I've come to believe that things are getting better and better and worse and worse, faster and faster, simultaneously.
~ Crisis Fatigue and the Co-Creation of Positive Possibilities, by Tom Atlee
Is there a more accurate statement of the dynamic flux (polite euphemism) we find ourselves in as this new century unfolds?
Yesterday, Amy Goodman served up a big slice of the "better and better" side of this dynamic -- for me, a sorely needed and welcome reminder! She was announcing the awarding of the first-ever Buckminster Fuller Challenge prize, and reflecting on Fuller's still-vibrant legacy.
Her guests included Hunter Lovins, Jaime Snyder, and, the first-ever recipient of the BFC prize, John Todd.
Wow! John Todd! Wow! His Challenge-winning proposal -- Comprehensive Design for a Carbon Neutral World: The Challenge of Appalachia.
I treasure among my most-precious books his, Bioshelter, Ocean Arks, City Farming; Ecology as the Basis of Design. Mr. Todd's brain is a wellspring of stunningly, deliciously creative and insightful SOLUTIONS! for our ecological ills, and his Ocean Arks International an engine for implementing these solutions for over 25 years.
Two other outstanding points from Amy's report --
Transcript of video clip of Mr. Fuller himself:
When I was born, humanity was 95 percent illiterate. Since I’ve been born, the population has doubled, and the total population is now 65 percent literate. That’s a gain of 130-fold of the literacy. When humanity is primarily illiterate, it needs leaders to understand and get the information and deal with it. When we are at the point where the majority of humans themselves are literate, able to get the information, we’re in an entirely new relationship to universe. We’re at the point where the integrity of the individual counts and not what the political leadership or the religious leadership says to do. It’s a matter now of humanity getting to the point where it’s now qualifying to make some of its own decisions in relation to its own information. That’s why we’ve come to a new moment of integrity.
Also --
AMY GOODMAN: . . . Hunter Lovins, this whole discussion about nuclear power: oil and gas, too expensive, let’s go to nuclear power. Barack Obama and John McCain agree, perhaps, on that point, though not exactly clear where Obama wants to go with this. What are your thoughts about nuclear power and where Buckminster Fuller would stand?
HUNTER LOVINS: Actually, I think Bucky and I stand in about the same place. We both liked nuclear power, remotely sited 93 million miles away will do just fine, thank you.
All the nuclear we need -- the nearest star -- our Sun!
___________________________
Too often, my focus becomes lopsided -- intent upon "outing" the villians in our midst (who shall go nameless here) and their villainy -- bogged down in what Tom Atlee describes as "crisis fatigue" [see this diary's first link, above] -- what I have elsewhere described as "outrage fatigue."
Amy Goodman's segment yesterday, with John Todd, was an enlivening, fatigue-alleviating tonic!
Big "shout out!" to Amy, Hunter, Jaime, and John!!!
Who and what are some of the bright, shiny, "better-and-better" individuals and ideas you're coming across?