p24 Peace Rooms and World Games

Next in a Series on Buckminster Fuller

By John Taylor; 2008 June 06, 02 Nur, 165 BE

 

Did Buckminster Fuller invent the Internet? I do not think so, but I think he did something far better; he invented the Internet soon to come. The sad fact is that we are nowhere near being able to do what he envisioned, not because we do not have the technology (we have had that for some time) but because we do not appreciate the spiritual nature of the universe. We are like a three-year-old behind the wheel of a running 18 wheeler; we have all the tools before us, but maturity is lacking. We bifurcate everything; we divide and in trying to conquer fall apart.

 

A big crash is inevitable.

 

Fuller approached the world from a comprehensive point of view. He took an obscure term from chemistry, "synergy," and put it into the center of his thinking; wholes, for Fuller, are far greater than the sum of their parts. He defined synergy thus:

 

"Synergy is the only word in our language that means behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the separately observed behaviors of any of the systems separate parts or any subassembly of the systems parts. There is nothing in the chemistry of a toenail that predicts the existence of a human being. Universe is synergetic. Life is synergetic." (Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1963)

 

A Baha'i has to be sympathetic, for this is in our spiritual genes. As Nader Saiedi details in his study of the writings of Baha'u'llah, spiritual existence in His worldview goes up and down as "arcs of descent" and "arcs of ascent." The Master also talked about "circles of unity." Love and unity cohere in concentric circles, each enclosing and transcending those within. At the center is the central room of the shrine of the Bab, and nine circles radiate out to the entire globe. This works politically as well; the love we have as individuals radiates out into families, cities, nations and the world. Each whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and should be treated as such. Larger unities always take in and transcend their parts, until finally you arrive at God, the ultimate Whole exceeding His creation. The essence of all is spirit, a fact that Fuller himself recognized,

 

"We are now synergetically forced to conclude that all phenomena are metaphysical; wherefore, as many have long suspected -- like it or not 'life is but a dream.'" (Fuller, Wikiquotes)

 

I notice that Al Gore in his latest presentation suggests something similar to "circles of unity," based on his experience with military strategists. These defense analysts plan according to three kinds of conflict, local, regional and "strategic" or world wars. Each of these requires completely different deployment approaches and tactics for winning. Gore suggests that environmentalists treat the problems of pollution and global warming in the same way. Of course, as always, he leaves out the strategic level completely, leaving everything else impotent and unconvincing.

 

I have been going over an old biography of Fuller written by a friend of his while Fuller was still alive. I uncovered it a few years ago in a library discard book sale. It is called,

 

Buckminster Fuller: At Home in the Universe, Alden Hatch, Dell Publishing, New York, 1974

 

As soon as I came across the following selection from a latter chapter called "World Game," I knew I had to share it here, along with interspersed comments.

 

"Bucky has organized two main institutions for implementing his grand strategy. The first he calls `The World Game'; the second is the Design Science Institute. The World Game is based on the techniques of the war games with their anticipatory forecasts carried out by the general staffs of the leading military powers of the world so as to be able to get there first with the most firepower. But in the World Game nobody loses, and all humanity wins. Its object is to make an inventory of the entire earth's physical and metaphysical resources and the needs of all its peoples; and then, with the aid of computers, to devise strategies to meet those needs abundantly." (Alden Hatch, Buckminster Fuller: At Home in the Universe, p. 249)

 

So, like Al Gore, Fuller used the military as a model for planning. Indeed the only time we have consciously planned strategy on a global scale was in the "war rooms" that Churchill and Roosevelt used for coordinating the massive deployment of armies and navies during the military operations of World War II. After conflict ceased the rooms were torn down and the world was expected to run itself in peacetime. Now we all helplessly talk about "globalization," while nobody really knows what is going on on a planetary level. Which raises the question, why are there no "peace rooms," as envisioned by Fuller? It may have been expensive before to devote a whole room to models of ships and armies, but today it could all done represented electronically and holographically, and when planning is not going on the space could be used for more serious purposes, like video games and other entertainment. As you see in the following, computer resources were scarce and expensive in the early 1970's.

 

"The game was first played by Bucky and twenty-six students early in 1969 at the New York Studio School in a very amateurish way without computers. Bucky then set it up in his workshop in a two-story brick building at Southern Illinois University, where he began to compile the World Resources Inventory. As always, Bucky's planning considerably exceeded his financial resources. It included a world air-ocean map the size of a football field, which would be wired to serve as a giant visual display to show data concerning the world's raw and industrial resources, world conditions and events, together with world-trending and peoples' migrations and necessities." (249)

 

This idea of a "peace room" or world game display is central to my own proposed "Earth Charter" infrastructure. There should be peace rooms in every neighborhood, every region and around the world, designed to interact with one another and take advantage of the synergies on each level. They would be interactive and highly graphics intensive and aim to show in a very simple way how complex factors interact with one another at the local, regional and world levels. Here is how Fuller, using primitive computers, set up his "world game,"

 

"Connected with it would be a $16,000,000 complex of high-velocity digital computers to evaluate the findings and strategies and display them on the map so that viewers from the balconies around the great dome building in which it would be housed could have a bird's-eye view of the exact condition of the planet at any given moment. This set-up was to serve as the central brain into which World Game extension groups throughout the earth would feed their information and ideas. Bucky reckoned the total cost of the installation at $30,000,000." (249-250)

 

It seemed like a lot of money at the time, but thirty million is a pittance compared to the top secret war rooms, connected by live satellite links, that organizations like the NSA, CIA and the Pentagon operate in total secrecy.

 

"The fact that this amount of money was nowhere in sight did not dampen his ardor or give him a moment's pause. He believed that when its value became apparent to people everywhere the money would be made available. Meanwhile, he began on a more modest but still costly scale financed mainly by his own earnings. (250)

 

My earth charter proposals take this further and suggest that peace rooms be set up in every national capital and local city hall and public school as well. Is there a peace room in the UN? Are they playing the world game, or are they playing petty mind games? If anybody plays this world game it should be international diplomats. How else will they understand what is really going on, what globalization even means? As long as they ignore it, narrow parochialism and national interest will continue to soil their viewpoint. Fuller said that the press is "our most polluted resource," (252) but I think international diplomacy has to be dirtier still.

