permaculture

[Sean Maley <semaley@yahoo.com>]

Perhaps Michael is being purposely jarring.  Perhaps
the message is that we need to demonstrate ways to
stop consuming and start participating.  Why is a
certificate needed for everyone?  Would a rating
system help qualify the meaning of a piece of paper? 
What good is paper if no results back it up?

--------------
Rambling alert!!!
--------------
------------------------------------------------
ROLE:  a person wanting to know more, but...

There is an entrance fee to free the land from
ownership, but there is also a fee to be recognized as
a permaculturist.  I've always wondered why somebody
needs me to give them some money to help them work
their land.  If permaculture works so well, then why
is my money needed by them?  Wouldn't my work benefit
them and they would possibly need money from me?  Why
pay them twice if it supposedly works better than
monoculture?  Sounds like monoculture to me.  Just
another scam.  Besides, I won't be able to see my
family in Maine if I go on this course anyway.
------------------------------------------------

It may be unfair to also compare PC to economics, but
economics is needed prior to anyone escaping the city.
 The entrance fee in my neighborhood is
$millions/acre.  I can't even get past insurance to
get on a roof.  Community gardens are so small that a
window container works just as well if you are lucky
to pick the proper building.

My PC friends live two hours away by subway; I'm in
Manhattan (last street on northern tip), they are in
Queens and Brooklyn.  We face a million dollar price
tag just for ample land 2 hours out of the city.  We
can't escape the wage slavery lock down and our
families may not support going away for a few weeks
for a course which amounts to a hobby in a city.

Perhaps trainers need to hit the road and come to the
people.  Remember that the people most interested
won't be able to pay you for it.  I'm sure you will
have a place to stay and food, but don't count on them
going to you or even paying for it.  Anyone with the
spare time and money in Manhattan isn't likely to be
interested in a yurt vacation; have fun getting their
beautiful fingers dirty.

I'm observing a need for an economic gateway paradigm;
many urban folks are effectively locked up in the city
for whatever reasons.  I think we can free them, but
it can't happen until we start applying PC principles
"beyond sustainability". I don't perceive politics as
important, because it is so dependent upon economics
at this point (2004 exit poll statistics should be
enough to convince you of this).

I'm basing my strategy upon some of Henry Georges
writing; from land, people, and economic capital, we
pay rent, wages, and interest.  Rent is most
important, because we are stewards of the land.  Wages
are important because we as humans require water,
food, shelter, security, and social needs addressed. 
As for interest, we don't really need it beyond the
energy decline, but we need it now to free the land
from it's bonds.

One person holed up on their property can do little
for themselves, never mind produce interest.  Ten can
do alright for themselves, but not much interest.  One
Hundred could possible produce some interest, but not
a lot.  It's when you get serious numbers of workers,
who pay the land and themselves first (reproduction),
but also come up with extra to buy more land
(production).

If all the ecovillages out there were serious about
saving billions of lives, they would begin to
accumulate land and populate it with permaculture
students.  Not just land in remote Idaho or the
Himalayas, but land making the greatest impact on the
global environment.  It won't be hard finding people
starving in the streets, because poverty is greatest
in these places.

As you free these poor souls from the grid, you will
only be thanked, perhaps an economic boost not paying
as much taxes for welfare.  It's when land and wage
earners become ever more scarce that we run into
trouble.  Monoculture business can't compete, because
we set up like a swiss army knife to their switch
blade; nice for a fight, but they need a screw driver
in order to not be screwed.  We reuse and aren't
looking for the materials they need.  We design the
land to be reproductive; we are reproductive to the
land as part of it; we are careful to be choosy how we
pay the interest to the monoculture....

Here we are:

 Design Principles
   1. Observe and Interact
   2. Catch and Store Energy
   3. Obtain a Yield
   4. Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback
   5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
   6. Produce No Waste
   7. Design From Patterns To Details
   8. Integrate Rather Than Segregate
   9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
  10. Use and Value Diversity
  11. Use Edges and Value The Marginal
  12. Creatively Use and Respond To Change 

Businesses ought to gobble it right up.  This is
likely the response to superior design, especially
considering wealth distribution in monoculture.


-Sean.


--- Rain Tenaqiya <raincascadia@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Michael Kramer is on to something very important. 
> It seems that the permaculture movement is suffering
> from the old matter/spirit split and it is hindering
> the movement from applying permaculture design to
> social systems.  There seems to be an assumption
> that humuns are somehow separate from the rest of
> Nature.  Therefore, it is possible to apply systems
> theory/ecological principles to physical, land-based
> or even energy-based designs, but not to the
> relationships between people or their social
> systems.  But humun systems are part of Nature and
> obey the same laws.
>  
> I once saw a surprisingly useful presentation by
> Darren Huckle of Santa Cruz on permaculture
> principles as applied to spirituality.  If you can
> apply permaculture to spirituality, you can
> definitely apply it to economic systems, group
> dynamics, political systems, and all the rest. 
> Permaculture teachers say permaculture is about
> design and not techniques, but students are not
> getting it.  Maybe if we had a course without
> reference to trees, water, and earth (I profess to
> wince at the thought), people would finally get it. 
> The essence of permaculture is about relationships,
> not objects.  Many urban people have trouble apply
> permaculture to their lives because they don't have
> much access to trees, water, or soil.  What we need
> is a permaculture revolution.
>  
> Let's do it!
>  
> Rain
> 
> 
>               
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