permaculture

[michael@naturalinvesting.com]

I'll take John's bait, with a little bit of aloha..

I happen to believe there's nothing inherently wrong with capitalism or 
professionalism
as systems of belief, but that there are flaws in how these systems have been
applied. Capitalism doesn't mean greed, but some have become so. And so we do
need terminology to describe the values to which we ascribe. Some already 
exist:
"social entrepreneurship", "cause marketing", and "holistic management".  In
my field, we have the terms "socially responsible", "ethical", and "natural"
investing, which are clarifiers that rather appropriately indicate that there
is "better" investing, in essence better capitalism. Should we thank Paul and
Amory for "natural capitalism" and just start to use it in common conversation
and writings? Or should we permaculturists create a new term to reflect what
we believe, something like (bear with me here, I'm in brainstorming mode)  
"surpluscycle",
"permabundance", "regeneratism", or "reinvesting". You know how it is - if we
start using it, it just might catch on.

Professionalism isn't about money, which is why professionalizing permaculture
doesn't bother me. Being professional says to the society, "Hey, I know 
something
about this field, and I am someone to be taken seriously". That's a good thing
and our movement desperately needs this, especially when we're going to places
within the system where we're not even understood, let alone embraced.  Being
a professional means learning to talk the languague of the system in order to
master it and BEAT IT. We can stay out here on the fringes mentally 
masturbating,
build funky homesteads and intentional communities for generations and live
happily ever after in the security of like-minded souls but this might not 
change
the society, which is important.  So we need to get right in there and become
professional permaculturists within existing institutions, and yes, get our
own act together and define and embrace our own process of becoming recognized
as experts in our field.  It gives us some credibility and media access 
points,
which may not be important to us but it is darned important to the mainstream
society we're trying to impact.  We need all the leverage we can get, and 
leadership
by example may not work on its own.

Michael 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Kramer
Natural Investment Services
www.NaturalInvesting.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~