Subject: Re: [permaculture] on an ethics of Mr Pittman (and the US military)
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:47:56 -0400
Wow. I go out of town and come back to find this discussion going on.
If there's one thing I know about permaculture, it's that it requires us
to begin where we are. Zone 1 starts outside our front door. It
doesn't require that we wait until conditions are ideal before we act -
in fact, it seems to require exactly the opposite.
Where we are now is that we have troops deployed in places where the
land and people are extremely fragile. While we Americans can certainly
do other things at the ballot box and elsewhere to try to change that,
right now this is where we are. And if there's a chance of any lives
being saved because our troops have some knowledge of permaculture, then
it should absolutely be taught. Would you advocate denying a soldier
first aid training, which could save lives, because you disapprove of
what that soldier is doing otherwise? Because permaculture is first and
foremost first aid for the earth. We as permaculturists may be
powerless for the time being to stop the damage of war entirely, but if
there's any damage committed through ignorance that we can minimize, or
any healing of the land or people that can be done if our troops just
had a little knowledge, then I think it's imperative to teach our
soldiers if we have the opportunity, as Scott does. I think it's
imperative in fact to teach anyone willing to learn, regardless of the
compromised circumstances under which we all have to work. Working to
change the system from the inside is just as valid a pursuit as any
other - and maybe more thankless since we often get flack from within
our own ranks.
Re: [permaculture] on an ethics of Mr Pittman (and the US military)
, (continued)