[permaculture] conservatism

rafter t. sass liberationecology at gmail.com
Thu Feb 14 22:23:18 EST 2008


Thank you, David, for expressing that so well.

It sometimes seems like folks confuse markets with capitalism.

On one hand, there is the traditional town square market, like you  
see daily or weekly in village and small cities in most of the world.  
(You know, the one that all our urban farmers' markets are trying to  
find their way back to.) On the other hand, there are the commodity  
markets of massive transnational corporations, and the consumer  
culture they require. Let's not confuse the former - community-based  
markets - with the latter - corporate, commodity markets. And  
capitalism, lest there be any confusion, is about the latter.

I'm ready to at least entertain the assumption that we can't, or  
wouldn't want to, do without the community markets. But commodity  
markets are something we very well may not be able to live with.

We all make the system, I have no doubt about that - it's not as  
simple us benevolent, intelligent permies, and those greedy, ruthless  
corporate CEOs. But the folks who have most outrageously  
disproportionate ecological (and economic) footprint have always  
promoted the idea that the current system is natural and inevitable.  
This has been the case since feudalism, and before.

How about the idea that all systems, in times of chaos, evolve in  
unpredictable directions? And that in these times, small  
interventions have the potential to create sweeping changes downstream?

For those of us in the US (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the  
"developed world): here in the belly of the beast, which is all too  
often the center of attention, we have an ethical imperative to call  
for alternatives to the system that makes us disproportionately more  
powerful, and more dangerous, than any other nation or people.


rafter t. sass
The Liberation Ecology Project
liberationecology.org
518-567-7407
skype: raughter






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