permaculture

[Andrew McSwain <aeromax.way@gmail.com>]

I don't claim to know the answer, but I DO know that it requires more and
different tools than the ones we use to transform an individual, or
regenerate a landscape,
or organize a project, etc. etc.

The tools are different, but the principles used to build such
multifunctional organizational systems necessary to create a large-scale
social movement are the same. The tools are different: Instead of
nitrogen-fixing trees we have community credit-unions and instead of fruit
bearing perrinials we have after-school mentorship programs that are also
the organizing grounds for a youth-led renewable energy revolution.

The tools are different, but the principles of permaculture, like
multifunctionality, long-term thinking, resource cycling and conservation,
and respect for the environment, are the same.

With that being said, I recently brought up the topic in another current
thread about the relationship between landscape design and permaculture. I
believe that nature is a teacher, and permaculture is the language. Cities
today communicate a message of uni-functional elements whose only purpose is
to serve our myopic and immediate self-interests. The unwanted aspects, or
consequences, are relegated to systems that have not yet been organized to
serve our sole benefit.

How we organize our cities is a very clear representation of how we treat
our fellow man, how we treat our environment, and how we treat all life. An
ecoystem could be considered the dialectical opposite of this confused image
of perfection and modernity. Permaculture in our cities is a way to turn our
cities more like ecosystems, and, in turn, could slowly start to change the
way that we organize our desks, our lawns, and our social relationships with
other humans.

 As demonstrated by our school systems and modern educational philosophers
like john taylor gatto, * the medium is more important than the message.* If
permaculture is a more just way of organizing our food systems and
communities, then our communities will change to become less fascist and
self-serving of those in control, and start to look more like a forest..
where even the little guys can get enough sun and water to grow and
contribute.

If the medium is the message, and white supremicists REALLY learn the for
real kinda permaculture that we talk about here.. and not just key-hole
design, but the full schebang of an modified ecosystem, then there will be a
practical and philsoophical conflict with the way that they live and the way
that they think about non-white races... The change is slow, but sure. It
will be like the roots that grow on the side of a bare mountain and crush
slowly crush the rock of their ignorance... or the drips that form a cave.

Permaculture, if adopted by EVERYONE (and that even includes white
supremicists, the military, and big-business) It could bring a wave of
extreme change in more than just how we plant our gardens but in how we
plant our children, and how we trim and prune our government.

When I say extreme I don't mean immediate. The change will come not like a
tidal wave, but like the slow and careful growth of the roots of an old tree
in the north-western rainforests of oregon. It's a slow change, one that we
may never see in our lifetimes, but it's a change that that is sure, that
will last.




If this philosophy holds true, then it doesnt matter who adopts permaculture

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 8:18 PM, Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com> wrote:

> The movement is already happening, in cooperatives in Venezuala, in
> farmer's seed burning of Monsanto GMO in Haiti, in small farmer and local
> food movements all over the world, in local currencies, intentional
> communities, indigenous uprisings to protect ecosystems, etc, etc. It is
> even happening in some of the most entrenched institutions such as a few
> public schools.
>
> An effective way to keep the word permaculture meaning what it actually
> means is to control the definitions of it. So we need to watch Wiki sites,
> get our definitions into dictionaries and encyclopedias, etc.  And to stay
> alert to media misdefinitions of it as well and correct them where possible.
> Having it trademarked helps too. I've always believed that is a strategy for
> keeping a subject from being co-opted by hostile vested interests.  And of
> course having manuals and textbooks such as Mollison's and Holmgren's work.
> It's starting to move into the university world as well, with Mollison's
> textbook as the bedrock of it.
>
> I think that the concerns about one small unit of national guardsmen
> co-opting permaculture are pretty unreal. There are so many tools that we
> have that can counteract that. It's created some interesting conversation so
> I'm glad it came up. I believe that the best way to stay in control of a
> subject is to be proactive, not to go off in our corners and refuse to
> associate with people. Universities ae going to start teaching this subject
> sooner or later. Let's make sure they get it right. It's inevitable that
> permaculture will move into the mainstream whether we help it or not. Let's
> be proactive and guide and inform that process as much as possible.
>
> It is certainly possible to manipulate and undermine a movement, but when
> communities are ready for a certain level of truth, almost nothing can stop
> that momentum. The Civil Rights movement is a great example of that.
>
> Eloquent, passionate leadership is an important component of the success of
> movements. We would do well to support our vocal and eloquent spokespeople.
>
> Cory
>
>
>
>
> --- On Thu, 8/12/10, Daniel Mazen Kablaoui <dankablaoui@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > From: Daniel Mazen Kablaoui <dankablaoui@gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [permaculture] Designing a Movement (was: Ethics of
> whatever)
> > To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010, 3:11 PM
> > Word to rafter sass.
> > We gotta keep it moving.
> > Show and prove.
> >
> > You can't stop people; the best put the danks down.
> >
> > I was thinking of how uncomfortable the lack of design in
> > the system itself. But. (but) but the stretch of Pc goes all
> > the way past that idea design. zone 5 Scott Pittman
> > committment witness to reserve, and maybe Permaculture
> > itself should and will indeed always have its zone 5.
> >
> > Who wants to step up to the garden rigt outside the kitchen
> > (what's the kitchen?); who will hold down zone 1. Because -
> > as for allergies - it sounds like (to Me) there are people
> > who don't have them. They are being listened to!
> >
> > But maybe it's not an allergy as much as hereditary
> > condition (hereditary allergy?)... We will see, we are all
> > different.
> >
> > Seems like some of em permies don't have it; and zone 1 is
> > what's happening for them.
> >
> > Who can make the idea clear; bring the style eminent? There
> > are those who stick to the ground, working for themselves -
> > what zone is that in this community?
> >
> > For we are apparently arranged in a space already - discern
> > yourself if you can in this context...
> >
> > Here they are, talking. The relationships exist anyway, and
> > insight is possible.
> >
> > Cool discussion (glad I checked in guys)
> >
> >
> >
> > On Aug 12, 2010, at 2:08 PM, gavinraders@gmail.com
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Beautiful. Thank you Rafter. Great to see this
> > conversation come around full circle, but even more so, to
> > hear the next generation of leaders in this movement coming
> > into their own, finding their eloquent powerful voices, and
> > raising the critical questions that need to be raised if we
> > are ever going to move permaculture beyond what it has been.
> > Here's to succession, evolution, and dialectical engagement
> > within our movement.
> > > Thats all I have time for now. But i take your words
> > with me in the day-to-day work and struggle. Hope to
> > reconnect soon Rafter!
> > >
> > > Gavin Raders
> > > Co-Founder, Planting Justice
> > > www.plantingjustice.org
> > > Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone, powered by CREDO
> > Mobile.
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: rafter sass <rafter@liberationecology.org>
> > > Sender: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> > > Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:55:39
> > > To: Northeastern Permaculture (List)<
> northeasternpermaculture@lists.riseup.net>;
> > <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > > Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > > Subject: [permaculture] Designing a Movement (was:
> > Ethics of whatever)
> > >
> > >
> > > Many heartfelt thanks  to the folks who have been
> > able to engage with the challenges of this conversation
> > without descending into