 

There is hope that this can happen because there is an important difference war rooms and Fuller's world game. War rooms can operate only in private in order to keep its data and plans away from a vigilant enemy. Since peace rooms do not have enemies, they can be open to all. Everybody can get involved. Fuller understood that intimate interaction with data feeds is essential to making democracy scientific.

 

"The procedure we are pursuing is that of true democracy. Semi-democracy accepts the dictatorship of a majority in establishing its arbitrary, ergo, unnatural, laws. True democracy discovers by patient experiment and unanimous acknowledgment what the laws of nature or universe may be for the physical support and metaphysical satisfaction of the human intellect's function in universe." (Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1963)

 

Until everybody can see what is going on at every level and learns to participate in the planning process in some way, I do not think that democracy can continue much further. Without peace rooms, democracy corrupts and backs reactionary trends like subsidies for oil and gas exploration, and for fishers and farmers in rich lands. Money that could help save us supports global warming, all a result of democratic parochialism. If the average person saw every factor interacting their vote would not be dumbed down.

 

Continuing with Fuller's story,

 

"As first organized Bucky had a staff of twenty, whose salaries he paid himself with help from SIU (Southern Illinois University), assisted by numerous students at SIU and other universities throughout the United States and all around the world. The first World Game seminar was conducted by Bucky and Edwin Schlossberg, a young Ph.D. candidate at Southern Illinois, from June 12 to July 31, 1969. They worked toward developing research and design teams of students to deal effectively with the data and concepts necessary to the success of the great enterprise. Schlossberg said enthusiastically, `We were working at the frontier and each student was working at his frontier.'" (250)

 

Next time we will continue with this biography's account of Fuller's pioneering efforts to solve the world's problems using planning and consultation. We shall see that the first thing Fuller discovered by playing the world game was what even now is only slowly being recognized by the body of scientists on the suddenly influential Council for Climate Change. They are realizing that the only way to save the world is rapidly to decarbonize energy and convert the economy to a totally electric one running renewables only. What Fuller was doing as an individual in the last years of his life is just what these scientists are saying we must do on a huge scale, that is, find the Holy Grail: a renewable energy source that is cheaper than coal.

p33 In Memory of the Martyrs

Seven Sweets from Gleanings, Part II

By John Taylor; 2008 June 05, 01 Nur, 165 BE

 

Yesterday we looked at four of seven mentions of "tasting sweetness" that turned up in Gleanings, the Guardian's selection of the "best parts" of the Writings of Baha'u'llah. Only three remain in our box of chocolates. The fifth mention of sweet taste is in reference to ownership.

 

The whole idea of property has always been a problem to philosophers;  thinkers on both sides of the political spectrum have rejected it completely, holding that owning something for yourself and excluding everybody else from it is just another form of theft. "Property is theft" is their self-contradictory motto. Others contend that one can just as easily say that theft is property, since every good has been taken from somebody else, and all originally was owned by God. The Baha'i teachings, following the Ten Commandments, are surprisingly strong on the "for" side of ownership, as this shows,

 

"Some have regarded it as lawful to infringe on the integrity of the substance of their neighbor, and have made light of the injunction of God as prescribed in His Book. Evil fall upon them, and the chastisement of God, the All-Powerful, the Almighty, afflict them!" (Gl 298)

 

Pretty strong. It is interesting that Baha'u'llah is blaming here not petty thieves themselves but those who rationalize systemic theft in their thinking, those who "regard it as lawful." That seems to include the situation in the world right now. We are living through the most massive resource theft in history. Rich nations and corporations go into poor countries, bribe a few officials, and walk away with billions of dollars worth of mineral and other rights and concessions, while the people there continue to languish in dirt poverty. Last week the New York Times had an Op Ed piece finally admitting that maybe Americans should stop thinking of poor countries as dependent on them, since foreign aid is a pittance compared with the staggering quantities of undervalued resources flowing in from countries whose land is rich but the people are living hand to mouth. The real parasites are the wealthy.

 

I heard on the radio the testimony of an activist who is traveling around explaining to officials in undeveloped countries the idea of the auction. That is my kind of activist, not a protester but an educator! He points out that the English government in '05 wanted to sell a band of airwaves for two million but at the last minute decided to auction it off. It sold for twenty million. If the best informed governments can underestimate the value of their property by a factor of ten, imagine what it is like in poor, remote places! A fair and open auction allows a government to sell assets at their true market value; they do not need to find out what it is worth, since competition among buyers determines it. This is why the last thing the "liberators" of Iraq wanted was a fair auction and why it soon become a money sink of unprecedented proportions. Worse still, the spending comes from borrowed funds, which means that the victim behind the victim is our future.

 

Covetousness is the bitter taste of property. Avarice is the mark of failing this spiritual test. We are still not at the sweet part. Baha'u'llah continues,

 

"By Him Who shineth above the Day Spring of sanctity! If the whole earth were to be converted into silver and gold, no man who can be said to have truly ascended into the heaven of faith and certitude would deign to regard it, much less to seize and keep it." (297-298)

 

The price of resources has shot through the roof over the past year, what with the industrialization of India and China. So Baha'u'llah pretty much describes the situation of the world right now; the whole earth has been converted to precious commodities. Gold and silver prices have shot up, but other resources are even more valued.

 

There no end to greed.

 

So gross is it that surely more and more people will start looking for leaders who can show detachment from the money grab. Of course in order get leaders who are detached large numbers of ordinary people must become impervious to the many subtle bribes that illegitimate prosperity offers them. Baha'u'llah offers sweet divine rewards to those who do detach,

 

"... God is Our witness! Whoever hath tasted the sweetness of those words will never consent to transgress the bounds which God hath fixed, neither will he turn his gaze towards any one except his Well-Beloved. Such a man will, with his inner eye, readily recognize how altogether vain and fleeting are the things of this world, and will set his affections on things above. (Gl 298)

 

Mixed in with this sweetness is a profound message about owning God in our own heart. We are all greedy and ambitious; we all want to live and grow. Our only choice is how to grow, where to expand. Will it be in this world, or the Kingdom of God? A lover of God is avid for his or her Beloved, and sacrifices all worldly goods for that end. A rebel against God regards property as an end in itself, and is willing to do what it takes, lie, cheat or steal, to get his filthy hands on it.

