Foreword: Memories of Bucky
2By Norman Cousins
3 Once when we were in an American delegation to Moscow for the purpose of exploring issues between the two countries, Bucky Fuller gave a talk on the human future that no one present soon forgot.
4 One of the Russians had suggested that as a relief from our regular conference sessions, we might stage a debate on what the world would be like in 2000 A.D. Their debater would be Eugene Fyodorov, the famous meteorologist and futurist. Inevitably, for our forensic gladiator we picked Buckminster Fuller, architect, inventor, cosmic chronicler, philosopher, and poet.
5 I groaned when I learned the ground rules set up by the Russians. Each debater would have fifteen minutes, precisely. I had never heard Bucky speak publicly for less than two hours. When the rigid time limit was explained to Bucky, he shrugged, giving us the impression that fifteen-minute talks were a matter of casual routine.
6 Professor Fyodorov spoke first. Systematically and methodically, he presented a checklist of all the factors that he believed would bear on the world’s economy in 2000 A.D. He extrapolated figures with respect to world population, world food supply, world supply of vital resources, etc. I looked around at the Russians as their champion spoke. They were obviously pleased with the coldly scientific and comprehensive nature of the presentation.
7 After fifteen minutes, give or take ten seconds, Professor Fyodorov completed his talk and sat down. Substantial applause from all present.
8 Bucky started to speak. Within three minutes, he cast a spell over the entire group. The Russians sat forward in their seats. The world’s greatest resources, he said, were to be found in human intelligence, ingenuity, and imagination. He identified the principal problems of the riders on Spaceship Earth and gave the reasons for his belief that these problems were well within human capacity to solve. His earnestness, enthusiasm, creativeness, and knowledge were beautifully blended.
9 Bucky sailed through the fifteen-minute barrier with the ease and confidence of Roger Bannister going through the four-minute mile. As chairman of the evening session, I started to rise to inform Bucky his time had expired. I felt a restraining hand on my arm. ‘‘Please let Mr. Fuller continue,’’ Professor Fyodorov said. ‘‘He is magnificent, absolutely magnificent. You must not stop him.’’
10 I settled back in my seat. Bucky continued for almost an hour. The Russians were mesmerized. In the midst of the applause following his talk, Professor Fyodorov whispered in my ear: ‘‘It was no contest. Mr. Fuller is the winner. Never in my life have I heard anything so wonderful. I am sorry he stopped so soon. Tell me, what did he say?’’
11 The professor was not being sarcastic. Audiences all over the world have had the same experience. They may not have known or understood quite what Bucky was saying, but they felt better for his having said it. He gave people pride in belonging to the human species. He gave them confidence in their innate abilities to overcome the most complex problems. He made them feel at home in the cosmos.
12 Very early in life he discovered the secret of perpetual curiosity, and he spent the rest of his life trying to give the secret away. Of all his attributes, none was more compelling than his ability to transmit to others his kinship with the universe. His uniqueness as a teacher in this respect was that he saw poetry in everything. He viewed physics, astronomy, chemistry, and other sciences as much through the creative imagination as through equations and formulas. In so doing, he refuted C. P. Snow’s notion of the gulf between the ‘‘two cultures.’’ He regarded science and the fine arts as extensions of each other, as manifestations of an integrated reality.
13 The affection of students for Bucky Fuller offered the strongest possible evidence that young people are responsive to the values that give affirmative energy to a society. What they understood through him was that the main end of science is not to answer questions but to generate new ones: not to relieve curiosity but to enlarge it and ignite it. I have known very few people who, after meeting Bucky, did not forever feel a sublime wonder when looking at a starlit sky.
14 If we read Bucky Fuller solely for information we will obtain information, but we will be cheating ourselves. We should read him for the increased respect he gives us for human potential, and for the lesson that there are no boundaries to the human mind, which he celebrates above all else. The great poets have attempted to describe the human mind and spirit, but I doubt that any of them have done so more provocatively than Bucky. The reason perhaps is that Bucky was not only inspired and nourished by the weightless and all-embracing entity called the human mind, but he had a way of opening our minds to the phenomena within them. In this way, he introduced us to ourselves.