permaculture

["Eugene F. Monaco" <EFMonaco@compuserve.com>]

Well we might as well get a separate thread going on this one; those that
want technical dialogue only are advised to delete these postings.

I read with horror the letters to the editor in The Activist  about the
Mollison/DBlume fiasco in California, a permaquake.  Mollison go home and
garden it was said.  There are a lot of issues lurking in all that which I
am also noticing beneath the surface of the guild and wow posts and their
reprisals.

As was pointed out, the interpersonal relating, or lack thereof, is at the
heart of many of the problems we face: what ever happenned to village or
neighborhood?  So isn't it a surprise that this very thing erupted in
California and again here in the past few days?  Good for us.  Maybe we're
starting to work on this stuff now.

It was said that Mollison was stealing the few coveted students in the USA
for the once a year design courses he has held each of the past 4 years,
fueled by hype that each would be his last.  While California could book
350 students, we poor chicken farmers couldn't even fill our modest goals
of 20, or in my case, fewer.   Now all the money collected in California
would be pissed away on attorneys so the Blumes could argue it out with the
Mollisons/Pittmans.  What a shame and what a waste of resources.  Wouldn't
it be better if Bill just left N. America alone?  And worse yet, was he in
fact trying to raise money in the USA  for a project elsewhere?  How dare
he rob such a poor impoverished country?

Well my immediate reaction to all this, having been stung by the event
myself, was that it sounded like the Blumes screwed up, booking too many
people for the conditions; a classic type-1 convenor error.  And yes,
Mollison/Pittman should have been monitoring that too, them being
experienced and ultimately equally as responsible.

But does that mean that Bill should stay home?  I don't think so.  In my
case, I cancelled a class I was going to give in E. Tennessee and suggested
to some of the sign-ups that they go to Mollison if they could.  The
feedback I got was that the course was GREAT!!!  Certainly much different
than I could have done.  But I have to say, that when funds started running
out, I was wishing for those students.

There's this abundancy principle that says that if you believe in abundancy
you'll act like there's more than enough.  If you believe in scarcity,
you'll complain that Mollison is stealing all the students.  I think there
is a balance.  Starving deer at the end of winter know well the scarcity
principle, so do struggling permaculture consultants and teachers.  But
there is the other side.

Taken from a larger perspective, changing the economy of the USA to one
that supports permaculture is going to be a slow and difficult task. 
Permaculture seems so simple on the surface, but I can't tell you how many
folks I've talked to that say, 'I like my private garage and TV set, not
having to see the neighbors.  And living in the trees with the bugs?  Yuk,
no thanks.  I'll take my suburban american dream thankyou.  Please hand me
the remote and bring another budweiser on your way out."  Then there's the
business guy that says, 'It's not a moneymaker.  The free market has to
support it or it'll never fly."

So what we have underlying some of the Mollison bashing IMO is a case of
the capitalist market-based economy not supporting permaculture.  When we
left our Mollison courses we were filled with visions of being overrun with
jackfruit or silver perch.  An abundancy that would make us rich.  

The fact that some of us are piggybacking on Mollison's lead by teaching,
consulting, and publishing, and that we can't all make a living doing that
is to me a statement that we're missing the boat.  We have to create local
sustainable economy, and for that we need allies.  The more Mollison
spreads the word the better chance we have of developing those ecovillages
that promise to give us quality of life with abundance.  I think we need
more of Mollison, not less.  Anybody that has worked the corporate ratrace
ought to understand on a visceral level.  It's only great for those at the
very top.  And for all the sleeping suburban emulators of corporatia's
devil deal, nobody wakes them up like Mollison.

That we dedicated souls in the USA have to suffer in the meantime while the
consciousness shifts at it's glacial rate, is perhaps part of our tribe's
karma for consuming 5x the world average of resources (or more).

Nuf said.
Gene