permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

In a message dated 5/28/2003 1:13:46 PM Eastern Standard Time, grahamburnett@blueyonder.co.uk writes:

fair enough, but in the UK at least the permaculturists seem to be much more about building sustainable communities and setting up social systems so that all can enjoy abundance, good living and fulfilled lives whilst living in harmony with the planet. However surivival skills are also imporatnt, I just tend to feeel rather uncomfortable with the 'rugged individualist, every man for himself' philosophy, maybe its that difference between 'self sufficiency' and 'self reliance'
 
Cheers Graham

Graham, good points you raise--

This is a key difference between your country and mine. The Crown was not pleased with all the reckless rednecks they found in Scotland, centuries back, so they sent them all to Ireland. They were still too close for comfort, so they then rounded up all the (misnamed) Scots-Irish they could find and shipped them out again, to the colonies. One of my own great-greats was a Campbell who was granted a good sized chunk of New Brunswick just to get rid of him. These are the guys that today run our Southern 500's-- a sport that I don't believe has any British parallel. Certainly Formula One racing is not the same thing. We retain a bit of the Roman amphitheater flavor. Our governor here in North Carolina races.

And we've always been kind of revolutionary. The States were no more than ten years old when they decided to raise some federal funds by putting an excise tax on whiskey-- which was the water of life in these parts. My guys fought the Whiskey Rebellion and have been fighting the feds ever since. I've never owned a gun in my life because you never know, if I had one I might decide to shoot someone with it. But you can be sure that if the John Ashcrofts of the world ever decided they didn't want me to have one, I'd pick up a closet full.

But in my personal life, I mow the lawn slowly enough that the crickets have a chance to jump out of the way.

By the way, the "every man for himself" thing is not really accurate. Every group I know likes to build a reciprocal community of like-minded people. We show our differences though in how each group views the "other" folks.

Hope this helps,

Mike Elvin