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  • From: Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] permaculture has everything to do with politics
  • Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 09:27:39 -0700

politics is a word without meaning like expedience. Expedience in the absence of values is self interest.
we've lost the burden of citizenship. Property rights vs. property responsibility. political rights vs. political responsibility. Collective power counteracts individual accumulation of power. for all time bad people have manipulated power. Political systems create opportunity for choosing future as well as pwer grabs -- double edged. governance can slow things down - government slowness is beneficial attribute given the damage that can be done with collective power held by a few.

Political system as object of design. permaculture focuses on individual action in physioecological setting. Not what we say but what we do. Political systems are trans-physical. They are not necessarily connected to physical. System design works interactions and flows as much as structure of individual elements, with ephasis on effect of pattern and pattern self-design/replication. Human is the observer. P r o t r a c t e d observation gives ability to predict outcome of action or self-actualizing pattern. How does this apply to political.

Political has individual mental as well as structural elements. information flows are critical. Mental patterns are as important as physical patterns in creating system behavior. We need language to talk about the elements and flows of political systems and how political connects to physioecological systems. Things like "memes" and deconstruction of democratic infrastructure, and tools of collective restraint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

Did an exercise two weeks ago with a group of planners-scientists identifying possible future pathways and implications for function of neashore ecosystem (where system breakdown occurs at a scale greater than individual activist). It became apparent to me a feedback loop between three elements

1. individual motive (informed by nature,nurture, and memes)
2. mobilization of collective resources (governance)
3. ecosystem function

What was more interesting was the interactions between. connection between individual motive and governance is dependant on infrastructure for collective design... being able to predict the outcome of collective actions -- choosing futures rather then having life happen to us. Governance is a design process. Between individual and ecosystem function is information feedback down to the political unit level (what is the effective political unit..). Protracted observation of individuals may not be enought to view cumulative impacts. protraction is expensive and either spends individual or collective capital. Current meme propagated by powerhungry is about hurrying and that taking a long time to make a decision is wasteful. Individuals don't have body of knowledge to accurately interpret raw information... another set of infrastructure, and between governance and ecosystem function a method of effectively and accurately influencing collective behavior through feedback systems (taxes, subsidy, regulation) -- i dont care if its regulate with elder wisdom or regulate with pencil necked bureaucrats its still tax, subsidize or regulate.

liberal thinking leans on this fantasy that indivudal enlightenment flows to collective righteousness... perhaps self delusion. Why wouldn't system require design and rearrangement of elements to function... political individuals are not just individual people... one person one vote thing isn't real. people self organize into political clusters with shared motives and values. This is the level of organizatino that infrastructure must address. Exclusion of political units we don't like doesn't work. Survival is in everyones interest.

three information infrastructures need to be designed...
1. effective feedback from ecosystem to individual political units
2. effective feedbacks for modifying market behavior
3. effective feebacks from

Primary disfuction is information flow between elements, lack of infrastructure and in that vacuum control of information by individuals of all political stripes (yep... propaganda is what propaganda does...) trying to manipulate failing system. Imagine 10 people trying to work with an elephant to build a bridge wearing blindfold and ear protection having only a cattle prod. elephant is collective resources, people are political units, bridge is ecosystem. cattle prod is governance infrastructure, elephant feet vs. trunk is influence of market on ecosystem, headgear prevents feedback of elephant driver.

Is this an accurate conceptual model as a basis for design? The perma-experimental process doesn't necessarily apply. We are gardening human socio-political nature. How do you chisel plow the human weed field. How do you chicken tractor the populace (focus their pecking to do useful work) -- permaculture is about benevolent manipulation is it not? We are not self-actualizing the chicken... it is being placed, manipulated, or constrained to fulfil ecosystem function. Why would design of our society involve any less rigorous placement, manipulation or constraint? Destructive manipulation of information by broken individuals must be part of the design...

Paul Cereghino
Olympia, Washington, USA



Rain Tenaqiya wrote:

In addition to what Robyn Francis and others had to say, permaculture is about creating permanent culture. Politics is simply the creation of social policy, which is one of the ways that we create culture. There are a lot of random posts on this list, so I don't want to encourage more, but if we can suggest ways of applying the permaculture principles and design methods to address political problems, then please do so. Obviously, the Bush administration understands the principle that what goes around comes around and they are trying to block the free functioning of feedback for their actions. Despite what some New Agers and other religionists say, it does seem possible for individuals to largely escape retribution for harmful actions. But what about the effects on future generations? If they are good politicians, the bushies should be able to turn a problem into a solution. Let's see.
Rain


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