Buckminster Fuller’s observation of the role of the Jewish People:

For Fuller, the uniqueness of the Jewish people in the universe is “their contribution to mankind’s welfaring and environmental conquest, being the preservation of those arts and proclivities which may be kept alive only through, economics of intermittent emergency mobilization.” (13-) These arts and proclivities are survival skills, developed through historical necessity.

If the concept of entropy, by which we understand that systems, physical or social, tend to wear down, is operative in the universe, and man is seen as being antientropy by function, then it would seem that this is also the historic function of the Jewish people. Fuller notes the historical coincidence of the casting out of the Jews from their homes and the impending decline and fall of the society which cast them out. (11.)

Fuller points out that paradoxically it is the survival skills which caused the Jews to be viewed as disruptive elements in societies which wish to remain static. As will developed within the context of this book, it is a hallmark of Jewish teachings to search for God and God’s operative principles in the universe rather than accepting the apparent-status quo and ideology of subservience to the temporal rulers.

The comments about the Jewish contribution to mankind being that of survival skills lead to speculation about the recent turn of events in Jewish history. Within the context of Fuller’s God of orderly meaning, would it not be possible to say that it was/is the unique Jewish role in the universe to test out the limits of human survival? Is it too demonic to fathom a Job-like experiment using the Jewish people in the laboratory of Jewish history?

The Game Overall Designer

Over the course of Jewish history our people have used many names and expressions to describe and relate to the entity we reference as God. In our cyber space age, I have come to understand and relate to the divine being as “The Game Overall Designer”. I follow the Jewish tradition of “roshai tevet – first letters of words” using the first letters of the words in an expression to form a recognizable abbreviation. Thus Game Overall Designer becoming G O D. 

I follow the practice of  the creative thinker and originator of the expression “Spaceship Earth”, R. Buckminster Fuller as he describes his own use of G O. D. 

There exists “an infinitely greater a priori, omnianticipatory, intellectual integrity embracing and permeating the universe than that demonstrable or suggested by any known capability of any human intellect.”

God is, for Fuller, “the most economical term thus far intuitively formulated by humanity”

I have chosen the description of God as the “Game Overall Designer” because of an appreciation for the design of the universe, the design of my own human body, and the use of design in our lives. Wrestling with the commandment not to make graven images, perhaps it is a statement about bad design, with Good Design being enhancing the human experience, Bad design being an attack on “experiencing” by dulling the senses into sameness. 

 A confesssion – Game Overall Designer is how I live in the rational world. G O D is how I live in the irrational world.  I take comfort in the hebrew names. 

Translations of design

verb

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לְעַצֵב

design, shape, mold, form, pattern, mould

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לְתַכְנֵן

plan, design, devise, scheme, plot, project

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לִרְקוֹם

embroider, weave, devise, design, form, shape

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לְסַרְטֵט

draw, sketch, outline, design

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לְתַווֹת

outline, sketch, lay out, plot, design

noun

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תֶכֶן

design

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תָכְנִית

program, plan, scheme, programme, project, design

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עִצוּב

shaping, moulding, formation, forming, formulation, design

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תִכּוּן

design, planning

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כַּוָנָה

intention, intent, purpose, design, meaning, spirit

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תַרשִׁים

chart, diagram, graph, sketch, outline, design

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מִבְנֶה

structure, building, formation, format, frame, design

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מִתכָּן

design

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צִיוּר

painting, drawing, picture, portrayal, figure, design

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טַכסִיס

trick, scheme, stratagem, design, device