permaculture

[Fiona Campbell + Russ Grayson <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

Rene and Lorraine van Raders wrote:
> 
> Also the grumpy old man syndrome.. why are some of the most amazing change
> agents "grumpy old men"?
> (Podilinsky - Australian biodynamics, Bill, Fukuoka, Yeomans, and I'm
> picking lots more).  Is it that the rest of us admirers are so bloody
> boring, or is it a protective mechanism to help them challenge the
> mainstream, or what?
> 
> Cheers Rene


Good question Rene - it's something I've asked myself but have never got
an intelligible answer.

I think you could add Fred Hollows and the American architect, Frank
Llyod Right to your list. I'm sure there's more.

Perhaps it's because they get tired of covering the same intellectual
ground repeatedly... answering the same questions time after time...
dealing with the same old objections.

I have seen Bill Mollison get quite abrupt with people in an audience
who somehow upset him with their questions. I know he uses the technique
of upsetting people as a way of shocking them out of their narrow
perspective into a new way of seeing.

I also know that Bill told people what he wanted to tell them, not what
they necessarily came along to hear. I am told of a talk he did to a
group in the UK. They, the story goes, had come along to hear about
gardening. He challenged them to withdraw their money from the Bank of
England - Bill wanted to talk about ethics and money, not lettuce and
tomatoes.

A couple years ago he came up to me after delivering a talk at the Seed
Savers Network conference in Byron Bay and said that he didn't know what
he had actually talked about but did it approach what he was supposed to
mention? He had gone off on a number of his anecdotal tangents.

Maybe it's nothing more than these grumpy old men see crystal clear the
common sence of their argument and wonder how long they've got to repeat
themselves until it clarifies in the brains of the public.

Looking forward toi your ideas on this subject.

...Russ Grayson

-- 
PACIFIC EDGE PERMACULTURE
Russ Grayson and Fiona Campbell
PO Box 446, Kogarah NSW 2217 AUSTRALIA

Phone   02-9588 6931    (IDD-61+2+9588 6931)
Fax     9514 2611 (Mark fax: ATTN: RUSS GRAYSON - APACE) 
          (IDD-61+2+9514 2611)
Email: pacedge@magna.com.au

Permaculture education, publishing, design. 
NSW co-ordinator, Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network.
APACE Village Agriculture Program coordination, Solomon Islands.
PAD Project team (Permaculture And Development).