permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>]

on 11/20/01 Lawrence F. London, Jr wrote:

>> Mollison talks about similar themes in the
>> designer's manual when he discusses pattern and
>> tribal knowledge. If I can remember, he asks us
>> to consider first the inability of many
>> contemporary people to retain knowledge. And this
> 
> I don't know how he can say something like this.
> 
I think I see Sean's point: I've read a zillion books and gone to thousands
of hours of school, but I don't remember 0.0001% of that information.
(Quick: who said "the map is not the territory?" Did a couple of you guess
Gregory Bateson or Stewart Brand? No, it was Alfred Korzybski; Bateson and
Brand just made it famous, a fact I just read yesterday [literally] and will
forget in a few days. We can't keep that stuff straight.)

But of fables, stories, and parables full of wisdom, and the tales from wise
locals, I have retained a far, far greater percentage, and use that wisdom
every day (a stitch in time saves nine; red sky at night, sailor's delight.
. . King Philip Climbed Over Five Great Stones. . . and on and on) Oral,
patterned learning is more efficiently retained by our meat computer and in
our bodies. 
> 
>>often requiring specialized knowledge
>> just to access, let alone commit to memory.

> That is a very inadequate and short-sighted view
> of electronic information collection, management and retreival.

Again, I think the point is that electronic knowledge is available to only a
tiny percentage of the world's (rich) people, while oral knowledge is
available to all.

I used to read a lot about semantics. Some it it is dreadful, but much is
very thought provoking. For now I stick with less technical works on the
subject like David Abram's marvelous "Spell of the Sensuous."

Toby 
_____________________________________________
For a look at my new book on ecological gardening,
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, visit
http://www.chelseagreen.com/Garden/GaiasGarden.htm