| On April 18, 2006, San Francisco will | | | | lectures every year, adding new films and |
| commemorate the centennial of the San | | | | insights. He was determined that the miracles |
| Francisco Earthquake and Fire, an event that | | | | of the natural world be understood, that |
| leveled that city. The number of people who | | | | their truth be accessible to everyone. |
| died has never been more than estimated. The | | | | |
| other loses of various kinds ran into what | | | | In 1927 Arthur Pillsbury completed the |
| today would be billions of dollars.On that | | | | invention of the microscopic motion picture |
| first day this photo was taken from the St. | | | | camera. Seeing the world beyond the scope of |
| Francis Hotel, showing the city in flames. | | | | the human eye awakened people to another |
| Less than 24 hours later the St. Francis | | | | aspect of nature. After that time there was |
| would also have been gutted.Behind that | | | | an explosion in related research.Pillsbury |
| crumbling facade of human invention stood a | | | | went on to build the first X-ray motion |
| man with an active, analytical mind. One man | | | | picture camera and the underwater motion |
| taking action would change what others | | | | picture camera opening up more new vistas. |
| refused to see because of those tragic days. | | | | Pillsbury refused to patent his inventions. |
| Arthur C. Pillsbury would capture in film a | | | | He wanted their use to become common to all |
| lesson that would change all of our lives. | | | | of us. He had solved the problem he |
| The sound and sight of a city burning | | | | identified during those hideous days when San |
| awakened him to a human truth.The | | | | Francisco burned.Arthur C. Pillsbury died in |
| accompanying photo went out around the globe, | | | | Oakland in 1946. The scope of human vision |
| carrying the enormity of the event to human | | | | had expanded, thanks to his inventions and |
| eyes. As catastrophic as that event was it | | | | tireless lecturing. He had made nature |
| vanishes into nothingness compared to the | | | | visible as it had never been before but that |
| specter we face today from our own | | | | was not enough. He had not calculated for the |
| government.Some disasters are natural; some | | | | impact of those greedy for money and power. |
| happen because of what we fail to understand. | | | | |
| | | | Government had not changed; it continued an |
| The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire was an | | | | upward trend for control coupled with the |
| event that began as a natural disaster. The | | | | corruption. Those who profited through |
| plates of the Earth slipped, readjusting | | | | generations came to accept this as their |
| themselves and for hundreds of miles the | | | | prerogative. |
| resultant impact was felt. But that | | | | |
| devastation and loss passed the boundaries of | | | | We need to see government for what it is; a |
| what is natural, multiplied by the corruption | | | | system that has been converted from service |
| of San Francisco's government.San Francisco | | | | provider to wealth source for those who |
| had no disaster plan because the corrupt city | | | | control it.Disaster is endemic to all |
| administration was far more interested in | | | | politics and for the same reasons. Coupling a |
| continuing to enjoy the graft and privileges | | | | lack of accountability with the temptation to |
| that come with power. Emergency workers were | | | | take always draws those inclined to |
| untrained; the preparations that had long | | | | steal.Katrina has illustrated just how bad it |
| been asked for had never been enacted. Many | | | | can be within our own shores; Iraq has |
| buildings blown up to create fire breaks | | | | demonstrated how bad America can be when the |
| simply burst into flame, spreading the | | | | tools of corruption are applied |
| conflagration and destruction. Both looters | | | | internationally. These are not examples of |
| and the innocent were gunned down by the | | | | incompetence, rather they illustrate |
| military contingent that would never be held | | | | sophisticated schemes for converting the |
| accountable. The corrupt officials also | | | | institutions of government into profit |
| evaded liability. | | | | centers for those holding power.Government is |
| | | | efficiently doing exactly what those in power |
| Accountability is something government | | | | want it to do.Our Founders did not expect |
| learned to avoid early on.San Francisco | | | | this government to last 20 years. They viewed |
| survived. Eventually sanity returned and the | | | | the government they established as a kind of |
| people came together to rebuild. Sometimes | | | | model needing beta testing, expecting it to |
| even in the face of completely incompetent | | | | operate within a set of defined and limiting |
| care the patient lives. | | | | principles.Government is not supposed to be |
| | | | doing anything we can do ourselves. In the |
| The image above was taken by Arthur C, | | | | Bill of Rights Numbers 9 and 10 make that |
| Pillsbury on that first day. It was a day | | | | clear. So why did government steadily take |
| that changed his life's focus.Pillsbury had | | | | over jobs being handled privately?For the |
| just left his job as the photojournalist at | | | | same reason bank robbers rob banks. That is |
| the San Francisco Examiner to start his own | | | | where the money is. |
| photography business, the Pillsbury Picture | | | | |
| Company, a month before. For the next weeks | | | | We are unused to the idea that we can |
| he caught the immediacy of events as people | | | | examine government and change the tools we |
| struggled to survive and save what they could | | | | use to carry out what we want done. But that |
| from the consuming flames. His developing | | | | right is ours whenever we choose; that is |
| facility, located in Oakland, was the only | | | | enunciated in the Declaration of |
| one functioning. Orders poured in from across | | | | Independence.The present state of government |
| the globe.Later the same year he used the | | | | would have shocked our Founders.Consider what |
