As a Libertarian , my beef is eminent domain being used to foster this project. If it is such a great thing let them use persuasion , not coercion. That's a lot of persuading to do.
"Molecular evidence suggests that our common ancestor with chimpanzees lived, in Africa, between five and seven million years ago, say half a million generations ago. This is not long by evolutionary standards … in your left hand you hold the right hand of your mother. In turn she holds the hand of her mother, your grandmother. Your grandmother holds her mother's hand, and so on … How far do we have to go until we reach our common ancestor with the chimpanzees? It is a surprisingly short way. Allowing one yard per person, we arrive at the ancestor we share with chimpanzees in under 300 miles." - Richard Dawkins
Memes ( in the Dawkins/Darwinian sense ) are subject to random mutation and natural selection just as genes are. I would rather see the meme of permaculture prove itself "fittest" as opposed to fast. Game theory could be utilized to find the Evolutionary Stable Strategies. The angry memes scenario reminds me of the Hawks/Dove/Retaliator scenarios .
A Bertrand Russell quote about mathematics. It's in jest , I think :
"Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another proposition is true of that thing. It is essential not to discuss whether the first proposition is really true, and not to mention what the anything is, of which it is supposed to be true. Both these points would belong to applied mathematics. We start, in pure mathematics, from certain rules of inference, by which we can infer that if one proposition is true, then so is some other proposition. These rules of inference constitute the major part of the principles of formal logic. We then take any hypothesis that seems amusing, and deduce its consequences. If our hypothesis is about anything, and not about some one or more particular things, then our deductions constitute mathematics. Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true. People who have been puzzled by the beginnings of mathematics will, I hope, find comfort in this definition, and will probably agree that it is accurate."
Warrior ? What , me? I did have a vision of myself once as a noble youth galloping his white steed through his fathers castle . Up staircases and through the dining halls surrounded by his trusty hounds. Lately though , I keep seeing myself as the Italian barber who gets machined gunned while shaving the snitch in the barbers chair. Funny how life is . Past , present , or future.
Seasonal Update : Spring is approaching and now is a good time for some clean-up. I am scouting the eaves , walls , rafters , etc. of my home and outbuildings for last years nests. Knocking them down. This way I know when a queen is settling in to her new home. I am sure that the wasps are already busy in the southwest U.S. ?
“As a reader, I could put on someone else's shoes and live through his adventures, borrow his individuality and make choices that I didn't have at home.”― Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The poor sap down the road who spent $450,000 on a CAFO operation is now mortgaged and committed until the next generation. He has to continually upgrade and reinvest according to the whims of his corporate overseer. He pollutes the environment. Harassed by regulators. Meanwhile he ends up making a blue collar wage and sells a chicken to somebody that sells the chicken to Wal-Mart who sells it to customers for $3.99. His ambition could not be considered unbridled since he volunteered for this heavy yoke. Greed could not be a factor. Investing $450,000 to make a blue collar wage is far from greedy. Nor intelligent in my eyes.
The permie neighbor decides to raise pastured fowl with chicken tractors and movable pens. Infrastructure is a couple of grand. Upgrades cost little and old parts are just re-purposed. Soil fertility increases. The permie stays under the regulatory radar. The chicken operation is integrated into a productive system that provides food, fuel , and further income. There are a select group of customers who appreciate the quality of the chicken and are willing to pay $20 a bird. The permie is efficient and frugal and sees that he or she can pay themselves $25 an hour for their effort. The integration of other enterprises on the permie farm compounds that hourly income. Unbridled ambition it is. No corporate yoke. No heavy investment burden. No crony capitalist master breathing down your neck. No greed either. Just pride in an intelligent pathway. P.R.I.D.E. "Personal Responsibility in Daily Effort".
I work for a nationwide Christian Non-Profit right now. Last year I was getting into the elevator and some guy from upper management out-of-state slipped into the elevator with me. Nice guy. He started up a conversation "So, do you like working for this company?" Me - "Yes, pretty nice bunch." He :"It's a non-profit too , so that's a plus" Me: "I'm all for profit". He: "Oh". Luckily for me the door opened up before I said "And I'm all for the Flying Spaghetti Monster too."
Health care is unusual in that payment is determined by the largest "customers" - which are private insurance companies, or public Medicare/Medicaid. For-profit and non-profit receive the same payment for services per patient. Those folks successful in life enough to pay privately are stuck paying the same rates as the insurers. The fees are manipulated by the providers in a way that they try to recoup losses incurred through being underpaid for one service by hiking the cost of others. So, private customers often do not receive accurate billing for that particular service. For instance , outpatient M.R.I.s pay for nursing labor costs in the extended care unit. The infamous $6 Tylenol.
Taxpayers provide the funding for the public insurers . The public insurers keep cost down {supposedly} by keeping a ceiling on payments. Yet they are cumbersome top heavy systems that rely on taxes to cover the cost of their intrinsic inefficiencies. Subsidies, taxation, regulations, cost manipulation all effect the accuracy of information which is price.
