permaculture

["Gene Monaco" <efmonaco@comcast.net>]

Scott,

Would you elaborate on your statement, "...the rest is in commons, which is
held in a non-profit, which means no property tax, which is a huge
vulnerability in hard times"?  What do you mean by that (vulnerability)?

I'd also like to say that I very much enjoyed reading Christopher's post
about Belize.  Although I have wanted to visit there, and never have as yet,
it sounds to me like a free-for-all where if you don't own your land then it
gets destroyed by plagues of marauding pestilence. It also sounds like even
if you do own your land, if you don't have the means to guard it; it gets
abused none-the-less.  The image of high walls and armed guards comes to
mind.  Who knows how close that image may be in developing here in the
States?

Public or private, it all comes down to the ethics of care.  From what I
know about tribal culture and groups like the Amish, the ethics of care are
enforced by council who has the enforcement wherewithal to exile or shun
members who violate the ethic.  Where no such ethic exists, or where only a
few have it, then how else can one caretake the earth?

Our private system has very much resulted in some of the worst ethics of
care imaginable.  Just north of my home, in Eastern Kentucky, there has been
so much coal mined from the mountains that you might expect that the area
would be lush with material wealth as all its citizens would benefit
immensely.  But no.  Instead, you find the poorest America has to offer,
with undrinkable waters, denuded forests and barren land.  And yet a few are
very rich.  How could this be?  

As I have been learning to understand the earth and my place within it, I
find the concept of ownership an illusion.  We don't own the earth.  If
anything, She owns us.  But the real illusion is that we are all separate
and competing.  I really think we are in the process of evolving to the idea
of oneness -- a collective being, much like a beehive.  It will be the
condition on the other side of the wringer.

As permaculturalists, we feel the pain of a world gone mad, of assault on
the earth and on the very systems that give us life.  We share the same air,
water and molecules of matter.  We also share the same spirit.  The
molecules of emotion flow freely among us.  When our earth mother brings us
to our knees and many of us will change form and die, then perhaps we will
see the futility of ruthless competition, ownership and slavery--slavery of
people, animals, plants, water, minerals, electrons, you name it.

These thoughts make me want to weep, and yet like Scott, I too am looking
forward to it.

Gene Monaco