 

The French Revolution marked the first victory of atheists over a world power; even the leaders of Greece and Rome had not rejected the religion of the people completely. Instead, empty ideals like equality, liberty and fraternity were set up as idols, convenient devices to cover the absconding of the possessions of the old nobility by a new bourgeoisie. It was a smaller scale version of right now. The technique has been perfected, the slogans vary, but the goal is the same: theft. It will be a sweet thing when nobody consents to "transgressing the bounds," and the goods and property of the world are secure in the hands of all.

 

Our next "sweet taste" quote is about liberty, that most misunderstood of the basic drives, since it is basic to plants and animals as well as men and saints. Baha'u'llah makes it clear that the latter is the liberty we should be striving after,

 

"Say: True liberty consisteth in man's submission unto My commandments, little as ye know it. Were men to observe that which We have sent down unto them from the Heaven of Revelation, they would, of a certainty, attain unto perfect liberty. Happy is the man that hath apprehended the Purpose of God in whatever He hath revealed from the Heaven of His Will, that pervadeth all created things. Say: The liberty that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it for all the dominion of earth and heaven." (Gl 336)

 

Exhilarating as lower levels of freedom may be for a time, the taste of servitude to God is far sweeter for much longer. This only is real freedom. If people in 18th Century France had tasted of true liberty, service to the Kingdom, they would never have allowed the nobility to steal from the poor, or the Jacobin to steal from the robber, or for such revolutionaries to pretend that it was all done in the name of liberty. A servant of God can detect hypocrisy.

 

It is not well known that the original statue of liberty was erected during this revolution in Paris. It was soon torn down, and later a larger one was given by the French people to America. It is well to remember the incident that probably eventually led to the destruction of this first statue of liberty in the area now known as the Place de la Concorde. Madame Roland, a brave and eloquent writer whose husband, a better known writer, had fallen into disfavor, was dragged before a Revolutionary Tribunal where evidence was heard but she was not allowed a word in her own defense.

 

"Pronounced guilty of a `horrible conspiracy against the unity and indivisibility of the Republic, and the liberty and safety of the French people,' she was ordered to be executed that very afternoon. On a bleak, wintry November day, Madame Roland traveled in a cart to the foot of the guillotine in the Place de la Revolution. Mounting the platform, she looked calmly around at the vast concourse; before placing her head on the block, her eyes fastened on the artist David's statue of Liberty. She bowed to it and exclaimed, "O Liberte, que de crimes on commet en ton nom!" (Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!)

 

The only way to attain to liberty that is sincere and not criminal, that does not impinge upon the rights and property of others, is to cleave to the Law of God. The sweetness of law is the concern of our last selection from Gleanings,

 

"O ye peoples of the world! Know assuredly that My commandments are the lamps of My loving providence among My servants, and the keys of My mercy for My creatures. Thus hath it been sent down from the heaven of the Will of your Lord, the Lord of Revelation. Were any man to taste the sweetness of the words which the lips of the All-Merciful have willed to utter, he would, though the treasures of the earth be in his possession, renounce them one and all, that he might vindicate the truth of even one of His commandments, shining above the day spring of His bountiful care and loving-kindness." (Gl 332)

 

The law is a lamp of providence and a key of mercy. We prove that we have tasted of the divine command when we feel willing give our all to vindicate its truth, and when we relieve ourselves of the burden of "one and all" of our possessions to this end.

This taste of divine law takes us full circle back to the question of property. Property puzzled so many great minds and sincere reformers because we need it, yet we need to be free of it. Ownership is obscure because we have not perambulated full circle around what Baha'u'llah sets before us here. Worldlings have not tasted the sweetness of detachment from gain, of true freedom in servitude, and of upholding the Great Lawgiver. I feel in my heart that our band of sisters and brothers in Iran have taken this walk for certain, and shown us the way, for their lives and property are at the mercy of those who would steal the awesome power of the Law of God itself. May God deliver them, and us, from the mugger.

Gleaning Seven Sweets

In Memory of the Martyrs, Part I

By John Taylor; 2008 June 04, 19 `Azamat, 165 BE

 

Recently came hard news of the arrest and possible murder of the band of Baha'i leaders in Iran known as the friends. I have not mentioned for a while on this blog the increasingly parlous state of our brothers and sisters there. I guess I was saving the following prayer for them written by August Forel in 1927. Forel was a famous doctor and scientist, a Baha'i and an active defender of the persecuted Persian believers, at the specific request of the Guardian. His biographer explains the provenance of the prayer:

 

“Forel had earlier published in the Neue Freie Presse still another article called `Persecutions of the Baha'i Religion: a letter from Persia,' in which he quotes extracts from a letter from a Baha'i in Hamadan, describing the various forms of subtle and open persecution to which the Baha'is there are daily subjected. This article ends with this paragraph:

 

“`Be happy, friends. You are free servants of God. Fly free, sing happily, sing joyously, remember us always -- and pray for us. We all look forward to the day when we will, unhindered, be able to practice our Faith. This hope is strengthened through our guardian, Shoghi Effendi, that the thick clouds oppressing the horizon of Persia will be dissipated and the sun of freedom will shine on our land, for it is the homeland of Baha'u'llah.'

 

“Forel seems to have taken this request to heart. The writer has come across, in the unclassified documents in Lausanne, a small scrap of paper, with the following words in Forel's own handwriting, on one side in French, on the other in German:

 

 ==========

 

 Baha'i prayer for October 1927

 O Thou, universal and unknowable God! Suffer us, poor humans on this small terrestrial globe, to work relentlessly for the social good of all mankind just as Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha and so many other courageous martyrs have done before us. Suffer us to struggle against our hereditary, voracious, hypocritical, and egotistical instincts. No sweet-sounding slogans, whether spoken or written, rather good, great and resolute acts. Only then, shall we overcome.

