permaculture

[CtopherP@aol.com]

As a participant in numerous listserves, I feel compelled to comment that the
tone of this permaculture list seems overly rude and disrespectful to me. I'm
not sure I see the point of suggesting that someone has "missed the point" of
permaculture. I find it insulting, condescending, and rude, especially when it
comes from one of our teachers. I don't see how it serves the greater good of
permaculture, this list, or any of us participants to rant on in this fashion.
If this is some form of imitating Mollison's style, in order to shake us
ignorant folk out of our lethargy, I say, get over it. 

If one of us feels that a fellow learner and participant on this list is in
error, especially in so grevious a way that it will dilute and kill
permaculture, there are other, kinder, and ultimately more helpful ways of
correcting the misunderstanding. Let's focus on information exchange,
deepening each other's learning in a helpful and respectful way, and a non-
heirarchical sense of togetherness. 

I'll end this diatribe with the words of Lazarus Long, courtesy of Robert
Heinlein:

"Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear.
Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub
together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated
deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn
to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they therby throw sand into
machinery that does not work too well at best."

With the hope of a helpful and respectful list,
Christopher Peck
Santa Fe, New Mexico