permaculture

[Marsha Hanzi <hanzibra@svn.com.br>]

> Permaculture is an approach, a way of seeing, not information.  Piles of
> raw data and information will not help someone with Pc unless they already
> have the base ideas and ethics of Pc.  Permaculture is not swales, herb
> spirals, chicken tractors and chinapas.  It is observing nature, a way of
> looking at patterns and flows of energy, looking at problems for the
> solutions they contain, finding biological solutions, etc.  So there would
> seem to be a need for two things, information for Pc practitioners and an
> introduction to Pc ideas and thinking for newcomers.  And probably a
> synthesis of the two . . . Okay three things, information, introduction and
> a way of keeping the ideas and information in sync.
>



> What is not coming clear  in this line is that one of the prime incentives 
> which come
> through a course or other encounter is the INSPIRATION of meeting people 
> who are
> doing it. That was my original suggestion, and I have been dissapointed, 
> like Eric,
> to see people just going around the same old broken record instead of 
> trying to get
> to the heart of this.

    Let's look at this in terms of paradigms .  We could contrast the 
"old"paradigm
with the "new"one ( of course there are many different paradigms, but I am 
drawing this
polarity here  to exemplify my argument in relationship to PC courses).

Old paradigm:  hierarchies, top down flow of information, emphasis only on the
concrete  mind ( not intuition), linear, fragmented,  competetive ,  
crystallized( only
that and nothing more).

New paradigm:  circular ( teacher is focalizer for flux of informations and 
experiences
from all participants ), systemic ( not linear), accepts information from 
other, non
intellectual sources, evolutive ( not crystallized), cooperative,  integrated.

It is clear that Permaculture as a body of knowledge and way of approaching 
the world
is  new paradigm.

Unfortunately, we are still struggling to find new paradigm forms of teaching
it...Unfortunately the "traditional" PC course is old paradigm, and thus the 
constant
complaints of the low "multiplying factor".  In the new paradigm, just 
transmitting
information is not enough.  That can be most efficiently done on Internet and 
in the
books, as is being pointed out here...
    But for moving into a new approach to life and Nature, we need to help 
people move
out of a linear, frgmented, competitve ( and fear-based) way of seeing 
practical
solutions to living to an integrated systemic one.  For this people have to 
have
contact with people.  And what we are stuggling with here, basically, is how 
to give
people access to people in an affordable way. As there "are no free lunches" 
those
people who are offering their time and energy to help others transform their 
lives (
the "teachers"in the old paradigm language), must somehow be supported.  
Either they
have successful systems, as has been suggested, which gives them independent 
support,
or they work also at other income-generating  activities, or they accept 
exchange from
those they are helping to move into a new set of strategies ( the "students" 
in  the
old paradigm language). The crunch here is there is a schism between what 
these
"helpers"need, to be supported, is often beyond what the "those being helped" 
are  able
or willing to pay, and the infrastructure being offered, so that these two 
can get
together, is too expensive for many people...
    So I would like to repeat, as I said in the first post that re-opened this
Pandora's Box -- please remember that I in no moment implied that PC teachers 
should
not be paid, nor that this was unethical!--that what is lacking is some 
middle-ground
mechanism where people can get together with people in affordable ways to 
inspire and
teach each other.  I would like to agree with Eric that we need to  use the PC
principles for our own lives, not only individually, but collectively...We 
will never
be succesful trying to teach the  new paradigm with old paradigm forms...

Marsha


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