permaculture

[Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>]

At 12:00 PM 12/7/02 -0500, you wrote:
> There are no technical solutions only ethical ones.
>
> Bob Howard
Thanks Bob for bringing a little reality to the table.  The problem is that 
even the best informed in this country get their information and world view 
from a media that is at best dependent on corporate sponsorship, even PBS, 
which is our version of the BBC, is beholden to the corporate world for its 
existence.  So while I agree with your points for the most part and think 
that it is good for us to hear a view  from  outside our culture, I find 
that most of the people I talk to, day to day, are plain ignorant with no 
place to go to cure that ignorance.  We are living in a fascist state if 
the definition "Any program for setting up a centralized autocratic 
national regime with severely nationalistic policies, exercising 
regimentation of industry, commerce, and finance, rigid censorship, and 
forcible suppression of opposition" is a correct definition.

I was recently in Guatamala, speak of feeling it in your bones, and was 
shamed by my own ignorance of the terror that we, the United States, 
supported and then looked the other way while tens of thousands of Mayans 
were brutally slaughtered.  The reality of our malfeasance worldwide is 
almost too shocking to face head on, once must take it in small glimpses or 
be frozen in total despair.  It is one thing to have a vague notion that we 
aren't getting the whole story, and quite another to have someone from a 
culture that has experienced our arrogance and imperial nature tell it to 
your face.

Once one is aware of what is being done in our name, then what?  I have 
often wondered if I should find another homeland, but then it seems like 
the ultimate cop out, leaving the mess for others to clean up.  Or perhaps 
just repairing the earth one back yard at a time is the most we can hope 
for until this juggernaut collapses under the weight of its own misdeeds 
and corruption.  The good thing about about the present regime in this 
country is that it is all so obvious that even the most delusional has to 
come to the conclusion that its all about greed and power.  Even the powers 
of the boob tube can't put enough makeup on this gang of criminals.

I am trying to reach that point where I can see the solution in the 
problem, and it may well be that nothing short of collapse is the solution 
we are all waiting for.

Scott