permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

Thanks for this valuable post, Jason, and for the kind words. You've said 
something here that I think is crucial:

> We have to remember that we're not promoting permaculture for the sake of
> permaculture*.* We're promoting permaculture as a way for people to
> significantly change their lives. Permaculture is not the goal, shifts in
> the way people think and act is the goal.

Amen. I think of permaculturists as the design and implementation arm of the 
larger sustainability movement. We're here to implement actions, communicate 
concepts, and even, if I may be so bold, to offer advice, to help achieve a 
sustainable human culture. We're not here to make everyone a permaculturist 
or to claim certain methods as being or not being "part of permaculture". 
Permaculture is a process we use toward a much larger end, not a thing in 
itself. That's why I get mildly frustrated when people talk about  their  
"permaculture farm" or ask me if I want to "come see my permaculture." I 
can't actually see permaculture any more than I can see physics or design.

Jason also gets to why I don't care if people use the P-word or not. In many 
cases, calling an activity "permaculture" is off-putting or otherwise 
counterproductive when what we want is a change in behavior and mindset, not 
membership in "our" movement. Indigenous people living sustainably are not 
permaculturists (I doubt if they are doing zone analysis and teaching the 
general core model). They're just people living sustainably, and that's the 
goal.

And this gets to the heart of why I don't like to see permaculture described 
as a "movement." In true social movements such as civil or women's rights, or 
anti-war,  the goal is to achieve exactly what the movement's name states: 
gaining enforceable rights for a group, or ending a war. But the goal of 
permaculturists, I hope, is not to get everyone to become  "copyrighted" 
capital P Permaculturists with a PDC certificate on the wall, let alone to 
pass legislation enforcing permaculture design to be applied everywhere. The 
goal is to bring people around to a whole-systems paradigm so that humans 
will meet their needs in an ecologically sound way. When civil rights 
legislation was passed and enforced, the civil rights movement of that era 
disappeared and most of the activists turned to other things. When a war 
ends, that anti-war movement dissipates. And when we are all living 
sustainably, the "sustainability movement" will disappear. A movement is just 
that: movement of people toward a behavior, and that movement stops when the 
behavior becomes the norm. But when permaculture is part of society's 
mindset, the activities known as permaculture design won't end the way the 
actions of the civil rights movement did. We won't turn to other things. 
We'll keep on designing and teaching the design system, and we'll still call 
it permaculture.

As Larry Santoyo says, some day we will be embarrassed that we had to hold 
classes in something that is so elementary and obvious.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com


On Dec 26, 2013, at 9:57 AM, Jason Gerhardt wrote:

> Toby's "rant" is wonderful!
> 
> I think there are two different ways of viewing/teaching permaculture out
> there, one is as a series of techniques, and the other is as an in-depth
> design process. I would just like to add to the conversation that viewing
> and teaching permaculture as a design process actually changes peoples
> lives.
> 
> The techniques focus leads to the all too common student overwhelm of
> information (and subsequent disappointment when they find that certain
> techniques are totally inappropriate for their site, climate, or whatever).
> For example, I could care less if my students can dig a swale after
> finishing a PDC with me if they can't properly site a swale (insert any
> technique).
> 
> The real revolution of permaculture is in changing peoples lives, and when
> people learn to think critically, think in systems, and think about
> everything through a lens of the permaculture ethics and principles then
> they become fundamentally different and changed people. For the better. We
> have to remember that we're not promoting permaculture for the sake of
> permaculture*.* We're promoting permaculture as a way for people to
> significantly change their lives. Permaculture is not the goal, shifts in
> the way people think and act is the goal.
> 
> One could also say that techniques are easy to sell, whereas processes are
> far more difficult to close the deal on. This addresses the perennial
> threads of upholding standards and avoiding the commodification of
> permaculture. Those of us who think permaculture standards and profiteering
> are important issues can best start by talking about permaculture as a
> design process, and by practicing that design process enough to where it
> fundamentally changes how we see, feel, think, and act.
> 
> At best, techniques are fads particular to a place, time, and people.
> Design processes are what will actually lead to a more permanent culture.
> 
> Humbly suggested,
> 
> Jason Gerhardt
> 
> -- 
> 
> PO Box 4355
> Boulder, CO 80306
> 720-496-9744
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