Permaculture and Wall Street — We Must Tackle the Runaway Fiscal Economy Head On, “We Must Face Up and Fight”
I admire the efforts of the permaculturists at the Occupy Wall Street camp, and I think, judging by his statement way back in 1983 (see below), that Bill would admire them also.
How many times have we seen readers commenting here — "What has this got to do with permaculture?" Becoming "effective financial and political units" is fully a part of the permaculture picture. And, what should be the purpose of these units? Well, how about collaborating to erect financial structures that are not divorced from resources, for a start. In my mind that means developing an economic system that is not dependent on infinite, exponential growth. It means building a system that no longer turns resources and labour into landfill at an escalating rate, as it does today — one that recognises that we do not live on an inflatable earth.
And I think it necessitates a shift in the personal mind set — a shift in understanding what it is that actually makes a person, and thus a community and a culture, happy.
Discussing companion planting, swales, keyline ploughs and compost teas is all necessary, but if we stop there, and refuse to see how all this fits into the bigger picture, it will ultimately mean little. If we refuse to discuss root causes of our problems, and their fixes, then we are part of the problem.
We might not all agree on the exact shape of the solutions, but we would be remiss to avoid discussion because of this.
The world’s rich and powerful have just met at Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF). Up front and centre arose the question of financial structures with its initial debate on "Is 20th-century capitalism failing 21st-century society?"
Capitalism in its current form no longer fits the world around us. — WEF founder Klaus Schwab
As the forum began, Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, immediately came to the defense of our present system, citing his own experience of starting small and (my words) subsequently taking over the world. It isn’t a surprise that one of the richest men in the world feels that capitalism in its present form is serving the world’s needs better than any other system. After all, he’s doing just fine, isn’t he?
The issue here is clearly detachment from reality. We see this with Bill Gates’ own ‘philanthropic’ endeavours — they are so fully detached from the on-the-ground realities that the targets of his ‘philanthropy’ daily face that he is not only creating more problems than he’s solving, but he’s profiting from it at the same time. Centralisation always creates these detachments. Bill Gates cares and/or knows little about soil science, the hydrological cycle, and an holistic understanding of climatic systems, yet he’s seeking to ‘save Africa’ by pouring billions of dollars into BigAgri and other MegaCorps.
If we spin this thought around and question how we can get rid of this detachment-creating centralisation, the answer is simple — we must all get involved. If we leave these corporate captains and corporate yes-men (politicians) to continue making decisions on our behalf, then the decisions will continue to benefit the few at the expense of the many — the many including all the world’s sentient beings and the resources they rely on.
A more representative participatory democracy, and one that places emphasis/priority on holistic, historically appropriate education, is key, I believe. Your mileage may vary. Indeed, this is a key reason we built the Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN). With it you have the ability to add your own projects. While most of these must be on-the-ground permaculture projects, the exceptions, as you’ll see when you go to add a project, are those that are ‘Political’, ‘Economic’ and ‘Legal’. Here you have the possibility to showcase your own ideas and efforts to create ‘invisible structures’ that work symbiotically with your on-the-ground projects and the people involved. People can observe what you’re doing, discuss it, offer suggestions and insights, and, if your ideas are deemed worthy, or have the potential to advance into something worthy, they can get involved or otherwise find ways to support these projects and/or emulate them in their own region.
That is, what I’m trying to tell you, it’s no good any longer just being an organic gardener or farmer, we have to be effective financial and political units. And we’re gonna have to face that. — Bill Mollison, 1983 PDC (emphasis added)
All sensible permaculture systems come about through observation, experimentation, and design. It’s no different with the all-important invisible structures that either help incubate sanity or which become an obstacle to it.
Once Permaculture design is understood , it changes the way we interact with nature, and there is no way, that we can make things wrong again. And so it really doesn’t matter politics, left or right or whatever. It takes longer, but it’s safer.
The system is rotting, and it really makes no difference if we try to find a peaceful resolution for the problems, using the tools that the systems offers.
It’s not turning my back, it’s facing the problem with a different perspective and useful tools.
Listening to Bill sends a tingle down my spine…. nothing like a pep talk from the master to send us all back out to fight the good fight. Over and over again I see people thinking they can make a difference by disconnecting, by walking away, when the opposite is the only truth.
Engaging with the system, right now, where you are, with whoever is with you, with whatever you have, is the only way.
Thanks for posting this, Craig. Bill’s voice from the past reminds us that there’s much more to permaculture than organic gardening, and that some big issues might not have been properly addressed by the permie community since 1983.
5 years ago Tamara Griffiths and Bill Mollison tried to raise interest in establishing a Permaculture-based political party in Australia, but it seems to have gone nowhere. Maybe it’s time to have another look at it?
https://forums.permaculturenews.org/showthread.php?3568-PPP-manifesto&highlight=permaculture+people%27s+party
Thank you Craig for an article of great importance. I hope this generates some lively discussion among PRI readers, because this topic is key to the success or failure of what we are all trying to achieve through Permaculture. The excellent, positive and proactive work of such initiatives as the Permaculture Master Plan and the Worldwide Permaculture Network and the efforts of other regenerative agriculture movements such as Holistic Management will not be enough if we cannot “face up and fight” to stop the dominant economy that enriches and empowers a tiny elite while destroying our basic life support systems. This amoral death economy is based on debt and exploitation and ties the world to the insane indefinite growth paradigm.
