In an interview with the art curator (and artist) Robert Storr from 1981, R. Buckminster Fuller uttered these incredibly prophetic words in response to a question about the coming 21st century (lightly edited for clarity):
“Esthetic used to be visual. We are going completely into the invisible world. Think of all the chemistries, the alloys, the electronics that you can’t see. In the invisible world of electronics, people make discoveries with the computer. But we’ve got to do it in such a way that we can have the confidence that the computer is not being corrupted. In dealing with the invisible, we have to have more and more confidence in the integrity of those operating in it. So I said that the great esthetic will be integrity. And it will not be the integrity of corporations — they don’t have integrity anyway because they are simply drawn by how to make money or how to avoid taxes.The question is how truthful human beings really are; do they go along with the gang thing or do they do their own thinking? The great esthetic in the age to come is integrity…”
Ponder that statement in the context of 2026, with our hyperpartisan SCOTUS unleashing an imperial presidency at precisely the time when the most corrupt, mendacious, impulsive, unlearned, and vindictive executive has ever occupied the Oval Office — aided and abetted, of course, by a phalanx of opportunistic and sociopathic cronies. Ponder that in the context of the giant tech oligarchs who can continuously spy on us, manupilate the markets to their own ends, and control our news feeds. Ponder that in the context of the shadowy shell-game that is cryptocurrency. Ponder that in the context of global warming and industrial pollution (ask A.I. how to stop wildfires!). What is most lacking now is integrity, almost across the board. Trump himself, first and foremost. The soul-selling sycophant JD Vance. The ghoulish Stephen Miller. The fratty-fuck-face Pete Hegseth. The shape-shifting Marco Rubio. The misguided zealot Russell Vought. The legal-lackey Todd Blanche. The hypocrite “Gym” Jordan. “Milquetoast” Mike Johnson. Mitch “From Mordor” McConnell. The jag-off jurists Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas. And Elon Musk with his Nazi salute. And Mark Zuckerberg with his dead-eyed, autistic stare. The list goes on and on. What’s lacking, with the notable exception of the uber-idiot Donald Trump, is not intelligence. What’s lacking is not ambition or work ethic. What’s lacking, severely lacking to the point of near absence, is integrity. It seems that Bucky Fuller was right all along.
Great Exudations 