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  • From: jamesdavid Sneed <harvestcircle@hotmail.com>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Drill Baby Drill becomes Burn Baby Burn!
  • Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 16:47:31 -0700


Good points, Ben. I would add two thoughts for pondering. Does the
permaculture community really hold each other accountable and spur us to the
hard personal decisions, or does it more often get lost in tghe comfort zone
of technofixes, be they "organic" or otherwise?
The second thought is this. Exactly how do you hold the corporate and
political criminals accountable, since it is by and large a self-protective
web of criminality and greed masquerading as democracy and free enterprise?
Again, I urge folks to carefully read Endgam by Derrick Jensen.

> Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 19:42:10 -0700
> From: ben.martinhorst@gmail.com
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Drill Baby Drill becomes Burn Baby Burn!
>
> Perhaps I didn't express my meaning clearly. Yes, personal responsibility is
> essential to our own health and that of the planet. Yes, each of us should
> be striving constantly to improve our relationships with our landbases.
> That's been my goal for years, and I readily admit I'm nowhere near as close
> to achieving it as I need to be for my own peace of mind or the health of
> the broader living community. But I am trying. The fact that we are having
> this conversation electronically shows that all of us -- while
> well-intentioned and progressive in our relations with the Earth -- are
> dependent upon unsustainable, ecocidal technologies. In your terms, my
> lifestyle is "against life," but I'm attempting to change that. Do I need a
> permacultural community to hold me accountable and spur me to further
> action? Absolutely.
>
> But accepting personal responsibility does not relieve us of the sometimes
> greater need to assign responsibility where responsibility is due. There are
> highly powerful and influential persons and organizations who are held to
> little or no account for their roles in ecocide. Their share of guilt is
> often far greater than any "average citizen," and certainly greater than the
> average permaculturist. In the context of permaculture, finding leverage
> points to make the least change for the greatest effect is a key principle.
> In the context of broader society, those leverage points may involve
> attempting to change or eliminate the behavior of the highly powerful and
> influential, whether through petition, coercion, direct action, or other
> means
>
> It's not about evading responsibility. It's about accepting a broader
> responsibility to care for those who come into direct contact with our lives
> as well as those more distant from it. If my neighbor decided to spray
> glyphosate on the gardens, pasture, and woodlands I tend, I would rightly
> call him or her to account. That doesn't ameliorate my own responsibility to
> do no harm to the land where I live; rather, my responsibility to the land
> dictates I do all I can to ensure the neighbor won't spray again. My
> responsibility to the broader Earth is the same. If the rich, powerful, and
> influential desecrate, maim, and rape it -- as is happening right now in the
> Gulf -- personal responsibility dictates that I try to ensure they can't do
> it again. To wait until I achieve ecological sainthood, avoiding any
> possible semblance of hypocrisy, is a luxury the ecosystems of this planet
> simply cannot afford.
>
> -Ben
>
> On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 2:12 PM, jamesdavid Sneed
> <harvestcircle@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> >
> > Your statement about "the least changes" is pure malarkey, and dodging
> > personal reaponsibility. Either you are for life, or you are against it.
> >
> > > Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 20:40:47 -0700
> > > From: ben.martinhorst@gmail.com
> > > To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> > > Subject: Re: [permaculture] Drill Baby Drill becomes Burn Baby Burn!
> > >
> > > On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 12:40 PM, jamesdavid Sneed <
> > harvestcircle@hotmail.com
> > > > wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > I, to am responsible for the spills and the mining disaters, and so
> > > > are
> > > > you. It is not just the greedy corporate owners, but all of us. I
> > > > can't
> > stop
> > > > them, so I must change myself, every bit of myself that does not live
> > in
> > > > harmony on this planet.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Well, yes, we're all guilty, but to paraphrase Orwell, some of us are
> > more
> > > guilty than others. I refuse to accept that my footprint, at perhaps 5
> > > metric tons of CO2/year, is somehow equivalent to BP's 1,376,000,000
> > > tons/year (that's the 2004 number). Personal sustainability is something
> > all
> > > of us should be seeking (and I'd really like to be able to get my own
> > carbon
> > > footprint down into negative numbers), but even if everybody subscribed
> > to
> > > this list were to become an ecological saint, it still wouldn't make a
> > dent
> > > in the globes crises. We need to look for the least change for greatest
> > > effect... it seems to me that some of those "least changes" involve
> > > reforming broader societal systems, including the way corporations are
> > > chartered, structured, and held accountable (for example, dismantling
> > > corporate "personhood" and ensuring that the precautionary principle is
> > > observed in corporate charters), rather than trying to go individual by
> > > individual.
> > >
> > > In their own personal practices, many permaculturists have created
> > solutions
> > > that have broader impact beyond their own daily lives -- personal change
> > can
> > > be influential to broader society. But while I've been progressively
> > making
> > > changes in my own lifestyle, it's defeatist to think that I can't be
> > > politically or socially active until I've got all my own issues
> > > perfectly
> > > figured out. Sometimes it takes concerted action against vested
> > > interests
> > --
> > > in this case Big Oil -- for alternatives to gain any broad traction or
> > > acceptance.
> > >
> > > -Ben
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com
> > > permaculture forums http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums
> > > And: http://www.richsoil.com
> >
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