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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Designing a Movement (was: Ethics of whatever)
  • Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:19:56 -0400

On 8/12/2010 4:55 PM, rafter sass wrote:

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.

What do you know about designing a movement? Maybe you should try and start one and find out for real what is involved. You could use parts of the Greens and Permaculture ones as models. It is obvious you want to use Earth-based sustainability movements to implement your notions of social re-engineering and what is socially and politically correct
and acceptable.

The permaculture movement is healthy and moving along just fine; no changes are needed. Yours and Kevin's wishes to retool it along the lines of permaculture supremacy speaks for itself.

I have to admit you got me thinking and I agree with the ethics
behind your statements and proposals though you fall into your own trap with your radical proposals. Isn't there a better way to effect change
without deliberately excluding and alienating people?

What do you and Kevin know about human rights activism?
Have either of you ever participated in any demonstrations, civil rights, human rights or environmental? Or do your deeds in the world of permaculture and organic agriculture speak for themselves? Taking your convictions about human rights as far as they can go means that you are talking about confronting "the global corporate/military/religious/political establishment" and needing to completely reorganize global society, politics and economics. So where are you going to make compromises?

We are called, by our commitments, ethics, and desires, to figure it
out. With each other.

What are we doing to do with this movement of ours?

I think its more a matter of what you're going to do with yours
as your radical, exclusionary ideas are in sync with only a small portion of the people actively involved, in any way, on any level, in the permaculture movement. You should have been around during the 60's
to experience what real free thinking is all about. It was a time
when ethics, morality and concern for one's fellow man was in the forefront of most people's mind, never mind the war, drugs and government meddling.

I see a challenge to take your energy in wanting to make change in the ethics of the permaculture movement and use it wisely, taking it to its fullest extent.

I think it may be time for a whimsical proposal for a new permaculture list, one where anyone is welcome. I can call it Permaculture For All, pc4all@lists.ibiblio.org.







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