We live in times of increasingly rapid change, and we can live in hope that grassroots movements including Permaculture reach a critical mass before human-induced ecological disaster gets out of hand. There are some promising models for alternative currency (such as Community Exchange Systems – see https://www.ces.org.za/) and for economic organisation (for example the ethics-based Participatory Economics, see https://www.zcommunications.org/zparecon/parecon.htm and Resource Based Economics, see https://www.theresourcebasedeconomy.com/). Such “invisible structures” could provide the necessary complement to the biophysical structures of Permaculture.
Meanwhile, the elites who benefit from the current situation have amply demonstrated that they will use whatever means necessary to maintain their position of power.
While the priority should remain the positive and proactive building of a viable human society, I am becoming convinced that direct action to stop the ongoing ecocide being perpetrated worldwide is going to become increasingly necessary. Even the extreme arguments of the “Deep Green Resistance” movement (along the lines that industrial civilization itself is the problem, and should be actively brought down) merit consideration and discussion.
The “Occupy” movement has great promise if the momentum can be maintained and built. “We are the 99%” is a great rallying cry, and the identification of the banking-corporate-military cartel as the 1% that we can readily bring down with sufficient organisation is very important.
Let me be provocative, and claim that the logical political paradigm implied by Permanent Culture is “Anarchy”!
Now let me qualify my provocation by saying that “anarchy” is a misnomer, and hence has been easy for propagandists to associate with violence and disorder. The situation in war torn countries with no effective social organisation is often characterised as “anarchy”. This is incorrect – “anarchy” refers to the absence of illegitimate hierarchy in social organisation. Violence and feudalism is in fact an extreme form of illegitimate hierarchy – of “might makes right”.
A better term for an appropriate human society would be “holarchy” – social organisation that reflects the holarchic organisation of nature. A human being, like any entity or system in nature, is a “holon” – a whole that has emergent qualities greater than the sum of parts, but in turn is a part of a greater whole that transcends the sum of its parts. A delegation based participatory democracy such as envisioned by Participatory Economics would be an example of a holarchic political system.
This reminds me of a quote that has inspired me much in my life. It comes from Thich Nhat Hanh, a zen master who titled a book by this quote while doing humanitarian aid work during the Vietnam War. “You must be like a lotus in a sea of fire”.
The ‘save yourself’ mentality was never that inspiring, empowering, or encouraging!
Here’s a new important book on these matters, reviewed at today’s p2p-blog:
– Book of the Day: The Good of Everyone. The Sharing Economy as a Way Out of the Crisis: https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/p2p-book-of-the-day-the-sharing-economy-as-the-only-way-out/2012/01/31
Excerpted here: https://p2pfoundation.net/Sharing_Economy_as_a_Way_Out_of_the_Crisis#Excerpts
Thanks Alex for the link to the PPP manifesto – a very nice document, definitely time for another look at it.
Daniel – I more or less agree: politics left or right is illusory, the system is rotting, we should be seeking peaceful resolution and we should be making the most of the tools of modern society. These truths need to be qualified by recognition that the rotting “system” still has enormous power to harm, and is actively exercising this power. Sure, let our first priority be positive and proactive building of the soical structures and ecostructures needed for a viable future, but we need to “face up and fight” as well if we are to succeed in this building.
At the 2005 Melbourne PDC, Bill Mollison outlined some of the many hazards that humanity faces in the near future, and he finished by saying “Don’t expect Permaculture to change the world. Permaculture will not change the world. Permaculture is a RESPONSE to change.”
I’m sure I’m not the only one increasingly encountering people who are seeking practical responses to the drastic changes that, in many cases, are overwhelming them.
As part of their response to the changes the world’s people face, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) had a Permaculture design laid out for Zuccotti Park: https://www.occupy-wallstreet.com/permaculture/
To understand the importance of nurturing real political/economic change right now, you only need to watch Ferguson & Beck’s Acadamy Award-winning documentary, Inside Job: https://thoughtmaybe.com/video/inside-job
But to get a clear picture of just how utterly, brutally insane the situation has become, I recommend everyone watch Mazzimo Mazzucco’s New American Century: https://thoughtmaybe.com/video/the-new-american-century
There is ownly one way to save the world and its enviroment and that is to completely change the corrupt political system that is in place now and controled by the one percent at the top of the ant hill, and those ants have eaten away all vestige of decency to the extent that they are prepared to destroy everything in their greed for control including themselves .It’s up to you and me to come up with a political system that is under the control of the people for the people , Communisum was suposed to do it but greed of the few got in the way and the people missed out again
haha…..right u r bill.
well…a system that replaces one prostitute with another cant work. i dont know how politicians live with themselves.
I think, as Bill does, that the crux of the matter is that too many people have tried to withdraw and disconnect from the political sphere, which is actually impossible. Just ask any of the innumerable refugees from failed communes and egocommunities.
Wherever there is a community there will be politics, or “a group of people making collective decisions”.
If you choose to leave your power lying around someone is sure to pick it up, and the people who have picked our discarded power aren’t planning to use it in our best interests.
What Bill says here is spot on and I never cease to be amazed at how visionary he has consistently been.
I applaud the Occupy [Insert_Name_Here] movement, but it is misdirected and myopic. Only by applying an analysis by first understanding the system (which you must first figure out yourself, because you won’t find it on TV) can we make a real change. (hint.. look at back of your one dollar bill)
Henry David Thoreau said, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” and these people are only hacking at the branches, yet I’m glad they are awakened and angry.
Applying your design skills, you’ll soon find that the real cause for this strife is ourselves. The current power structure is there because we feed it every day. We need to start a new future by first disconnecting from the existing system (like starving cancer by cutting off the blood supply) and feeding into our vision of the future in a positive and creative way.
So many of us permies skip over Chapter 14 (and 9 too).. take another look and see how it can apply today.