permaculture

[Jack Rowe <jackrowe@compuserve.com>]

I think Nature does not distinguish between anarchy and hierarchy in its
operation. Both these words are names for socio-political processes (hence
the “-archy”)... Nature seems to blithely ignore such distinctions in Its
operation (“If a tree falls in the woods...”). 

Yet in permacultural designs we attempt to establish various hierarchies,
as well as larger numbers of lateral relationships -- few-if-any
purposely-anarchic. We want “our” chickens to eat their food and not their
eggs or each other, and we want to eat the chickens. Coyote may come along
and eat our chickens instead... this is not anarchy as much as hierarchy,
because Chicken does not ever come along and eat Coyote. A complex grouping
of lateral interrelationships may appear chaotic, but is actually
highly-organized to the minutest level, our interference notwithstanding.
In fact the word “chaos” itself as commonly used describes not an inherent
physical state but a uniquely-human mental state -- it is hubris which
leads us to label incomprehension as chaos.

The social behavior of permaculturists as PEOPLE, on the other hand, does
tend mighty strongly toward anarchy. Years of worthy rebellion against a
dominant Capitalistic culture have inculcated rebelliousness in most of us
-- and our rebellious natures will hold us in good stead for some years to
come, I suspect. At the same time, we can’t overlook the difference between
rebellion and revolution. One is a reaction to something larger, the other
an attempt to replace something larger with something else just as large.
If we don’t do the latter, the Earth and all us included in that term will
suffer and/or die. 

Capitalism (or the Dominant Culture), as practiced, reminds me of Vince
Lombardi’s comment about winning: “Winning isn’t everything -- it’s the
ONLY thing”. If we underwrite Capitalism’s basic premise (“There is a
SINGLE ‘Bottom Line’ and it is Cash”), we lose... at the same time, if we
don’t come into the resources (Cash again, quite often) to enact our ideas
on a grand scale... bad things happen. While railing against Banks, we need
also to create Credit Unions, etc. 

If we abandon the idea of organization on a large scale, we give up a great
deal of socio-politico-economic power... if we abandon the idea of anarchic
action on an individual scale, we give up a great deal of creative power.
Both hierarchy and anarchy have their unique, essential roles in healthy
human behavior. Jefferson recognized this dynamic when he lauded the role
of Anarchy while introducing a Constitution. 

Interplay of “opposites”... Yin and Yang... the magic of the symbol is not
found in either HALF, rather in the synergistic COMBINATION of those halves
into the artfully-blended Whole.

Jack