permaculture

[Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>]

> There is still quite a bit of green space around the building to make  
> the farmers (who are the owners of the coop) happy.
>
>  
If we are interested in being able to dialog with those living the 
dominant paradigm, then understanding the nature and depth of people's 
attachment to lawn is critical.  A lawn makes individuals feel like they 
can understand and control the land -- perhaps the only part of their 
life where they feel that kind of power.  The education required to 
understand and steward the land is daunting compared to running a lawn 
mower. like someone coming out of an american education system expected 
to speak and read hebrew.  If what we are taught and conditioned to 
think of as 'taking care of your property' (AKA the land) is an 
abomination, then what does that say about us, and the relevance of our 
knowledge base, and the meaning of all that work we have put into 
lawns.  Same goes for folks trained in chemical agriculture.

Vaguely related -- Lawrence passed a link to an interesting article a 
while back on group patterns (specifically internet groups).  Within the 
article, a clinical psychologist was cited as describing how groups in 
therapy undermined their shard interest.  Three patterns emerged:
1. sex talk - thankfully limited here.
2. deamonization of other - because we are different to them and they 
are evil.
3. deification of doctrine - because what makes us a group is SOOO special

Paul Cereghino