I just happened to read "A Prosperous Way Down" by Howard Odum.
Though his writings on systems and ecology apparently influenced
Holmgren, and this particular book screamed 'permaculture' on nearly
every page, the word didn't actually appear once. Its not written in
the most cohesive and elegant manner, but had some really great
points and perspectives to impart, not least the beginnings of a
strong framework for making compelling, systems and full accounting-
based arguments against the notion that free-market capitalism is the
right mechanism to confront our planet and culture's transformation.
He doesn't attack capitalism in and of its self, but argues that it
was/is a system that very efficiently served a purpose for a
particular kind of world, but that world is changing and our economic
system must change with it. Pro free-trade/free-market unbounded
capitalists present themselves as pragmatic and figure-based and it
seems often those who see a bigger picture are left responding with
'softer' points about ethics, or morality. Odum's thesis begins to
get at a means of successfully arguing against free-trade/market
unbounded capitalism in the terms those supporting the system so
often use, and a means of quantifying and forcing the inclusion of
those things that are so often 'externalized' from the argument (not
unlike the way corporate entities externalize all manner of things
they don't like or want to deal with!).
[permaculture] Forty Acres and a Mule!
, (continued)