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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Killer Coke

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  • From: Loren Davidson <listmail@lorendavidson.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Killer Coke
  • Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 15:34:59 -0700

At 03:14 PM 4/14/04 -0700, Toby Hemenway wrote:
Bob wrote:

> Greetings, first you assess the site then you create the plan. This
> "campaign" is very much in line with Permaculture design, think about
> community economics and right livelihood, . . .

I think most everyone on this list is aware of the social injustices,
environmental problems, etc. that the world faces. More examples of the
familiar problems facing us won't make us better designers. There are
thousands of calls to action and lists of evil deeds that are tangentially
related to Pc, and if we all started sending them in, they would swamp this
list. I would rather not open the door to them here. Now, if someone wants
to use a quote from that sort of post as a jumping-off point for a novel Pc
solution, I'd be delighted to see it.

Thank you, Toby, for articulating my thoughts better than I could.

While I believe that we shouldn't stick our heads in our compost piles and pretend that the problems of the world don't exist...to me, Pc has always been more about the solution than the problem. And I get the most out of this list when it is focusing on solutions, not hitting me over the head with some injustice happening five thousand miles away that I can't *begin* to do anything meaningful about. For example, I dearly love the diary articles that Bob Waldrop posts about his suburban gardening project - they inspire me to look at ways to do a little more with the heavily-shaded strip of clay that my landlord lets me grow vegies on, find ways to improve the soil and somehow involve other people in the building with the garden or with activities that can improve the quality of our lives here.

Pc is also about appropriate scale and about leveraging our actions. I can accomplish a lot more by growing herbs for our apartment building and helping educate people about how to separate stuff for recycling than I can by writing a letter to some executive in Bolivia.

I also agree with Toby's point regarding mass forwarding of emails. I believe there should be a special place in Hell reserved for anyone using the phrase "please forward this to everyone you know." It's virtual pollution, IMNSHO. It clogs people's mail queues, sometimes to the point of bouncing important messages, and it is a drain on the time and resources that each of us could be devoting to creating Pc-based solutions to the problems in our own towns and neighborhoods. Which, as I said, is ultimately where we can do the most good, I feel.

Finally, I think Pc is about protracted observation, rather than knee-jerk action. What could be more un-PC than mindlessly forwarding emails to a bunch of mailing lists without stopping once to think if they're *appropriate*? It's like throwing out seeds without regard as to whether they land in dirt, water, or on a sidewalk.

Here's a thought: The next time someone gets email bemoaning the injustice of slaughtering low-income factory workers in Elbonia for their pelts, rather than just forwarding it on, take some time to *think* about it. What type of design strategies might make it unnecessary to commit the outrage? Are there any practical ways in which we can work within our personal Zones 0-4 that could make a *practical* difference, that would be a *better use of our time* than working locally on issues we know intimately? If the answer is yes, then by all means post a synopsis of the problem and an initial design solution to the list, and we can all have a virtual charette with it.

Otherwise, as Toby suggested, save it for advocacy lists and give our poor mail queues and delete fingers a rest.

Thanks for listening,

Loren

Loren Davidson Earth steward, healer, singer/songwriter
NEW EMAIL: listmail@lorendavidson.com http://www.earthspring.org/loren/
I'm a musician too! http://www.lorendavidson.com
"In gentleness there is great strength." - Sun Bear




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