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  • From: Martin Naylor <martinwnaylor@yahoo.com.au>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Politics is not just two four letter words...
  • Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:13:49 +1100 (EST)

What is important to understand is you.
It is you that creates the culture you live in,

If you want to support the idiotic culture which has been created by you,
then expect to get what have created.

Martin
Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net> wrote:
Robyn, nothing personal, I'm talking as much to myself as anyone, the
"politics = many bloodsucking parasites" quip on the tail of recent list
dialog set me to thinking...

How easy it is to have contempt for politics -- as if our failure to
effectively manage political processes has no meaning. Is a
tractionless relationship to politics any better of a design then
failing to orient to the sun?

Our communities are disorganized, we lack the skills or experience in
mass self governance, we flounder in our affinity groups and our
individualism, month to month drifting on our leaky arks. We will need
the land to live, but with failed politics we cannot defend the land
from the behaviors of our own people. The political system is the
landscape context, part of the assessment, part of the design. The
permaculture I learned does not ignore the dominant predator or the
behavioral patterns of the prime ecosystem architect. We will learn the
sources, flows and sinks of political power, if we want to achieve
anything enduring.

Do we really believe a little climatic-oil chaos will change much? Do we
think a little hunger will kick-start some kind of revolution? If we
don't learn to engage human politics to serve the land, what opportunity
will chaos offer us? In the places where chaos has already taken hold,
are politics any more progressive or restorative? Do you think that
those who grasp at power are unintelligent? I would suggest that beyond
politics, there is no other game in town. If our common values and
processes (our politics) are clouded and confused, our people will turn
to our familiar destructive patterns like moths to a flame. I propose
that the political landscape in front of us in not ephemeral or
unstable, but is as old as the hills. Those who manipulate failed
politics for personal greed will not be surprised by oil depletion and
release their grip on the political system that defines our economic
structures. Economies are reclaimed by communities who master their own
politics. The whole spectrum of existing political relationships are
important to learn and understand, not as something to ridicule or
separate from, but as something we are part of, that flows from our
selves, and that must be a critical element of our designs. If we don't
want to engage politics, we can always retreat to our property
boundaries, but I would suggest that herb spirals are just training
wheels for the real design challenge.

~Paul




Robyn Williamson wrote:

>On Friday, February 23, 2007, at 03:20 pm,
>permaculture-request@lists.ibiblio.org/J Kolenovsky wrote:
>
>
>
>>Once in a while a little deviation from
>>the electic headiness brings refreshment and merriment to the soul.
>>Based on whats coming down the pike, we all need some of that.
>>
>>
>
>I agree wholeheartedly but I gotta say that I came close to
>unsubscribing myself after that last episode. Yes the offending
>messages are only a scroll click or a delete button away but it can be
>ho-hum in the extreme for those of us elsewhere on the planet when the
>divisive nature of politics* causes people's blood to boil over.
>
>Robyn
>
>* The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly' meaning 'many'
>and the word 'tics' meaning 'blood-sucking parasites'.
>~ Larry Hardiman
>_______________________________________________
>permaculture mailing list
>permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
>
>
>

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