In a system like this it is hard to imagine a way to determine the superiority of for-profit vs. non-profit.
While a dig the "Free State Project" as a valid and personally enjoyable plan , link instead to my post in the Ulcer Factory and grok my motivation for this post to begin with :
So, politics aside I wondered how this strategy would pan out for permaculture folks. What would happen if we chose a state or region and agreed to move there enmass?
Would we be able to validate more effectively the permaculture model as regional community{s} vs. the isolated pockets of brilliance that now exist? Imagine if you would a Polyface Farm, Mark Shepards Orchard and market farm, A Homestead Meatsmith, a Helen Atthowes style veganic farm, Wheatons Labs, builders like Jay C. White Cloud, Rocket stove scientists, multiple Eco- Communities, and hundreds of urban homes with Gaia Gardens, bee hives, and solar panels all within 50 miles of each other. Market gardens, food co-ops, craftsfolks, musicians. Earthworks designed across multiple landholdings. Private and collective schools for the little ones. Utopia? Close enough?
So, here is my proposition. We collaborate here on permies.com and follow the same strategy used by the Free State Project. We chose a region or state by touting the pros and cons of each . We create a flag. We create a facebook page and website {Of course,I am partial to permies.com being HQ so everything links to here}. We set deadlines and reasonable goals/timelines. We have open and liberal civil discourse like the mature adults that we are! Which leads me to say this:
I do not think any of this will work if we attach politics, religion, ethics, etc to our collaboration. Personally, I would adhere to Mollisons' admonition within this quote:
"So it’s a revolution. But permaculture is anti-political. There is no room for politicians or administrators or priests. And there are no laws either. The only ethics we obey are: care of the earth, care of people, and reinvestment in those ends."
In my mind that does not mean that individually we do not have opinions and biases. It means that people of different biases and political bents can formulate organic and spontaneous relationships appropriate to unique and ever changing situations. I will keep it short and and open the discussion. I would ask that you view this video by the Free State Project and superimpose "Permaculturist" or Permaculture" wherever the word Libertarian or Liberty is used. Using our imaginations and the template outlined in this video , can we achieve something of worth?
The Free State Project is a Libertarian movement in which Libertarians pledge to move to New Hampshire within a time frame in order to influence local and state politics. See the link:
This is not a secession movement. More of a proving ground. Prove to the world the superiority and efficacy of the Libertarian philosophy{Bias is all mine}. I love the flag. A remake of the Gadsen flag. "Don't Tread on Me!" with a porcupine instead of a copperhead. A mild vegetarian woodland creature just minding its own business , but if you mess with it your liable to regret it. They have not achieved the 20,000 pledges yet , but the movement has already generated percentages of up to 25% Libertarian in some N.H. districts.
What say you to this approach? If you think your political philosophy - left or right - is rational and effective would you attempt such an endeavor?
{Stand by for a permie alternative which I will post soon in the Ulcer Factory}
Reading "Walden" again. Every paragraph warrants a "Wow'. Each time I get something different from it. This time for some reason it is funny as hell :
"The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man- you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind- I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels." -Henry David Thoreau
"Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
I thought about permaculture neighbors :
"Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
They will not go too far off contour straying,
And shook hands having thought of longer swales
They say again , "Good earthworks make good neighbors."
Judith says : "I think that the stereotype there was, somewhat lead by television and magazines in the sixties. that is where my parents got their paranoia about 'hippies'...not necessarily from what I was or was not doing."
Redneck is a funny term. For some it brings up images of crew-cut wearing blue collar workers beating the shit out of draft dodgers and little black kids trying to get to school. If your old enough to remember those images. When I came of age in the Mid-70's the outlaw country music scene had fused the hippie/redneck images into something new. As a young kid growing up near Brandeis University I always rooted for the hippies. Then going to high school in Arizona we could wear western hats, riding boots , listen to "Fortunate Son" and Country Joe in the old GMC pickup. My first wife was African American and Muskogee Indian and we used to put "Okie from Muskogee" on the turntable. Jerry Jeff singing"Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother"! I think there was a cultural remediation of the term redneck going on then.
Then again the hippies I associated with were not lazy nor did they feel entitled. There was a vision of a different world [look who's here permies] and everyone knew they would have to struggle for every scrap of it. People built eco-homes, created underground economies, gathered at festivals which took alot of work and cooperation. We started a series of food cooperatives in Phoenix/Tempe Arizona and did not ask for help from Daddy. I remember dirty hippies as being the ones who were out working. Proud of the same sweaty dirty smell the blue collar rednecks were. Some of these people were socialist bleeding hearts and some were not.
The 1970's era longhaired redneck and the 1960s' era flower child did not go away. The just grew and evolved like the times and their influence produced offspring . The offspring is still thriving if you want to look for it.
As far as "Retired Republican" , I still call him "Dad".