 Amen, (signed) A. Forel

 

 ==========

 

 “On the French copy of this `prayer' there is a note, `sent 8 September, 1927', but we have no indication to whom it was addressed.” (from John Paul Vader, "For the Good of Mankind, August Forel and the Baha'i Faith," George Ronald, Oxford, 1984, pp. 57-58)

 

==========

 

For a more recent update on the persecution of Baha'is in Iran, check out the video presentation called Quenching The Light which, according to a sympathetic Muslim, "documents the ongoing persecution of the Baha'i minority in Iran. I recommend everyone to watch this and pass it along in order to spread awareness."

 

http://www.mideastyouth.com/2008/05/27/a-presentation-about-the-persecution-of-bahais-in-iran/

 

Interesting, though, that Forel should have talked about actions being better than "sweet-sounding slogans." I have been thinking about sweetness, as indeed I do every time I enter our kitchen, and, lately, every time I contact Holy Writ. For the martyrs and downtrodden Baha'is in Iran, the Word must be sweet indeed, irresistible, whether spoken of or acted out. Baha'u'llah in fact said that actions, not just slogans, when performed in the right spirit, are sweet. Actions are their own enticement,

 

"Beseech ye the one true God to grant that ye may taste the savor of such deeds as are performed in His path, and partake of the sweetness of such humility and submissiveness as are shown for His sake." (Gleanings, 9)

 

There are indeed seven tastes of sweetness in Gleanings (I found them with the keywords "taste" and "sweetness," prompted by yesterday's daily reading) and I want to pass them around like fine chocolates this morning for your delectation. Not only deeds done for Him are sweet -- that was the first chocolate that you just savored -- but also the words of God are sweet,

 

"Were ye to taste of the sweetness of the sayings of the All-Merciful, ye would unhesitatingly forsake your selves, and would lay down your lives for the Well-Beloved." (Gl 84-85)

 

How often did just this happen, especially in the time of the Bab. A non-believer with a sensitive soul would glance over a verse or two of the holy words and immediately knew the truth and ran off to a glorious death at the hand of the fanatic. And even now, in our Internet age, this goes on there. Of course, a glance is never enough; the full taste of God's sayings deserve to be reflected upon long and hard. Only then is the full flavor brought out,

 

"Were any man to ponder in his heart that which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed and to taste of its sweetness, he would, of a certainty, find himself emptied and delivered from his own desires, and utterly subservient to the Will of the Almighty. Happy is the man that hath attained so high a station, and hath not deprived himself of so bountiful a grace." (Gl 343)

 

When I read that the other day I thought, Oh --- My --- God! Here I am buffeted by desires, for food, sex, sleep, for relief from pain and lassitude, and here Baha'u'llah assures me that if I had really pondered and tasted, I would now be liberated from all that! That means that I have never really done what I should have done. What a downer. But on the upside, now I know that as soon as I feel even a breeze of a desire, it just means that I have not pondered and tasted enough lately. Want something? Just taste this; it will remove your desire.

 

And what does it cost? A little Joie de Vivre as you read and ponder. That is it. This lesson I have learned lately -- read with verve -- and I have been repeating it with some effect in our daily Baha'i class: it does no good just to read the words of God, or even to understand them. We must effuse, effervesce, bubble over with them, read with all the joy and enthusiasm you can muster. I even have little contests with the kids to see who can read with the most feeling. Of course I lose. No adult in history has ever read with more sincerity, purity and feeling than a child.

 

When the kids flag in their reading I repeat what my early Baha'i teacher Nancy Campbell told her ballet students when they were about to go on stage: "You must smile as you dance, you may feel sick, terrible and awful before your performance but force yourself to smile. Even if you hold the corners of your mouth up with two fingers, smile. It does not matter if you not mean it or it is weak and wan. If you persist the lie becomes true, you cannot help but start to feel the smile and your performance will be all the better." Feeling follows action, and tasting of Holy Writ is the same.

 

Here, take the fourth of these seven chocolates.

 

"Sanctify your souls from whatsoever is not of God, and taste ye the sweetness of rest within the pale of His vast and mighty Revelation, and beneath the shadow of His supreme and infallible authority." (Gl 143)

 

Freedom from guilt is sweet. If you feel guilty you are not resting in the "pale of His vast and might Revelation."

 

Peace is sweet.

 

You feel peace if you are in the right space. If you rise high in the atmosphere there are no more winds, and if you plunge deep enough in the ocean, there are no turbid waves. Just calm. Inner peace, then, is a sign of having gone beyond the violence inherent to surface reality.

 

A religious studies scholar like Karen Armstrong might put it like this: by "tasting the sweetness" we take the Word out of Logos and put it into Mythos, out of the realm of reasoning cause and effect into that of story, meaning, feeling and completion. I think a Baha'i scholar, though, would disagree. The Holy Word is both Logos and Mythos; it straddles them like a colossus. Intoning the Word with feeling connects its meaning to our feeling and this ecstasy allows for calm afterwards; in this way heart and mind rise above either extreme.

 

Chocolate number five is about the sweet taste of freedom. I think we have had enough for now, so before it starts to cloy, let us put off the last three sweets till next time.

p33 afterthoughts II

Afterthoughts on Buckminster Fuller, Part II

By John Taylor; 2008 June 03, 18 `Azamat, 165 BE

 

We are going over an old essay series on Buckminster Fuller from 2001-2002. It soon after led me to make my own proposal for extending Fuller's vision into what I call "Earth Charter Houses." In our first installment of this re-write we started into a discussion of Buckminster Fuller's chief discovery, the geodesic dome. In 1964 Time Magazine called this newly invented structure "a kind of benchmark of the universe, what 17th century mystic Jakob Boehme might call a `signature of God.'" What interests me here are the moral and religious implications of this invention. What follows came out December 30, 2001.

