permaculture

[John Schinnerer <eco_living@yahoo.com>]

Aloha,

> Note that we haven't let his ideas take us anywhere in this
> discussion;
> we've gotten bogged down in whether he phrased himself correctly.

Guilty as charged on this count, and...

> That's my
> objection to some of this, and to the whole contemporary lit-crit,
> "no text has meaning" scene. You never actually work with the 
> substance, just the form, and author's meaning and ideas get 
> forgotten.

...I am not intending "no text has meaning," despite doing so
previously.  Quite the opposite - I am suggesting that all languaging
has not merely meaning but embodiment and consequences, and that
meaning and ideas are implicit in form (not necessarily the same
meaning and ideas as the author intends to make explicit).  I am
interested in implicit teachings of his languaging, not semantic
head-games.

My observations:

I live in languaging (here defined as consensual coordinations of
consensual coordinations of actions - embodied actions in my relatings
with others, not a head trip).
My languaging is not separate from my being and doing (my manner of
being); they are inextricably intertwined.
My manner of being (e.g. what I do) has consequences that emerge as I
do whatever I do.  ("karma" means, most simply, "doing")
These consequences necessarily involve my languaging as a component of
my manner of being.

In short:  my languaging has non-trivial consequences because it is not
separate from how I do what I do, and because I *teach* 24/7 through my
manner of being (as do we all, IMO), which includes my languaging.  

Some more or less random examples floating in my mind right now - what
implicit teachings might each of us take from these?:

"We're targeting specific market sectors for maximum impact"

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

"War on Drugs"

"collateral damage"

"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything"

"Imagination is more important than knowledge"

"let's check the buzz on the street and touch base tomorrow"

"I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the
lowest-wage country is impeccable, and we should face up to that."

...and from Tom Ward, this pair for comparison:
"I speak to thee, friend." (Quaker plainspeech)
"You too can own a new Cadillac!" (not!)

...or just take any languaging in everyday life and look for implicit
teachings about ways/manners of being, e.g. "what is".  There's never
not some.

For example (I suspect these and others have ultimately pathological
consequences):

Using metaphors of newtonian physics ("universe as deterministic
clockwork machine") in describing biological processes, human
interactions, etc. etc.

Reifying (making "things" of) non-things (processes, patternings, etc.)
- relatings become "relationships," learning becomes "knowledge" or
"education," etc.

Confusing a map with a territory; in general, confusing a "thing" with
it's name.

Assuming there is no inherent bias against process and systemic
understanding in a highly noun-centric ("thing-centric") language such
as English.


=====
John Schinnerer, MA
--------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
Food - Shelter - Community
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net

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