Subject: Re: [permaculture] Ron Paul for president of the United States of America
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:43:36 -0500
I live in Texas, I'm somewhat familiar with Ron Paul from roughnecking
on oil rigs in his Congressional district some years ago, and I would
vote for the common fascists running as Republicans a long time before
voting for Dr. Paul, a wealthy ultraconservative physician Libertarian
whose political project embodies the social values of a 17-year-old
boy. Yes, he opposes the war in Iraq, but WHY? On what grounds? He
may advocate policies that sound good, on their surface, but the most
minimal scratch beneath that surface reveals an unconsidered agenda.
Articulation is not proof of consideration. The ecological wisdom from
which permaculture arises is absent from Libertarianism. Libertarian
dogma sets free every antisocial motivation one can think up,
legitimizing social chaos in the name of some half-baked idea about
liberation that fails moderately rigorous inquiry.
Liberation, as Paulo Freire taught in /Pedagogy of the Oppressed/,
occurs as a result of praxis, a conscious practice of taking action,
reflecting on that action, taking another action based upon that
reflection, and continuing the process until liberation is realized.
Freire, a Brazilian, was a man of the same sort as the creators of
Permaculture, a man of careful, informed thought. Praxis and
Libertarianism have nothing in common save words themselves.
Permaculture concerns observing the land to learn its lessons.
Libertarianism concerns loosing monster boy (immature Warrior archetype)
frat rats to ravage the land. In other words, we get a deepening of the
ubiquitous ecological and social destruction of the current illegitimate
junta sitting in power over the people, if Dr. Paul is elected
President. I caution people to observe Libertarian dogma carefully
before thinking about endorsing this thought-challenged man or his
policies.
70% of the US population has never stepped foot in a college classroom,
thus never encountered Logic, Ethics, or Rhetoric. This is a matter of
policy. The ruling elite of which Dr. Ron Paul is a member saw in
California what happens when the state offers free college educations.
Where the average US citizen read on a 10th grade level in 1970, they
now read on a 6th grade level. Creating the most ignorant electorate in
the industrial world benefited someone. The Presidential ambitions of
Ron Paul certainly benefit. No one possessing even the most vague
familiarity with ecological wisdom would consider voting for what he
represents, in my opinion.
I'm an educated Green who votes Democratic as long as there are only two
national political parties in the US with a prayer of governing.
Actually, that's one, as the Republican Party, representing a minority
of the US electorate (perhaps as low as 12% of the eligible voting
population, considering 50% don't vote), seeks to rule rather than to
govern.