permaculture

["Primal Parent" <primalparent@hotmail.com>]

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