 

==========

 

Dreams change with one's interests, the stage of life, which of the seven valleys the soul happens to be traversing. I have had my share of fantasies about winning the lottery, the perfect lover or how I might act if I were an ideal saint, like `Abdu'l-Baha. Even now, long after any trace of interest in sports has left me, I catch myself in an unguarded moment dreaming about the ideal quarterback, how he would combine blinding speed with an accurate arm.

 

Another dream I can't escape is the perfect home. In the last few years this has come to dominate all the rest. How would I design and build my home if things were different? The fact that I have no money, knowledge, energy or even inclination to do something so ambitious only seems to make the dream sweeter and more compelling.

 

Lately events in Afghanistan turned these fantasies in the direction of caves. How nice it would be to live in a cave, no worries about noisy neighbors, complete climate control, privacy or security. Why not move into one of the caves Al-Qaida just left? Afghanistan seems to be the cave capital of the world. Unfortunately, I suspect foreigners will not exactly be welcome around there for a few years. So, even in our dreams let us think realistically of some cave closer to home.

 

Changes of any kind, including weather, always provoke migraines for me. Recent studies have found that variations of hot and cold are very tough on the health of older people (I plan to be one someday). I read once of this woman in Australia whose husband worked in a mine. It was a remote mining town and all the houses were hewed into soft rock or basalt or something. She got used to the dwelling's completely steady temperature. Later, when her husband died, she moved back to the city. She hated it and could not stand living in an ordinary house. Not long after she moved back to that underground dwelling.

 

The dream of a place without temperature or pressure variation is very strong for us migraine sufferers. Not far from where I live another victim of headaches was so desperate to get rid of the agony that he bought a surplus autoclave from the black market. He sat in the hyperbaric chamber for certain periods to relieve his head. Unfortunately he did it once too often; his wife did not hear his screams when the time came to leave. An inquiry after his death found faults in the mechanical workings of the autoclave and strongly recommended that others not do this outside a clinical setting.

 

 I dream of living in a house with a constant temperature. Maybe a geodesic dome. Yeah, that's the ticket, a dome home covering over a cave entrance, the best of both worlds. Make me an ultramodern troglodyte. That is why I want to look back nostalgically to my lifelong hero, Buckminster Fuller.

 

 ==========

 

 Last time we talked about Fuller's best known, signature invention, the geodesic dome. I have always believed that the geodesic dome is no ordinary structure. It constitutes a basic spiritual advance. When the airplane was invented geodesics and stressed skin enabled extremely light, strong construction. Now geodesic domes permit buildings to do the same, to rise above earthly foundations and put foundations above, in the whole structure, even, as it gets large enough, in the air itself. In a geodesic dome, skin and bone unite in one exoskeleton. Fuller himself wrote,

 

 "A geodesic sphere is the lightest, strongest, and cheapest way of enclosing space ever invented. Domes can not only house individual families, but they could cover whole cities -- and even float in the air or be anchored on or under the oceans. Domed cities use about 1/90th the energy of uncovered cities, and have perfect climates all year round -- no matter what the outside climate." (http://www.buckminster.info/Strategy/GrandStrategy.htm)

 

 In 1965 Fuller wrote a famous article proposing that Manhattan be covered over by a geodesic dome. It being the Cold War, he played up its advantages for protection from nuclear attack, as well as the massive energy savings -- this is important, since heating buildings is now known to be a major contributor to greenhouse gases.

 

 "Due to the principle of energy conservation improvement with size, the larger the domed-over city the more stable its atmospheric conditions become, and at ever-decreasing cost per unit of volume." (Manhattan Dome,

 

 <http://www.waltlockley.com/manhattandome/domeappendix.htm>

 

 

 A paradise for migraine sufferers, of course; a stable temperature and true micro-climate under a huge mega-structure. Now that the earth is heating up, the oceans rising and the climate going wacko, the stability and security of life under such a dome is enticing. And since the foundation of a dome is in its structure and enclosed space, it need no longer be restricted to the surface of the earth,

 

 "When such large domes are made the captive atmosphere in itself is enough to support the structural shell, as does a large pneumatic tire. The larger the dome, the lower the pressure necessary to carry a given load. With such very large domes, the air introduced with the air conditioning would keep up the shell-sustaining structure. ... City-covering domes of pre-stressed and post-stressed steel and concrete could be made so powerful that they could be covered with earth and become man-made earth mountains, completely air conditioned." (Ib.)

 

 Exciting as is the prospect of floating cities, underwater cities, artificial mountains and even flying cities under domes, geodesic integrity goes far beyond that. The geodesic dome has heavy implications in the spheres, so to speak, of moral and spiritual realities. Like all inventions, its appearance here is both a cause and an effect of an invisible advance in the larger world of the spirit.

 

 ==========

 

 From the standpoint of religious teaching, it is not surprising that the geodesic dome should turn out to be the height of elegance and efficiency. A geodesic dome is very simple, just a series of triangles strewn into a spherical shape. Let us first look at the sphere, then the triangle.

 

 The zero, the cornerstone of decimal mathematics, is also an ancient Hindu symbol of the infinity of God, since it has no beginning or end, it goes around forever. Zero is symbolic of the metaphorical nature of the universe. Its shape, a circle, is a sphere in two dimensions. In three dimensions a zero becomes a dome, one of the most common shapes in nature. Everything from electrons to bubbles to planets and stars are spheres, since this shape encloses the most space using the least covering. In spite of the challenge of making domes out of stone religious buildings from ancient times right down to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar are built in the shape of a dome. Standing under a roof of this shape it is as if the heavens themselves were wrapped around into a second, outside layer to the structure. You sit inside like the self abides in a brain enclosed by the dome of the cranium.

 

 The triangle is the strongest and most stable geometric form. Analogously, three factors, pressure, tension and integrity work into the foundation of every structure, no matter what the shape. This reflects a deeper spiritual threesome, God, Spirit and Creation. Every revelation of God works its trinity of spiritual forces. Reflected by the physical three-sided figure, there exists an inner trigonometry based on the three human motivators, fear, hope and love. These three support one another as the strongest foundation of human life.

