permaculture

[Mark Feineigle <mfeineigle@gmail.com>]

Over the last few months there has been an increase in "The Problem with
permaculture" articles. I submit that this is a divide and conquer tactic
by the status quo's (counter)intelligence agencies (aka: the powers that
be) because permaculture is a legitimate threat to said status quo. As long
as we continue to argue over trivial issues we not only take energy away
from actually deploying solutions/examples that improve our lives, but also
give legitimacy to the perception of problems within the permaculture
community.

Historically you can see the powers that be nurturing conflict within
communities that threaten the establishment. Barbarians, witches,
communists, socialists, terrorists, conspiracy theorists, and today even
patriots have been labeled negatively by the mainstream media. By sowing
the seeds of conflict, the individuals that make up said groups are divided
internally and fall easily to the masses that perceive them as having
problems (divide and conquer within divide and conquer). These tactics are
reinforced by constant Us versus Them themes - Red/Blue, Left/Right,
Christian/Muslim, my team/your team, my country/your country, etc.

This should be evident if you look at both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall
street movements. Both threatened the establishment and both were disposed
of in similar fashion to what we are seeing happen in the permaculture
movement today. Tea Partiers were labeled as gun toting redneck idiots, OWS
was labeled as a bunch of kids with no direction shitting in the park.
Permaculture is being labeled as an idealist pie in the sky non-solution.
All three were infiltrated with agent provocateurs to stoke the flames of
division.

The Tea Party focused on reigning in government spending. OWS was focused
on getting the money out of politics. Permaculture focuses on real
solutions and improvements in our day-to-day lives outside of the typical
top down supply chain.

All three have or will fail if they engage the powers that be on their
terms. You do not convince others that your solution is correct with
endless debate. A quote often used is Fuller's "You never change things by
fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that
makes the existing model obsolete." To this should be add Planck's "A
scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making
them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a
new generation grows up that is familiar with it."

No solutions exist within our current geo-political state. Permaculture is
outside of all current perceptions, and it will remain there for the
majority. Our goal as permaculturists, nay, as human beings, is to lead our
children through example, not lecture. A child that grows up on in
permaculture household is a mind that requires no convincing.

I see many fighting ridiculous farm "safety" bills and others complaining
over not getting government subsidies for following the permaculture path.
These are completely opposite issues that serve to sap energy away from the
actual movement. Too much government or too little? The implied solution is
the "right" kind of government. Thomas Jefferson noted that "A government
big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to
take away everything that you have." The real problem lies in allowing
outside authority to dictate ANY terms.

I see terms like socialist, communist, capitalist, and fascist thrown
around - usually analogous in usage to "bad". There was a PhD economist
(from Chicago no less!) arguing that we need the "right" kind of
capitalism. F.A. Hayak (Road to Serfdom) laid out how all 4 of these terms
are the same thing. Socialism leads to communism and capitalism leads to
fascism; historically, EVERY SINGLE TIME. While we are told these are polar
opposites, are they not, at their core, a small group of people dictating
the deployment of the labor and capital of a large group? This is
uncommonly refereed to as horseshoe theory.

In contrast anarchists are defined as chaotic. Anarchy is lack of
government. The word itself, An - Arch = no ruler/king while chaos = lack
of order. In anarchy YOU are your own government. Sure you could go
pillage, but would you? Do you not murder or steal today because of laws,
or do you not murder or steal because you want to live in harmony? (Golden
rule) Do you not think you know how to run your life better than anyone
else? To be free to both succeed or fail on your terms? Does not a tree
know how to be a tree better than you know how to be a tree? (I think
Fukuoka said something like this)

A population producing its own food, medicine, and energy is
uncontrollable. A personally responsible person bows to no authority.

Power may grow out of the barrel of a gun, but someone has to pay for the
gun. Last year when GoDaddy backed SOPA the Internet united to boycott
them. Immediately GoDaddy changed their tune. While this was likely a bald
faced lie to save their bottom line, it proves one thing: money talks,
bullshit walks.

How many people do you hear calling for some kind of change or even
revolution? How many of those same people finance "the system" with
subscriptions to netflix, with smart-phone plans, cable TV, go out to
movies/dinner, buy new cars, buy bigger houses, "play" the market, and all
the things we consider to be typical "middle class" activities? This is
what perpetuates the oppression. We are literally financing our own
enslavement (not to mention the mis-allocation and destruction of finite
resources) via constant consumption.

So, what would I suggest as a course of action? Disengage the thieves'
economy on all non-essential functions. Deploy your capital today on
solutions for tomorrow that require no dollar inputs.

Strikes will always be broken. Non-compliance with taxes will lead to jail.
Simply not spending on any "extras" will collapse the thieves' economy. How
can this be countered without revealing that the emperor has no clothes?

While there are infinite nuances, an informed and educated population
capable of critical thinking is all that is required for a successful
society.

http://www.paulchefurka.ca/LadderOfAwareness.html concludes that
permaculturists are at one of the the final steps in awareness.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/si.2007.30.2.127/abstract -
division through social exclusion.

If there is interest or questions on the thoughts I have put forth I will
gladly expand on them.

Thank you for your time and attention,
Mark Feineigle