When I teach Permaculture Design I often frame the journey of transformation that it invites us to embark upon as being the transition from the extractive culture that we are part of in the industrialised world to a regenerative way of being more akin to indigenous cultures and traditional ecological knowledge.
From this deeply destructive and damaging way of life, to one of reciprocity and care.
For many folk coming to terms with the complexity and depth of the change that needs to occur is a moment of profound personal transformation. Especially as it is impossible to really understand this challenge without also beginning to recognise that the mechanisms and cultures that have caused this crisis are not going to be the ones that get us out of it.
Then that’s when things become really bewildering. How do we even start on this seemingly impossible journey when so many of the mechanisms and structures that we are reliant upon, captured within even, feel in total contradiction to this process of emergence that we would like to embark upon.
On this basis I have been thinking a great deal about the permaculture ethics of people care, earth care and fair share. How may they serve as a framework that enables us to feel less paralysed in this moment that implores us with particular power to engage and act?
This journey from extractive to sustainable feels essential but the reality of taking the first step is complicated. Especially as the journey is one that requires participation in a spirit of openness that will frequently be uncomfortable and hard.
Before I talk about the permaculture ethics, if emergence is a journey then what may each milestone that you pass mean?
We begin at extractive. It is the here an now. It is a way of being which takes but does not give back. It is what has gout us to where we are now. It cannot continue for much longer on the finite planet that is our home.
For me extractive is about being honest about the point that we are at. It is about acknowledging harm and damage in an open and truthful way. It is about looking closely and saying:
“This is where I am starting from. How about you?”
Sustainable is about starting to make good so that we can carry on. It may also be about acknowledging that certain things, many things, may not be able to carry on anymore if it is to be possible for us to find our true place in the scheme of things once more. It is not about disingenuous self-congratulation, instead it is about making changes so that we can lessen harm. And where these changes can’t happen right away it is about having truthful conversations about the steps that will be needed so that, just maybe, the seemingly impossible may become possible one tiny step at a time.
Regenerative and restorative are about reaching a point where, as a minimum, our actions no longer cause harm. Or ideally where we participate positively in a ways that heal and restore. Where once again we play our unique little part in this great tangle of things in the same way that every other part of the tangle is engaged. This is the place that we would like to get to. The destination that we will head towards even though we have no clue how and when and if we will get there.
But we will set out anyway because in this complex, mystifying universe where else could we possibly want to navigate towards?
Finally as an underscore to all of this is resilience that is a nod to a world which is different now. And to a journey that is long and that will often be hard and rocky, and that we need to make ready for in many different ways if we want to have any chance of making it through.
So that’s that foundation of where my thinking is. It is my fumbled attempt to try and help us make sense. I hope that this, by association may make it easier to start attempting the smallest movements in the direction that we know we need to go.
Next I till think more about those permaculture ethics and how they may add to all of this, but I think we have reached a good place to leave it for now.
Thanks for this framework, have been thinking about this since I read it this morning and excited to see where it takes me.
Thank you. I appreciate this way of framing how we live a great deal, and I'm so excited to be preparing to take this journey with you later in the year.