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  • From: "Steve Read" <steveread@free.fr>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] County and global level permaculture design -got any?
  • Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:09:00 +0100

hi Nicollas,

Interesting that you mention the Circus model, we have Circus neighbours and
they are great friends and I have worked with them getting shows together,
yes they are like an extended kin'ing, they all know each other and will help
each other out even when they maybe don't like each other very much. There is
also a very good 'grapevine' where news of 'maverick' groups or
untrustworthy people is spread around also of course lots of good stuff.

They live for the "show" and the amount of effort they put in seems at times
barely to be paid back from the money that they earn. This reminds me very
much of me and Permaculture! A design, a PDC or conference is what I love to
do, the "show", that maybe, hopefully, helped people a little, changed the
energy a little. The same with the Circus shows I have done with my friends,
at the end 250 people (if the Big Top is full) have had a good time, seen
something a bit different, and at the end if the show has gone well, the
applause erupts from their hearts. I should point out that this is 'modern
circus'! ie not whipping caged animals around the place and stuff like that.

It is something that I have mentioned before, that Permaculture seems to
touch people in a way that is normally only seen in the various 'Ways' that
exist. It is a sort of 'secular' Way, when we added in 'consensus' and
'non-violent communication' to the syllabus here in France this became even
more evident.

All of these things and as you mention, the 'tribal' models + the Desigers
Manual are very useful to us I think when we look at local and trans-national
organisation. Most important though also IMO is the mindset that develops in
those who get seriously into PmC, solutions orientated, that 'there is no
problem only solution'. I find that we instinctively tend to find a 'middle
way' between the various dichotomies that so often crop up.

The Principle of responsability that Mollison expounded is a great example of
this, its application is confronted imo by one or two dilemas:-
People generally, through education, history, confusion, exclusion and mental
laziness often prefer a "them" who govern, who can be blamed rather than
accepting responsability for themselves,. Yet we are often very good at
organising things at a local level.
The many conspiracy theories on the subject seem to reveal to what extent
many of us feel that there is a ruling élite tied into the banks etc and that
there is no other real solution other than tearing it all down.Yet we are
maybe a bit concerned about doing this as we also recognise that there is a
certain form of stability and that many people are not being killed in wars
and quite a few of us have something to eat.
We do and don't trust each other and there is still maybe much fear that
someone is going to take away what we have.
A lot of us like how things are at the moment, with all the 'stuff' we can
buy, many of us think it will stay like that.

If we were to apply the Principle at the 2 levels of transnational/national
and local, PmC+ seems to contain everything that is needed to deal with these
dilemas. Using initiatives like transition towns etc and extending them to
organise ourselves effectively at local levels and there to install the
systems we know that will create abundance. Develop mirrors of the webs of
interdependancies we see in natural systems between these local areas to
develop trust and creativity. Through PDC's, workshops, designs and examples,
show to what extent we can individually liberate ourselves from current
mindsets, giving away the tools that will help people become creative and
pro-active.

At the same time PmC designers working together to develop a way to softly
dismantle the existing centralised systems. Working also maybe to reduce any
reactivity of these systems to any perceived menace.

And like the Circus people have some fun and a few celebrations!!

Steve



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