permaculture

[Jack Rowe <jackrowe@compuserve.com>]

Hi, Michael,

Ah, yes, keeping me on my toes. . . thank you. Cooperation does in fact get
short shrift these days, which was my aim in writing to the list --
pointing out that both John and Dan had their points, and that their points
were additive and not subtractive. Only by taking each other's viewpoints
into consideration would each have had a 'whole picture'.

I do in fact, though, believe that individualism is a real and
oft-essential 'half' of the equation which enables us to move out into what
has been a society hostile to many ideas of health and cooperation (though
this is changing). It's true also that our concept of individualism, if
taken to a semantic extreme, is fundamentally a fiction -- and so is our
concept of being 'one' with each other. We are both alone AND together in
this cosmic joyride we call Life, thus my stressing of the Both-ness of the
Eternal Coin.

The 'army' characterization struck me, too, when I used it -- sloppy word
choice. I really meant to suggest numbers aligned in common vision, more
than aggression. The environmental mess we see today and to which Dan
alluded was caused by a social network -- an army, if you will -- that
supported enormous hordes of humans moving out into the world to 'develop'
(consume) everything in sight. That we can now find very little space on
earth where Humankind has not had some major exploitive effect is testament
to the amazing numbers and resources put into the Big Rape. The Consumer
Culture has been phenomenally effective.

That the numbers of we Humans willing to share health and wealth are
ostensibly fewer (actually, I think a vast majority of humans would act
toward sanity if our social structures condoned it) is precisely the reason
that great cooperation AND great individualism will both be needed. In my
own work, many are the times when my individualism has kept me going
through the inevitable periods of apparent isolation. At the same time,
since I am working on creating a network (a regional seed exchange) the
aspect of cooperation is absolutely basic to our success -- it's literally
not possible for me to do it alone. 

My question, "Can individualists offer mutual support toward mutual goals?"
is meant to label us neither as purely individualists NOR purely
cooperative, but to stress that we'd better become facile in BOTH elements
of relationship -- not using first one and then the other, so much as
integrating both aspects into a single holistic mode of behavior. Divided,
we fall. . . I've seen ineffectualness caused both by rampant individualism
AND by waiting for the group to form. Let's pick up all the pieces and put
'em together!

Jack