permaculture

[Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com>]

"why are young people(not only young people) genuinely disturbed at
an occupying military force, with a deeply dodgy reputation for civilian
wellbeing, teaching permaculture to a civilisation older than most
western civilisations, in a geographical region where historically the
local people are/were famed for their beautiful gardens, poetry, and
self sufficiency?"



This is actually quite ironic isn't it? Your statement was beautifully put, 
it truly brings out the deep irony of the situation. 

I see so many aspects of irony in so much of permaculture. Should I be at 
Pine Ridge right now, teaching permaculture to Lakota? Some feel I should not 
be. But the Lakota who welcome me are taking permaculture, making it their 
own, adding their own strength of culture and knowledge to it, and using it 
to forward their cultural and economic wellbeing. And I'm learning as much 
from them as they are learning from me. Which is the whole point. 

It might be interesting to hear from some of the National Guardsmen that 
Scott trained, especially to hear what they have learned from their 
experience. Have they been touched by the beauty of this culture? Are they 
learning anything from the Afganis? The 25 Army vet we just trained in our 
Pine Ridge PDC did learn from the cultures he interacted with. He learned 
from taking a PDC at Pine Ridge instead of some other location, and was 
deeply touched by it - so much so he went through a qdeep emotional 
experience after the course (which I won't get into further to respect his 
privacy).  He is having no choice but to change his views on some things, and 
who knows where that will lead? I feel it is my responsibility to continue to 
help people like him and others from "mainstream" (or any other stream) to 
make it all the way through a paradigm shift to a much healthier way of 
operating and viewing the world. And I continue working on my own paradigm 
shift. 

This conversation has hopefully been food for thought for all of us and I 
appreciate all the different viewpoints that have been expressed.   







why are young people(not only young people) genuinely disturbed at
an occupying military force, with a deeply dodgy reputation for civilian
wellbeing, teaching permaculture to a civilisation older than most
western civilisations, in a geographical region where historically the
local people are/were famed for their beautiful gardens, poetry, and
self sufficiency?