 

 A geodesic dome combines triangle and sphere in its skeleton, which like an insect's carapace is also its skin. Thus the foundation enters into the whole structure, not just what lies below. The walls, roof and ceiling of a geodesic dome unify into an above-ground foundation. When subjected to pressure or assault from outside, it gets the most protection for the least weight by releasing forces of tension and compression into the whole above ground.

 

 In religious terms, the same applies, when we place the kingdom of heaven first and pay attention to "all things needful." So the Commonwealth of Baha'u'llah liberates the individual's integrity. No long does it go down on the foundation of autocratic priestly authority; instead it places the onus everywhere, that is, in the integrity of the learned working as individuals for protection (compression) and propagation (tension). The independent, unfettered search for truth is now an invisible, integrated foundation of all religious expressions.

 

 Nothing is as important to religion as the idea of foundation. The idea of God as architect and planner of a unified universe is the beginning of every monotheistic belief. The structure He builds is one we are meant to participate in. In Fuller's language, we are designed to succeed. Our world is one of abundance, not shortages. The Qu'ran depicts God as sculpting all things abundantly, with the firmament of heaven as a great dome stretching over the earth of our understanding.

 

 "It is God who hath given you the earth as a sure foundation, and over it built up the Heaven, and formed you, and made your forms beautiful, and feedeth you with good things. This is God your Lord. Blessed then be God the Lord of the World!" (Q40:66, Rodwell)

p20 World Charter

Self-Censorship and Covenant

By John Taylor; 2008 June 02, 17 `Azamat, 165 BE

 

Yesterday we discussed censorship and self-censorship. I just revised that essay and have posted a corrected version on the Badi' blog at:

 

http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/p19ul-real-self-censorship.html

 

Today let us continue the theme of self censorship as a central pillar of the Covenant. The need to restrain our tongues was erected and permanently enshrined in one of Baha'u'llah's most important Tablets, the Kitab-i-Ahd, or Will and Testament, where He writes,

 

"We exhort you, O peoples of the world, to observe that which will elevate your station. Hold fast to the fear of God and firmly adhere to what is right. Verily I say, the tongue is for mentioning what is good, defile it not with unseemly talk. God hath forgiven what is past. Henceforward everyone should utter that which is meet and seemly, and should refrain from slander, abuse and whatever causeth sadness in men." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 219)

 

What, then, does God say here about the benefits of censoring ourselves?

 

First of all, He implies that we elevate our own spiritual station, and that of our listeners. Second, we can express our fear of God -- inner fear of God is necessary for this law, since it would be all but impossible to enforce by human sanctions. What supercomputer could keep track of the thousands of subtle barbs, insinuation, ambiguity and double meanings hidden in the interplay of quotidian language? Plus, beyond normative considerations, there is inherent value in curbing speech: "adhere to what is right." God created our tongues for a reason, to enable us to commune with and talk about the good, not to be abused as weapons. Verbal attacks, therefore, defile the very purpose of language.

 

It also says that God has forgiven the past -- and here one cannot help but think back to the history of this very document, Baha'u'llah's will and testament. What a sad and distressing story of dissent, lies and backbiting lies behind this supreme charter of unity! There followed the betrayal of Abdu'l-Baha's brother, Mirza Muhammad Ali, and later most of the holy family. What terrible pain it caused to Abdu'l-Baha and later the Guardian. The Master's reaction was exemplary; of course, he refrained from mentioning their behavior, even when it risked His own life. Only when their perfidy crossed all bounds did He publicly warn the believers of their letter campaigns.

 

The history of the reception of the Kitab-i-Ahd is difficult to read, so long-suffering was the Master. It takes long-suffering even to contemplate how, year after year, Abdu'l-Baha turned the other cheek to these embittered, envious foes. Thinking about it, I am reminded of an offhand remark He made in America about Christ: He pointed out that among Jesus’ last words on the cross were,

 

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

 

Even in the Passion of the Christ, He refused to badmouth His enemies. He did the reverse; he not only forgave but defended them before God. How many Christians, embroiled in their petty disputes about doctrine, think of the example of their Master? How many appreciate the beauty of such a grand geste towards those who oppose? In the same way, we Baha'is need to think of our Master's response to these words, "what is past is forgiven" in the Ahd, and of His astonishing example of restraint in the face of insult and assault. Bacon wrote,

 

"It is not what men eat but what they digest that makes them strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; not what we preach but what we practice that makes us Christians." (Francis Bacon)

 

I suppose you could add that in this new Day it is not what we say but what we restrain ourselves from saying that makes us Baha'is. Or maybe: it is not what we think is politically correct Baha'i belief but rather the sum of the unity that we build that makes us true to the Covenant. The example of the Center of the Covenant takes the Kitab-i-Ahd from mere knowing of to knowing how and who. The legacy and the heir are One. Shoghi Effendi put it like this:

 

"Baha'u'llah's inscrutable purpose, we must ever bear in mind, has been so thoroughly infused into the conduct of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and their motives have been so closely wedded together, that the mere attempt to dissociate the teachings of the former from any system which the ideal Exemplar of those same teachings has established would amount to a repudiation of one of the most sacred and basic truths of the Faith." (World Order, 143)

 

An invisible, unique, uncelebrated event took place during the darkest days of the Master's oppression by those invidious family rivals. At the time it looked like this cabal, burnt by the evil eye of envy, had seen a way to complete victory over him. The authorities, alienated by calumny, were coming down hard on the legitimate heir to the provisions of the Kitab-i-Ahd. Sunk in sadness and imminent danger, "the hope of a minute's life" lost to Him, some mystic circuit breaker was tripped deep down in Abdu'l-Baha. We do not even know exactly when this took place since He had to write the document in the utmost secrecy. The enemies had implanted spies among the believers and were watching His every move.

 

He had to compose it alone, in secret, in His own hand, and then literally hide it underground, probably under a basement floor in a building owned by Baha'is. It remained there at least fifteen years, untouched, unheralded. When Abdu'l-Baha's sister, Bahiyyih Khanum, apprised in strict confidence of its location and instructed to have it dug up only upon His death, she found that an entire section had been destroyed by encroaching damp.

