READING RESPONSES:

Section 2. ORIGINS OF SPECIALIZATION

I chose this passage because I felt Fuller's position on specialization and the foundation of educational institutions was quite different from any perspective I have ever read before. Although this section peaked my interest in learning further about the way in which Fuller arrived at this conclusion, I do not agree with his reasoning.

"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."

Section 7. INTEGRAL FUNCTIONS

In my opinion, this passage seems quite nonsensical. I do not understand his rationale or reasoning for such an extraordinary hypothesis. Perhaps, Fuller is being facetious with this passage in Section 7. Either way, I am not clear about the message he is trying to convey here.

"But we can scientifically assume that by the twenty-first century either humanity will not be living aboard Spaceship Earth or, if approximately our present numbers as yet remain aboard, that humanity then will have recognized and organized itself to realize effectively the fact that humanity can afford to do anything it needs and wishes to do and that it cannot afford anything else. As a consequence Earth-planet-based humanity will be physically and economically successful and individually free in the most important sense. While all enjoy total Earth no human will be interfering with the other, and none will be profiting at the expense of the other. Humans will be free in the sense that 99.9 per cent of their waking hours will be freely investable at their own discretion. They will be free in the sense that they will not struggle for survival on a `'you" or "me" basis, and will therefore be able to trust one another and be free to co-operate in spontaneous and logical ways."

This passage from Section 7 was very interesting because it explains the inequality and vast differences experienced by others, particularly the people of India. This passage was also interesting because Fuller explains that many of thier beliefs come from a relgious standpoint and were proabably established and propogated by rulers during that time to maintain the status quo and see to it that the people in India understand that a life of strife and poverty is thier inevitable fate.

"It is utterly clear to me that the highest priority need of world society at the present moment is a realistic economic accounting system which will rectify, for instance, such nonsense as the fact that a top toolmaker in India, the highest paid of all craftsmen, gets only as much per month for his work in India as he could earn per day for the same work if he were employed in Detroit, Michigan. How can India develop a favorable trade balance under those circumstances? If it can't have a workable, let alone favorable balance, how can these half-billion people participate in world intercourse? Millions of Hindus have never heard of America, let alone the international monetary system. Said Kipling "East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet."

As a consequence of the Great Pirates' robbing Indo-China for centuries and cashing in their booty in Europe, so abysmally impoverished, underfed and physically afflicted have India's and Ceylon's billions of humans been throughout so many centuries that it is their religious belief that life on Earth is meant to be exclusively a hellish trial and that the worse the conditions encountered by the individual the quicker his entry into heaven. For this reason attempts to help India in any realistic way are looked upon by a vast number of India's population as an attempt to prevent their entry into heaven. All this because they have had no other way to explain life's hopelessness. On the other hand, they are extremely capable thinkers, and free intercourse with the world could change their views and fate. It is paradoxical that India's population should starve as one beef cattle for every three people wander through India's streets, blocking traffic as sacred symbols of nonsense. Probably some earlier conquerors intent to reserve the animals for their exclusive consumption as did later the kings of European nations decreed that God had informed the king that he alone was to eat animal meat and therefore God forbade the common people under penalty of death from killing a beef cattle for their own consumption."

RESPONDING TO PEER'S PASSAGES:

Building the Cathedral

"We live in an era of extremism. We are an overly stimulated materialistic society. Things are disposable; people are disposable. The sophisticated technology (we have grown to depend on) has inadvertently--created--and fostered a socially retarded, isolated and often narcistic trend in our culture; but I digress… Technology and the collaborative open source concept has major advantages. The technology is sophisticated and there are incredible people doing amazing things with it, but not everyone can access it."

-Although somewhat offensive, this statement is very true. It is sad that many people have become so dependant on technology resources that we forget that our brain is still there for use. Unfortunately, I believe as technology grows, things will only become worse in out "technologically extreme" culture.

[http://4260.pbwiki.com/Jan9+BuildingtheCathedral]

"The artist is a complicated creature. In particular, the individualistic attitude concerning creating things—like software, is probably a personal, secretive almost miserly process at first. Would you let the infertile neighbor borrow your kid or partially raise them for a few years? Maybe let them instill some values or possibly cut their hair? You get me? But we all must let go because “things” can really flourish when more than one head is thinking or creating for that matter…"

-I agree with this point of view. I am not an artist, but I am sure that the creative process opens doors and vaious levels of creative genius not brought about in any other way. Creativity (creation) is the key to advancement and learning more about our particular topic of study.