Permies : The Place where " Socialist Anti-Government Humanist Reactionary Non-Interventionist Bleeding-Heart Moderate Left-Leaning Interventionist Progressive Communist Authoritarian Bleeding-Heart Liberal Objectivist Anarchist Total-Isolationist Humanist Libertine" People care !
I have lived south and southwest of the Mason-Dixon line for 43 years . However,I lived just a few miles from Click and Clack until I was 12. So, not only did I enjoy many a Saturday of entertaining CarTalk but their accents reminded me of Family reunions. Tom was the butt of Rays jokes so much - but I always thought he was the smartest.
Permies can utilize the HOA to their advantage. Buy 50 acres. Subdivide into 20 - 2.5 acre lots. Plot an initial design that would include common earthworks. Write up a set of CCRs that would mandate no lawns in the front yards, edible landscapes only. Off grid power sources only. Composting toilets and grey water systems. Homeowners fees to fund a communal abattoir. The local busy body would have to get the signatures of every member of every household - children included - before they could table any complaints at the HOA monthly meeting. Then include a line in the CCRs' that states "All monthy HOA meetings will be cancelled on account of weather."
The least frightening and most heartening aspect of 3D manufacturing is the decentralization and seemingly infinite potential. There is something very Buckyish about the matter.
I think we need to be careful not to alienate people by bashing their personal lifestyles, religions, and philosophies. This Brown vs. Purple debate is much like the debate over the separation of church and state. In nations where state and church are separate both function more diversely and powerfully. So, you have Gay Athiest Republicans and Catholic Democrats who believe homosexuality is a carnal sin participating in a secular function we call democracy. Permaculture is science and art. We need not attach any philosophy to it but those that live by religious or ethical philosophies can participate. I think there is nothing wrong with a bunch of hippies getting together and OHMing the night away , forming drum circles, and then learning/ practicing permaculture. The same is true of those that form permie groups out of churches, synagogues, mosques, or politically based organizations. The debated mud people video seems to show a solid Mollison PDC with quite a bit of purple recreation and Aquarian bonding through hugs. The guy in the blue t-shirt is the teacher not the Hare Krishna Guy, right? These same mud people probably would have issues with Christian Creationist Bob Jones University Graduates{Salatin} and their take on permaculture. If you are a Christian and holding a PDC at your church is it OK to pray before the class? Is it OK to believe God created the world in 6 days and still hold a science based PDC? Are you Buddhist? Atheist? I believe it is possible to have any belief and still practice permie science . Does Geoff Lawton pray with muslims when he teaches in their lands? Everyone has a philosophical lens they see the world through.
I don't understand why convincing a bunch of people who till and spray round-up on large acres is the most important focus for permaculture marketing . Having millions of individuals on small plots of land growing their own food and creating energy on site will alter the agricultural dynamics forever. A guy with a $450,000 John Deere and 1500 acres would be a little archaic at that point. Struck at the root , so to speak. But around here , if you wanted to dress up to preach at the farmers - a pair of overalls and a bill cap will go a long way. You could even wear a cap that says "Fuck Monsanto".
I agree , it would be difficult to convince modern farmers or householders to switch to permaculture models by blowing rainbows out your ass. I don't find that to be the main obstacle though. I think permaculture - today anyway - is too complex. Once you get the big picture it makes total sense. Geoffs video on 10 years of food forest all in a row is less an instructional how-to as an "Ah Ha!" Grokking kind of thing:
I like how Geoff at the end of these videos quiets his voice like we are all sharing in the profundity. I certainly share that with him.
This video leads one to contemplate the changes that could be brought to our economic, social, political, and personal lifestyles. The implications swarm in my head like a top bar hive of bees. The potential effects of this simple planting system form complex links to everything, everywhere. Now , try finding a pamphlet like that at the local Extension Center or on the label of any Monsanto product. Getting people to give up their convenient , modulated , easy way of living and take the quantum leap is the biggest obstacle. I think successful models in every human settlement with tried and true localized educational material and teachers are more important than whether or not someone is a hippy or hippy hybrid. By the way , Hippies need love and permaculture too. I feel equally at home entering a camp with a rainbow colored OHM flag as I do entering one with Waylon Jennings music blasting from the open doors of a pickup truck.
November 5th : Dear Diary - Oh ! I have such an election day hangover. What a splitting headache! Let's see . What do I have in my medicine cabinet? Alka-Seltzer - Nope, it's expired. Tylenol ? No, gonna save what's left of my liver. OK , "Captain Spauldings' Buffalo Elixer". Says it's made by some twins up in Canada .That will work .
A Little Marxist Thought of the Day :
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”- Groucho
Every other creature has instinctual strategies to conserve energy. We have to think about it . Ironically , we have spent millennia inventing labor saving devices to save ourselves from back breaking toil. Now we sit at a computer in an ergonomically designed chair with our endocrine systems in a full bore fight or flight state. Good job David for taking control of the brake handle at an early age.
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special." - Stephen Hawking
