*BUCK SHOTS*

 This was a very uplifting read in the wake of last weeks frightening documentary, which was fascinating, and answered some questions to studies I have been conducting on my own time. "Starting With The Universe" ties into my personal interests as well, but in a positive way.

 In 2008 a close friend and I developed a fairly deep interest in eastern religions and their journey into western thought. We've been collecting works written on these subjects and have found that many of these ideas had existed in some form prior to the arrival of the 1800's New Age philosophies. The major difference was the secrecy that these beliefs were shrouded in, through secret Hermetic orders and codes. The Theosophists of the late 1800's combined these "secrets" with eastern teachings, which have a more humanist approach, and made them public for anyone to read.  

 Natural Scientists such as Goethe and Rudolph Steiner had significant impact on the way Europeans would approach spirituality and science. It has been hard digging up non-biased detailed information on these movements, but I've made some very interesting discoveries involving social trends at the time.  

  Theosophy-  This movement expanded from the 1850's onwards having its heyday from 1890 until around 1920, when its membership in Europe and North America decreased drastically for no specific reason.  Theosophy was vogue in academic circles and accepted by the mainstream, some of its teachings would later be twisted by German Nationalists to promote their anti-semitic agenda. Theosophy itself was the complete opposite of these racist agenda's, basing its moral code largely around Jainism, the oldest of the eastern religions. The thing that ties the Theosophic movement to our studies in Design Theory is its outright protest of materialism. Early 20'th century authors such as Max Heindel predict that materialism will be a new form of slavery, forcing the average north american to submit to forces they cant even recognize. Completely unaware of their shortfalls in life, mesmerized by the new product they have purchased. If Heindel could see how accurate his prediction would be he would shit himself.  

 I could go on forever about these belief systems, their history and how I think they would better our society and still I know very little about them.  What I find relevant is their sudden disintegration from mainstream western society, while Edward Bernays and his pals are taking very deliberate steps to transform the masses into ravenous consumers. I haven't found evidence of any direct relationship between the American businessman and the death of mainstream spirituality, but I know that the former was well aware of the latter and definitely 

threatened by its prominence. 

 Reading about Buckminster Fuller, and his relationship with the world he lived in is uplifting but at the same time depressing.  His motivations were pure and for the people, his ideas were for the benefit of the human race, not for his pocket book and for that reason he wouldn't have the same impact as Architects and Engineers with half the brains as him.  This seems to be a sad trend throughout the 20'th century, thankfully Fuller had enough of an impact that his approach is being taught in schools today, at least to designers.  His belief in forces we cannot see and his incorporation of the arts is something that needs to find its way back into science, badly. 

 This was all over the place so thanks for bearing with me.