

to best

all the other

great pirates,

thereby

enabling them

to

become

masters of the world

and

of

all its people

and

wealth.

The required

and

scientifically designed

secrecy

of the sea operations

thus

pulled a curtain

that hid the Leonardos

from

public view,

popular ken,

and

recorded history.

Finally,

the

sea-dwelling Leonardos

became Captains

of the ships

or

even Admirals of Fleets,

or

Commandants of the Navy yards

where

they designed

and built

the fleets,

or

they became

the commandants

of

the naval war colleges

where

they designed

and

developed

the

comprehensive strategy

for

running the world

for

a century to come.

This included

not only

the

designing of the network

of

world-around voyaging

and

of

the ships for each task

but also

the designing

of the

industrial establishments

and

world-around

mining operations

and

naval base-buildings

for

production

and

maintenance

of the ships.

This

Leonardo-type

planning

inaugurated

today's large-scale,

world-around

industrialization's

vast scale

of

thinking.

When the Great Pirates

came

to

building steel steamships

and

blast furnaces

and

railroad tracks

to

handle the logistics,

the

Leonardos

appeared momentarily

again

in such men

as Telford

who built

the railroads,

tunnels,

and

bridges of England,

as well as
the first
great steamship.

You may say,
"Aren't you
talking about

the

British Empire?"

I answer,

No!

The so-called
British Empire

was

a manifest

of

the

world-around
misconception

of

who ran things

and

a disclosure

of

the

popular ignorance

of

the Great Pirates'

absolute

world-controlling

through

their

local-stooge sovereigns

and

their prime ministers,

as only

innocuously

and

locally

modified

here and there

by

the

separate sovereignties'

internal

democratic

processes.

As we soon shall see,
the British Isles
lying off the coast
of Europe
constituted
in effect

a fleet

of unsinkable ships

and

naval bases

commanding all

the

great harbors

of Europe.

Those islands

were

the possession

of

the

topmost Pirates.

Since
the Great Pirates

were

building,

maintaining,

supplying

their ships

on those islands,

they also

logically

made up their crews

out of

the native islanders

who

were simply seized

or

commanded aboard

by

imperial edict.

Seeing these
British Islanders

aboard

the top pirate ships

the people

around the world

mistakenly assumed

that

the world conquest

by

the Great Pirates

was

a conquest

by

the will,

ambition,

and

organization

of

the British people.

Thus

was

the

G.P.'s

grand deception

victorious.

But

the people

of

those islands

never

had

the ambition

to

go out

and

conquer

the world.

As

a people
they were
manipulated

by

the top pirates

and

learned to cheer

as

they were told

of

their nation's

world prowess.

The topmost
Great Pirates'
Leonardos

discovered --

both

in their careful,

long-distance planning

and

in their

anticipatory inventing --

that

the grand strategies

of

sea power

made it

experimentally clear

that

a plurality of ships

could usually

outmaneuver

one ship.

So

the

Great Pirates'

Leonardos

invented

navies.

Then, of course,

they

had to control

various

resource-supplying

mines,

forests,

and

lands

with which

and

upon which

to

build the ships

and

establish

the industries

essential

to the

building,

supplying,

and

maintaining

their navy's ships.

Then

came

the

grand strategy

which said,

"divide

and

conquer."

You
divide up

the other man's ships

in battle

or

you best him

when several of his ships

are

hauled out

on the land

for repairs.

They also

had

a grand strategy

of

anticipatory

divide and conquer.

Anticipatory
divide and conquer

was

much more effective

than

tardy

divide and conquer,

since it enabled those

who employed it

to

surprise the other pirate

under conditions

favorable

to the latter.

So

the great top pirates

of the world,

realizing

that dull people

were

innocuous

and

that

the only people

who could

contrive

to

displace

the supreme pirates

were

the bright ones,

set about

to

apply

their grand strategy

of

anticipatory

divide and conquer

to

solve that situation

comprehensively.

The Great Pirate

came into
each of the various lands

where

he

either

acquired

or sold

goods

profitably

and

picked

the

strongest man there

to be

his local

head man.

The Pirate's

picked man

became

the Pirate's

general manager

of

the local realm.

If the Great Pirate's

local strong man
in a given land
had not
already
done so,
the Great Pirate
told him

to

proclaim himself

king.

Despite

the

local head man's

secret

subservience

to him,

the Great Pirate

allowed

and

counted upon

his

king-stooge

to

convince

his countrymen

that he,

the local king,

was indeed

the

head man

of

all men --

the

god-ordained

ruler.

To guarantee

that

sovereign claim

the Pirates

gave

their stooge-kings

secret

lines of supplies

which

provided

everything required

to

enforce

the

sovereign claim.

The more massively

bejewelled

the king's gold crown,

and

the more visible

his court and castle,

the less visible

was

his pirate master.

The Great Pirates

said

to all their lieutenants

around the world,

"Any time

bright young people

show up,

I'd like to know about it,

because

we need bright men."

So

each time

the Pirate

came into port

the local king-ruler

would mention

that

he had some

bright, young men

whose capabilities

and

thinking

shone out

in

the community.

The Great Pirate

would say

to the king,

"All right,

you summon them

and

deal with them

as follows:

As each young man

is brought forward

you say to him,

'Young man,

you are

very bright.

I'm going to

assign you

to

a great history tutor

and

in due course

if you study well

and

learn enough

I'm going

to

make you

my Royal Historian,

but

you've

got to pass
many examinations

by

both your teacher

and

myself.' "

And

when

the

next bright boy

was

brought before him

the king

was to say,

"I'm going to

make you

my Royal Treasurer,"

and

so forth.

Then

the Pirate

said

to the king,

"You will

finally

say

to all of them:

'But each of you

must mind

your own business

or

off go your heads.

I'm

the only one

who

minds

everybody's business.' "

And this

is the way

schools

began --

as

the

royal

tutorial schools.

You realize,

I hope,

that I

am not

being

facetious.

That

is

it.

This

is the beginning

of

schools and colleges

and

the beginning

of

intellectual specialization.

Of course,

it took great wealth

to

start schools,

to

have great teachers,

and

to

house, clothe, feed,

and

cultivate

both teachers

and students.

Only

the

Great-Pirate-protected

robber-barons

and

the Pirate-protected

and

secret

intelligence-exploited

international

religious organizations

could afford

such

scholarship investment.

And

the development

of

the

bright ones

into

specialists

gave the king

very great

brain power,

and

made him

and

his kingdom

the

most powerful

in the land

and

thus,

secretly

and greatly,

advantaged

his patron Pirate

in

the world competition

with

the other Great Pirates.

But specialization

is

in fact

only

a fancy form

of

slavery

wherein

the "expert"

is fooled

into

accepting his slavery

by

making him feel

that

in return

he is

in a socially

and

culturally

preferred,

ergo,

highly secure,

lifelong position.

But

only

the king's son

received

the

kingdom-wide

scope

of

training.

However,

the

big thinking

in general

of

a spherical Earth

and

celestial navigation

was retained exclusively

by

the Great Pirates,

in contradistinction

to

a four-cornered,

flat world concept,

with empire

and

kingdom

circumscribed knowledge,

constricted

to

only

that

which

could be learned

through

localized preoccupations.

Knowledge

of the world

and

its resources

was enjoyed

exclusively

by

the Great Pirates,

as were also

the

arts of navigation,

shipbuilding and handling,

and

of

grand logistical strategies

and of

nationally-undetectable,

therefore

effectively deceptive,

international

exchange media

and

trade balancing

tricks

by which

the top pirate,

as

(in gambler's parlance)

"the house,"

always won.

[pages 9 - 29]

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