Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Politics and Permaculture

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Primal Parent" <primalparent@hotmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Politics and Permaculture
  • Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:45:25 +0000

permafrog wrote:
"It seems some people have little understanding of what politics is....Politics is how we order society and meet the needs of society's members."

well if we look at the actual definition of 'Politics' then (according to merriam-webster) politics is "...The Science of Governing" with governing being generally accepted as "...To Rule Over by Right of Authority"

when a government decides (read: dictates) what resources go where, then the people become dependent on the government. whenever there is a break-down anywhere in the chain then those people are helpless. a break-down can be anything from speculative stocks, to a coup, to a dockworker strike, to peak oil, etc. when a society is built upon the use of non-renewable resources then (eventually) it will hit the wall. that is not "permanent" therefore not perma-culture.

but when those same people are allowed to self-govern within the limits of their bioregion, then history has shown that they will evolve to a "societal balance" in regards to their ecosystem. sometimes referred to as "climax". while a top-down approach (having leaders take pc courses) sounds very noble, it fails to address the root cause and therefore, will allow this system to continue on (until it hits that wall or eats itself).

permaculture for me has always been about balance, self-sufficiency, and food independence. local groups slowly pulling away from the beast and spreading and connecting with other local groups creating a web, or better yet, a saftey net.

the historian howard zinn was once asked if he could get only one point across to the average citizen what would it be. he replied, "ALL...GOVERNMENTS...LIE..." he didn't say republicans, or democrats or leftists or fascists or conservatives or marxists or liberals. he said ALL.

and i believe that to waste one's energy in pleading to an abstract financial institution which has no ethics or principles and exists only on paper is similar to the old metaphor about the two individuals who were in a car zooming around a mountain curve when the brakes went out. they were fighting over whether to steer to the left or the right when they crashed through the guard rail and over the cliff. and as they flipped over and landed in a firery crash there was a group of indigenous folks watching. one said, "man i'm glad i got outta that car earlier". the other one said, "i'm just glad i never got in it." the last one asks, "what the hell is a car?"

to say, "i'll support (insert politicians name here) until i catch him in a lie" is naive and absurd. learning how to "prune fruit trees" (as someone put it) might not be as interesting as political gossip, but it is a step away from such hopeless - and ultimately suicidal - dependency.









From: Cindy <intjring@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] Politics and Permaculture
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:22:13 -0700 (PDT)

Sorry, I honestly don't see how politics connects very
well to permaculture. To me, the emphasis of politics
is competing interests, and the parties continually
attempt to create divisions and competition even where
none exist to establish their bases. OTOH,
permaculture emphasizes unity in caring for others.

Further, as someone else said, politics relies on
delegating power to others; permaculture involves
taking power back. Politics generates blame;
permaculture takes responsibility.

Ken, I may come by one of your info sessions to say hi
this weekend and will e-mail you.

Cindy



____________________________________________________________________________________
Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate
in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A.
http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545367
_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
-go to the above link to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list-

_________________________________________________________________
Need a break? Find your escape route with Live Search Maps. http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?ss=Restaurants~Hotels~Amusement%20Park&cp=33.832922~-117.915659&style=r&lvl=13&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=1118863&encType=1&FORM=MGAC01





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page