 

This secret document, of course, was Abdu'l-Baha's own Will and Testament. It is written in three chronological sections, reflecting three increasingly severe stages of oppression by the unfaithful. Each time their behavior had become more egregious. In the opening paragraphs, Abdu'l-Baha refers back to the passage from the Kitab-i-Ahd, with which we opened this essay,

 

"According to the direct and sacred command of God we are forbidden to utter slander, are commanded to show forth peace and amity, are exhorted to rectitude of conduct, straightforwardness and harmony with all the kindreds and peoples of the world." (Will and Testament, 7)

 

This document is a three act symphony of increasing desperation, of love practicing forgiveness, yet valiantly struggling to protect the Cause of God from those who hate the light. As the document progresses, Abdu'l-Baha's suffering intensifies. We have a sacred obligation to be kind, but always to avoid the reverse of kind, words of war, even when that means shunning the insincere among us.

 

"O ye beloved of the Lord! In this sacred Dispensation, conflict and contention are in no wise permitted. Every aggressor deprives himself of God's grace." (13)

 

I have been thinking about capital punishment, and when I saw this I suddenly saw why the provision was left in the Aqdas: a murderer is an aggressor, and by taking a life he deprives himself of the massive flow of love that God is shining upon the world. But how much worse it is to attack the Cause, the means by which that grace flows to all humanity! Yet even this, Abdu'l-Baha forgave, and the Cause we have today is the result of His dire need to protect this covenant for posterity.

 

The Guardian's station was first broached and later explained in this document -- it is not insignificant that a guardian class was first laid out by the greatest of philosophers, Plato, in his greatest work, The Republic. Abdu'l-Baha placed the learned of Baha directly under the Guardian, not the House of Justice (p. 13), thus giving all prominent teachers a duty not only to propagate but to protect as well.

 

Let me close with what Shoghi Effendi said about the Will and Testament of Abdu'l-Baha. He emphasizes that, just as Abdu'l-Baha had sprung from both the Mind and the loins of His Father, so the legacy of this document came from and passed on the mystic content of the Kitab-i-Ahd,

 

"The creative energies released by the Law of Baha'u'llah, permeating and evolving within the mind of 'Abdu'l-Baha, have, by their very impact and close interaction, given birth to an Instrument which may be viewed as the Charter of the New World Order which is at once the glory and the promise of this most great Dispensation. The Will may thus be acclaimed as the inevitable offspring resulting from that mystic intercourse between Him Who communicated the generating influence of His divine Purpose and the One Who was its vehicle and chosen recipient. Being the Child of the Covenant -- the Heir of both the Originator and the Interpreter of the Law of God -- the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha can no more be divorced from Him Who supplied the original and motivating impulse than from the One Who ultimately conceived it." (World Order, 143)

Real Self-Censorship

As Obese Population Rises, More Candidates Courting The Fat Vote


2008 June 01, 16 `Azamat, 165 BE;
p19ul Real Self-Censorship, Freedom,
Equity and Self-censorship


http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/p19ul-real-self-censorship.html


One of our main questions at the Badi' Blog is how to deal
with the environment and climate change; so we were delighted
to see Al Gore's new slideshow, a sort of "Inconvenient Truth,
The Sequel," which he premiered at this year's TED conference.
It is called "New thinking on the climate crisis" and can be
seen at:




As the blurb says, he "presents evidence that the pace of
climate change may be even worse than scientists recently
predicted. He challenges us to act." Gore does this very
vehemently, but I wish he would challenge us to think first.
The capitalist, democratic, nationalist answers in his
ideological toolbox have been tried and found wanting,
which is why we desperately need to sit back for a time
and reflect, pray, meditate, and only when we have really
solved the root problem, and then we can act.


If there are any doubts about how deep the roots of evil
in our society run, check out Noam Chomsky's video opinion
piece about US foreign policy, "What is the best way forward
in Iraq?"




Again, a good analysis of the problem, but Chomsky's solution,
when he mentions one at all, is hasty and poorly thought out.
You cannot put new wine into old wineskins; for example, George
Monbiot is calling Bush and Blair war criminals for their invasion
of Iraq. Would prosecuting the rich and powerful for doing what
comes natural to them going to help? As long as resources are not
the property of the entire human race, there will be a race to beg,
borrow and steal them. Set up a world order first, and then worry
about justice for perpetrators and restorations to their victims.


Chomsky assumes, like Gore, that everything would turn out right
if only our crippled democracies could become healthy. With what
he calls "functional democracies" everyone would live happily ever
after. Neither libertarians like Chomsky nor capitalists like Gore
question whether democracy might not be the panacea that they imagine
it to be. They have painted themselves into a corner; as passionate
upholders of right, justice and freedom, they correctly hold that
America has more liberty than any country in the world, but they
never connect the dots: could there not be a problem with freedom
itself?


Baha'u'llah's book of laws, the Kitab-i-Aqdas, holds that there
really is. Freedom is fundamentally incompatible with justice.
Unlimited freedom and unmediated justice cannot both be at once,
any more than you can have day and night at the same time, or
have your cake and eat it too. Being mortals means that we must
decide what part of the cake to eat and what to keep.


However in spite of their negativity and criticism and lack of
convincing answers, it is medicinal to take a pill of Monbiot,
Chomsky and Gore every few months. As Gore points out in his
presentation, global warming remains at the bottom of the
priority list of prospective world leaders, which means that
the message is not getting across. The taste of the pill is
bitter but salutary for one's view of the world. I always
learn something from them.


This morning I read an interview where Chomsky mentions
an unpublished preface that George Orwell wrote to his
classic Animal Farm. I had never heard of that preface,
so I looked it up. Orwell warns there of the ever-present
danger of self-censorship. He points out that while
absolutist states practice overt censorship, this form
of the disease attacks citizens of free countries that
have strong free speech laws. Orwell writes,


"In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy
a writer or journalist has to face, and that fact does not
seem to me to have had the discussion it deserves."
(Orwell's Preface to Animal Farm)


He points out that in spite of apparent support for
freedom of speech, what we really have mostly amounts
to hypocrisy. We are happy to offer freedom of opinion
to those who agree but never to those who do not.


