THE LANCE
Official PublicaUon of the Su.den, Bod, of S,. Audr.us Pre.by.erian College
VOLUME 13. NUMBER 9 ^n°HBWSPK.sbv ,.h,ancol.ece.lauk,n.„bo.. c. THURSDA~EBRUARY14,1974
Fuller Opens Festival
Ephemeralization:
Buckminster Fuller spoke to
the anticipatory audience at
Scotland County High School
sharing their experience of not
knowing what the next few
hours held for them. Of course
Fuller knows what he will
generaUy discuss but he never
prepares a written speech but
rather moves through a pat
tern of the knowledge he has
discovered always remaining
aware of the non-spoken con
tribution of the others in the
He spoke with complete
certainty about the principles
which operate in the universe.
It is this certainty which
caused him to give up “belief”
and begin to do his own
thinking based on experience,
at the age of 32. The first
thread in the pattern of his
presentation was centered on
his self and the impetus which
“turned him around” in 1927.
A Sportaneous Speech
Although he could explain to
us the specific events leading
up to his decision “not to play
the games” in society he did
not predict beforehand the
path that he would take. He
could review the in
terrelationships of stored ex-
“More for Less
Fuller’s mind, while his brain
fortified it with experiential
data. He wanted the audience
to understand what had led
him to the truth he
proclaimed; not for idealistic
reasons but because everyone
is capable of thinking for
themselves.
Humanity and Precession
His discussion of motion
which centered on precession
was based on generalized
principles. It is imporant to
note that these principles are
not abstract literary or
philosophical notions, but in a
scientific sense are “relations
and behaviors that hold true in
every case”. Precession is
an angular circulation which
accumulates energy'. The pull
of the earth on the sun as it
goes around it creates
precession and the key ob
servation is that the sun does
not yield to the earth’s pull. If
a person went out into space
about 100 miles they would not
fall back, this also creates
precession and closely tied to
it is the fact that there is no
up or down, there is only in.
perience and present to us the
whole as it was that night. The
behavior of a whole system,
unpredicted by any of the par
ts when considered separately
demonstrates “synergy”,
which is a basic principle
operating in the universe. It is
the brain which store ex
periences and the mind which
interrelates them. Fuller led
into the second thread with
this explanation and began to
demonstrate how many great
scientific discoveries were
niade by just such a process.
We were being spoken to by
out and around. “In” is a
specific direction; “out” is
any direction.
There are many other prin
ciples on the basis of which
Fuller committed himself to
the “mystery and integrity of
the universe”. A com
mittment to the universe is ac-
tuaUy to the “sum total of
everyone’s physical and
metaphysical experiences:
toads, stars, dreams,
“Hamlet”. There must be an
acceptance of responsibility
for what one tries to improve.
Fuller became involved in en
vironmental controls by
realizing the reasons a mother
became angry with her child
in a specific case were based
on the negative forces
(economic, loss of husband,
etc.) impinging on her from
her environment.
In the later threads of the
pattern of Fuller’s talk he
emphasized the general con
cepts that he acts from, such
as dymaxion, ephemerali
zation and most importantly
that humanity is “not”
doomed to failure. Dymaxion
is more familiar as the con
cept of getting maximum
performance from available
teclinology and ephemerali
zation is the trend toward
doing more with less. Fuller
stated that as things are
now we are trying to sup
port geometrical growth with
arithmetical means and
operate on the assumption
that we are doomed to failure
and must prove ourselves ex
ceptions to be a success.
“War is murder when you
realize there, is enough to go
around.” He explained that
there is no need to mind metal
anyone; that there is enough
now to recirculate and meet
all the needs of humanity. “I
know what I say is so, until
you know it’s so, you are in
nocent.”
“The world has become in
timate and no one predicted
it.”
What Fuller said to the
audience was very different
than our normal conceptions
of the world. We do have “con
ditioned reflexes” that have to
be thrown off and then we can
begin to think for ourselves.
Although Fuller, of course,
made no predictions fro for
the future he did state, “I have
confronted you with what I
know., perhaps with youth
(more spontaneous and truth
is spontaneous, also more
synergetic) life, and truth we
will make it.” The standing
ovation following these words
was explained by Fuller as a
gesture of communication
among the audience in a 90
degrees demonstration of
precession, for we are all ac
tually in orbit.
BEHIND
BUCKMINISTER FULLER
When the opening speaker of
the Black Mountain Festival
had completed his presen
tation last Thursday night at
the auditorium of Scotland
High School, the packed house
sitting before him rose to its
feet applauding. It was ap
propriate recognition of a
CI INI BMA
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brilliant, determined and suc
cessful man who has been a
significant part of more fields
of study than most people can
comprehend. But as Buck
minster Fuller stood receiving
this applause, his humility
was more than obvious. His
was not a mission to tell his
listeners what Bucky Fuller
has accomplished; it was to
tell them what any one of them
can do if he or she con
scientiously commits himself
to principle.
Fuller, travelling with his 20
year old grandson who has
dropped out of college in Santa
Cruz, California in order to ac
company his grandfather for a
year of lecture touring, was
probably well-described by his
hosts at Davidson College as
being “the Renaissance Man
of the 20th Century.” Dr.
Fuller spoke four times dur
ing the two days preceding
his lecture in Laurinburg, at
the Charlotte based school.
An engineer, architect, math
ematician, cartographer,
poet, philosopher, ecologist,
astronomer and social scien
tist-just to mention a few of
his labels-Bucky Fuller is
also a visionary and prophet.
He is a man years ahead of his
time; exemplified by the fact
that he predicted 50 years ago
the energy crisis of which we
are now feeling the effects.
Buckminster Fuller has
received more than 20 patents
for his ideas, a good number of
which have come since the age
of 65. His first invention, the
Dymaxion House, was built in
1928. His Dymaxion concept
(Continued to Page 2)
Duberman, Williams
Here This Week
DUBERMAN
Writer Martin Duberman
and poet Jonathan Williams
are coming to St. Andrews as
part of the Black Mountain
College festival. Duberman
will speak in Avinger
Auditorium this Friday night
at 8:00p.m. and poet Williams
at the LA Auditorium next
Wednesday, Feb. 20, also at 8
p.m.
Martin Duberman, noted for
views of the historian’s
relation to reporting events, is
the author of “Black Mt.: An
POET WILLUMS
Exploration in Community.”
This work is more than a sim
ple expounding of the facts of
Black Mt. College, but rather
an attempt to actively com
ment upon and assimilate the
entity created by the college.
The book, which might
possibly be referred to as a
biography of the spirit created
by the special community,
relates the story of the defunct
experimental Black Mountain
Continued to Page 3)