permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

Marjory wrote:
>  It is dammned hard to get one of those remote
> farms up and functioning, much less a small community, and I sincerely doubt
> eco cities will emerge.  I think one of the major failings of permaculture
> is the false optimism it engenders.
>   
In what way does permaculture engender false optimism? I've never heard 
anyone say that it's easy to set up an ecovillage. Quite the opposite. 
Oh, Mollison and others talk about how easy it is to grow a lot of food 
and they sound pretty optimistic about gardening, but my experience is, 
that's true. But a community? I don't see anything in any Pc literature 
saying communities are easy to create, and most instructors I know point 
out how much work and luck is involved. So if you're going to accuse Pc 
of a "major failing," I''m curious to know the basis for the accusation.

Toby