Subject: [permaculture] Where the political discussion goes
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:16:05 -0500
I think I understand the international intricacies of political
discussion on a global listserv, which we started into with the economic
colonialism idea of golf resorts and sugar plantations, which, in
political economics, are the same thing: harvesters of gold, as Kathyann
brilliantly called it.
The primary reason international politics is volatile is the ubiquitous
economic oppression of the G8 countries. Read the history of the
Bretton Woods Agreements spawning the World Bank, the IMF, and GATT,
which became the WTO under Brother Bill Clinton. The fact that the WTO
has almost failed is strong testament to the consequences of giving the
victims of US ( and G8) economic oppression a voice in the global
political economics policy process. There's a long way to go to attain
a nearly fair global political economics and it will be a bumpy ride
because the rich apparently think their money buys them dominion over
everyone else.
It seems odd to see a US black man use his money to oppress others into
leaving their land.
Permaculture sees money differently than real estate developers and
multinational food corporations, since Permaculturalists share the
profits of our bountiful harvests. Money does not become a control
issue, in Permaculture, because we take only what we need and we share
the rest. This is what makes Permaculture sustainable, in political
economics terms. We've seen the grinches of dominion economics crash
any number of ecosystems in the interests of hoarding more gold. As I
recall, although I'll need to re-read to be certain, William R. Catton,
in his wonderful, if scholarly, /Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of
Revolutionary Change/, (a scholarly book that has not once gone out of
print since 1980), makes the case that the Great Depression resulted
from overshooting the US ecosystem. Since then, we've way overshot it
with the ghost acreage from cheap oil.
Economic oppression is about purchasing ghost acreage to support
overshot ecosystems and to maintain the elites in power positions, not
necessarily in that order.
How can political discussion not be volatile, considering what's at stake?
Permaculture calls this volatility an edge.
Avoiding edges is not Permaculture.
In fact, edges are the most fecund places, to Permaculture.
Permaculture teaches us to pay close attention to edges.
The political discussion has led us to the nub of The Problem: the
global North's need for ghost acreage in order to continue a failed
economic agenda. Read the history of the Bretton Woods agreements.
Read the neo-con agenda at
http://newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf.
Then, if you live in the US, consider if you're willing to live with
efforts carried out in your name that perpetuate US economic hegemony
over the rest of the planet.
US foreign policy is run by the plantation mentality of the rich. In
our name.
Getting that information from "our" victims is tough to face without
resorting to denial or the "isms." Racism. Classism, Etc.
But Permaculture teaches us to observe, and to act in harmony with our
observations.
The baseline question from my observations, though, is this: shall we
act symbiotically or parasitically?
Permaculture says symbiotically.
Parasitic isn't Permaculture.
Yet we in the US live in an economically and ecologically parasitic
system dependent on global military dominance and stripping Earth of her
bounty.
We've mortgaged our grand-children's future to China in order to
continue purchasing this military dominance and its attendant economic
expansion.
How do we in the US live with this?
Earth is one ecosystem and we have to find niches in it that do not
oppress others.
This is Permaculture.