| profits from the San Francisco photos to | | | | life looked like to Founders at the turn of |
| achieve a long time goal and bought the | | | | that century.Our Founders lived and died in a |
| Studio of the Three Arrows in | | | | world of small shop owners, farmers, and |
| Yosemite.Pillsbury was an engineer who | | | | craftspeople. Homes and businesses provided |
| majored in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford | | | | for their own needs. Innovation came with its |
| He had invented a specimen slicer for the | | | | own rewards and problems and people learned |
| microscope and circuit panorama camera before | | | | by seeing what worked and what didn't. That |
| leaving college. He was not the kind of guy | | | | is the classical form for the transmission of |
| to settle for systems and tools that did not | | | | human wisdom, used even by chimps with no |
| work as expected. | | | | governmental intervention.The tools for |
| | | | government the Founders assembled assumed a |
| In Yosemite he found other systems that were | | | | population that controlled most of the |
| failing to do their jobs.The Cavalry, then in | | | | infrastructure directly through town |
| charge of the Park, had long made a practice | | | | government and through the people's power of |
| of mowing the meadows to provide fodder for | | | | purchase. Corporations did not exist in their |
| their horses. Pillsbury noticed that the | | | | present form. Our Founders failed to see the |
| number of wild flower species was decreasing | | | | ramifications of allowing legislation that |
| every year in those areas and also that the | | | | brought the actions of individuals under the |
| Cavalry was not concerned. So, applying his | | | | control of government. They were imperfect as |
| skills as an inventor he built the first | | | | are all of us. They did not hand us a |
| lapse-time camera to be used with plants, | | | | finished product but one that needed to be |
| producing the first motion picture image of a | | | | tested and repaired.But some things they did |
| wild flower gracefully raising its head to | | | | right.Until the end of the Nineteenth Century |
| the sun. By than he had been showing and | | | | all school children studied the Bill of |
| narrating nature films for two years.Now the | | | | Rights and read the Federalist Papers. They |
| wild flowers could speak for themselves.That | | | | knew, therefore, what their rights were |
| first lapse-time movie was made to persuade | | | | supposed to be. Understanding the operating |
| those in power to do the right thing and stop | | | | principles, as we can see, is a critical |
| the mowing and move towards | | | | factor. |
| conservation.Arthur C. Pillsbury believed | | | | |
| that all people need is the truth. If they | | | | When people know it is much harder to delude |
| saw the reality, he believed, they will | | | | them. But politicians were persistent. They |
| choose to do the right thing voluntarily. He | | | | had a lot to gain.Katrina illustrated a lot |
| was right about most people, most of the | | | | of things about government today. It took a |
| time.After seeing the film those in power | | | | week from the time the storm hit to announce |
| stopped the mowing the same day. The year was | | | | plans for redevelopment; people were still |
| 1912. | | | | awaiting emergency help but 'gentrification' |
| | | | of the area was already planned. Today |
| Most of us do the right thing if we know | | | | families who have tried to return have been |
| what that is. But sometimes failing to do the | | | | refused access to their homes and property. |
| right thing is not a mistake; sometimes there | | | | If you watch what those in power do, instead |
| is another agenda. Pillsbury assumed that | | | | of believing their rhetoric the truth seeps |
| when those in power must be mistaken or lack | | | | through. Government consumed through taxes |
| understanding or simply be too lazy to care. | | | | the resources that should have protected New |
| Those were possibilities that made sense to | | | | Orleans.What has been proved is that |
| him; but that was an incomplete | | | | Americans would have been better served to |
| understanding. When those in power are acting | | | | keep the FEMA money within local areas to |
| on another agenda they cannot be changed with | | | | fund local emergency services. Because every |
| the truth.The photo Pillsbury took that you | | | | level of government above the local was more |
| see here, one of hundreds, shows both the | | | | corrupt in New Orleans last year there was |
| power of nature unleashed on a city and the | | | | none of the oversight residents expected and |
| power of corruption by government unchecked. | | | | believed they had paid for. Those funds went |
| Most people did not understand the risk they | | | | into other pockets. |
| faced, having delegated that work to the city | | | | |
| government.Pillsbury learned one essential | | | | Big government did not come into existence |
| lesson from what he observed. He decided to | | | | because the people could not find ways to |
| make sure that the people themselves had | | | | handle their problems as the country grew and |
| direct access to the information they needed. | | | | the complexity of their society increased. It |
| In 1912 he invented the lapse-time camera to | | | | came into existence because those in |
| connect people to the world of wild flowers, | | | | government were greedy and the citizens were |
| which had been overlooked even by such | | | | both too trusting and did not understand that |
| conservationists as John Muir. Muir's | | | | government is just a contracting service |
| energies were focused on saving the Hetch | | | | center; that knowledge had been withdrawn.So |
| Hetchy, a battle he lost.Pillsbury kept | | | | what can we do to clean up this mess?Their |
| working. He began lecturing and showing his | | | | system has been designed to create our |
| motion pictures. Eventually he would speak at | | | | perpetual and inescapable dependence. We can |
| every major town forum and every university | | | | change that. |
| of note, including MIT. He expanded his | | | | |