permaculture

["Roger Ellison" <thornbushdesign@jetcity.com>]

Marcus Webb's  story illustrates a weakness in the "spiritual" view of the
world. Because it has no feedback mechanism, no way of checking on the work
of others, no system of verifying its accuracy in describing reallity, it
must resort to some other means to gain acceptance of its ideas: chicanery,
fear- or hope-mongering, or in the this case, force. It seams to me to boil
down to say-so. "It is true because I say so, and I studied with a very well
respected personage who had direct connections to the truth of the cosmos."

I say keep Permaculture within the physical verifiable world, and not open
it to the vagaries of the spirit world and those who speak for it, for there
interest are not always ours.

As Permaculture is practiced in more localities over a longer time period,
its techniques will evolve to fit the land ever more harmoniously, as long
as we keep the ability to observe, test, and evaluate. That would be a good
discussion for this group: How do we know what we are doing is effective,
What are some ways of testing an idea on the ground and getting a result
that can be evaluated?

Roger Ellison