> > > name-calling and other juvenilia.
> > >
> > > ...
> > >
> > >
> > > Kevin Skvorak has Problems.
> > >
> > > Two of them, for the purposes of this conversation.
> > ;)
> > >
> > > One of them is a Personal Problem - he seems to have
> > contracted the modern anarchist's allergy to leadership. The
> > symptoms include putting critique before curiosity.
> > > I hope he works on this. I think he would be even more
> > effective in raising critical topics and questions if he
> > did.
> > >
> > > The other is NOT a Personal Problem. It's another kind
> > of problem altogether - a Movement Problem.
> > >
> > > He wants to be a part of a movement that practices an
> > engaged and ongoing dialogue about its own ethics and
> > strategy - and the actually-existing Permaculture movement
> > can't really be described this way. Not quite - not yet.
> > >
> > > What's standing in the way?
> > > Well, a lot of the movement leadership seems to have
> > contracted the classic leader's malaise of allergy to
> > critique.
> > > Juvenile defensiveness, on the part of our teachers
> > and public faces, is a problem that is going to do us real
> > harm, as a movement - if it isn't mitigated.
> > > Or maybe we all just need to get really good at
> > gentle, soothing, critique, so that we don't insult or
> > frighten them when we have hard questions to ask. ;)
> > > (And yes - I definitely respond better to that, too!)
> > >
> > > And if that weren't enough, a lot of folks in the
> > movement - along with most everybody else in the world -
> > don't have a great toolbox when it comes to thinking about
> > design and strategy at different scales. What does it even
> > mean to build a movement - or design one? We aren't well
> > prepared to answer. And we, of all movements, might want to
> > think hard about the question.
> > >
> > > I don't claim to know the answer, but I DO know that
> > it requires more and different tools than the ones we use to
> > transform an individual, or regenerate a landscape,
> > > or organize a project, etc. etc.
> > >
> > > Individual, project, community, movement, world...
> > > The principles I use to guide my behavior and my
> > relationships are related, but distinct, from the ones that
> > I bring to creating strategy for the projects I work on.
> > > The criteria I use to design my projects are related,
> > but distinct from the ones I use to understand and work with
> > my community.
> > > And the tools I use to engage and enliven my community
> > are related, but distinct from the ones that I use to build
> > and strategize my movement.
> > >
> > > So for me, arguments that we should go anywhere and
> > teach Pc to anyone, for anyone, because Pc  is
> > automagically transformative, are wrongheaded.
> > > A good PDC might actually be able to transform anyone
> > that takes it - but that doesn't mean that teaching that
> > class is good for the movement.
> > > As Annie Pollock points out, greenwashing is real, and
> > we are already dealing with the challenges of the
> > Permaculture label being applied to all kinds of things we
> > don't
> > > want to be associated with.
> > >
> > > We could go and teach a PDC at a whites-only
> > Afrikaaner "ecovillage" like Orania, and maybe it would have
> > a profound impact on the people who took it.
> > > But (1) most of us would be, shall we say, reluctant?
> > for Pc to be seen as a tool for building a racially pure
> > Volkstaat, and (2) the Oranians already identify with
> > Permaculture, so I guess an ecological holistic worldview
> > WON'T necessarily guide someone out of an oppressive,
> > ethnocentric social vison.
> > >
> > > Teaching Pc for, and to, white nationalists, would be
> > bad for the movement.
> > >
> > > (For more evidence that fascism and ecology can
> > survive in the same brain, look into Rudolph Steiner's
> > theories on race. Or even more frightening, search
> > Stormfront.org for entries on Permaculture. Note: the point
> > here is to debunk oversimplified models of change, and
> > magical thinking about Permaculture education - not to
> > compare the National Guard project to white supremacy.)
> > >
> > > And vice versa: what's bad for the individual or
> > project can be good for the movement. The lynching of civil
> > rights movement workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and
> > Michael Schwerner, in 1964, was a horrific tragedy for them,
> > their friends, and families - and a historic watershed for
> > the civil rights movement.
> > >
> > > The point of these case studies is to say: we may not
> > know how to design a movement, but
> > > it ain't entirely like designing a PDC.
> > >
> > > We are called, by our commitments, ethics, and
> > desires, to figure it out. With each other.
> > >
> > > OK, I'm actually supposed to be packing and moving
> > right now, so I'm going to cut this off.
> > > What are we doing to do with this movement of ours?
> > >
> > >
> > > all love, respect, and hard questions,
> > > rafter
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > rafter sass
> > > Liberation Ecology Project
> > > liberationecology.org
> > > 518-567-7407
> > > skype: raughter
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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-- 
Andrew Edwin McSwain
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