"The sinister fact about literary censorship in England
is that it is largely voluntary. Unpopular ideas can be
silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the
need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in
a foreign country will know of instances of sensational
items of news - things which on their own merits would
get the big headlines - being kept right out of the
British press, not because the Government intervened
but because of a general tacit agreement that 'it
wouldn't do' to mention that particular fact." (Id.)


He mentions cases where indiscretions of priests were
ignored in Catholic-owned journals while being played
up in the British press, even as shenanigans of
Anglican clergy were steadfastly ignored. The same
process happened to Orwell's own work; his novels
criticizing the left, Animal Farm and 1984, are
best known in capitalist lands, whereas his other
books -- he was a committed socialist all his life
-- are almost unknown. The very existence of
controversy, strife and polarized opinions sets
up its own dynamic of self-censorship.
Orwell writes,


"It is important to distinguish between the kind
of censorship that the English literary intelligentsia
voluntarily impose upon themselves, and the censorship
that can sometimes be enforced by pressure groups.
Notoriously, certain topics cannot be discussed
because of 'vested interests'. The best-known case
is the patent medicine racket... But this kind of
thing is harmless, or at least it is understandable."


Since Orwell's time, this perversion of the press
has worsened considerably. What he calls the patent
medicine lobby, always big customers of advertising,
have ballooned into the multi-billion dollar behemoth
now affectionately known as Big Pharma. While in itself
this corruption may be harmless or understandable but
it gets dangerous when a crisis comes up, such as
global warming. It is frightening how easy it was
to keep such a huge survival issue off the radar
screen for the two decades. This sinister cadre of
private, corporate owners of "our" media outlets
suppress opinion contrary to their imagined interests
and foist their narrow point of view on everybody.
Adbusters, for example, have documented media
outlets refusing even paid advertising that
counteracts the idols, lies and deception basic
to the ideology of commercialism.


Orwell himself concedes that large organizations,
like selfish people, always put their own
interests first.


"Any large organization will look after its
own interests as best it can, and overt
propaganda is not a thing to object to.
One would no more expect the Daily Worker
to publicize unfavourable facts about the
USSR than one would expect the Catholic
Herald to denounce the Pope. But then every
thinking person knows the Daily Worker
and the Catholic Herald for what they are."


This protection is now known as transparency.
Propaganda is not as harmful if we can identify
it. If it is invisible, it becomes dangerous
and insidious. One of the most important
NGO's is called Transparency Watch, which
keeps tabs on national governments by
collecting statistics on comparative
levels of corruption and publicizing
the results. Right now the most corrupt
regime in the world, according to them,
is Iraq. It is not corrupt, it seems,
to try to steal (or to use the thief's
term, "privatize") Iraq's oil reserves
but when the victim tries to resist, well,
that is corrupt.


==========


George Orwell got the idea for Animal Farm
when he observed a small boy driving a
large ox pulling a cart down a narrow
country lane. When the huge beast wandered
off the narrow path, the boy ruthlessly
beat it back into line with a stick.
"That ox is so much larger," he thought,
"how easy it would be to rebel against
his authority." So Orwell wrote his
famous parable of socialism, warning
fellow leftists not to rebel needlessly,
since overturning capitalist tyranny
leads to a Stalin.


When I read about his boy and the ox,
though, I was reminded of what Abdu'l-Baha
said about human powers and freedom, using
a very similar observation of a small boy
manhandling big beasts. Only this time it
was the power and glory of being images of
God that was in question,


"Materially, man is the prisoner of nature;
the least wind disturbs him, the cold hurts
him, the heat incommodes him, a mosquito
irritates him; but when we consider the
intelligence of man, an elephant is powerless
before him, a lion is his prisoner, and a boy
of twelve can lead twelve hundred animals. Man
dries up the sea, inundates the desert,
circumnavigates the globe, discovers what
is under the earth, rides upon the air and
creates new sciences. These are the signs
of the crowning spiritual power of man,
-- that power which can make nature his
prisoner." (Divine Philosophy, 95-96)


This illuminates what Baha'u'llah says
in the Aqdas about total freedom amounting
to a descent to the level of the animal
kingdom. Animal freedom is nothing but
slavery to inexorable natural laws.
The real slavemaster then is not Stalin but
physics.

In view of the bondage of animals to nature
we need to choose a higher freedom, service
to God and all humanity. This is the only
kind of liberty that is appropriate to our
exalted station as human beings. This freedom
Kant called autonomy, self-imposed law.
And the fact remains that self-imposed law
necessarily implies self-imposed censorship.


Paradoxical as it sounds, in order to have freedom
of speech, freedom of speech has to be curtailed.
Otherwise, the "fire" of strife and contention
generate smoke that obscures the truth for all.
Verbal attacks, swearing, strife and fighting
words remove our ability to think straight or
regard any interests but our own survival. When
under personal attack we do not think of the right
thing or anything but safety or retaliation.
Equanimity and equity are impossible. Consider
what Baha'u'llah wrote,


"... equity is the most fundamental among
human virtues. The evaluation of all things
must needs depend upon it." (Gleanings, 202)


How can there be equity in the midst of an
emergency? The first priority is to regain
our equity. In cases of strife, it was
unrestrained tongues that destroyed freedom
in the first place, not any laws or policies,
be they loose or severe. The purpose of
censorship is not to restrict freedom but
to snuff the flames of dissent. Without
discipline in curtailing tongue and pen,
justice, equity and progress would be impossible.


"We entreat God to deliver the light of equity
and the sun of justice from the thick clouds
of waywardness, and cause them to shine forth
upon men. No light can compare with the light
of justice. The establishment of order in the
world and the tranquillity of the nations
depend upon it." (Baha'u'llah, Epistle, 28-29)


So there must be self-censorship, and if that
fails even outward censorship until the conflagration
is snuffed out. If there were no self-censorship,
for example, how could there be a law against backbiting?
If there were no supervision of what we say, if there
were no oversight even by ourselves, how could rules
forbidding gossip ever be enforced?