The Permaculture Nation

"A people without an agreed-upon common basis to their actions is neither a community nor a nation. A people with a common ethic is a nation where ever they live."

-Bill Mollison, A Designer's manual p. 507


I came across this bit and it really resonated with me. Mostly because I have such a hard time relating to my fellow countrymen here in the USA. It also gives me hope to think that we, who care about the natural processes that support all life, are a nation. That we are, at this moment, connected across oceans and mountains by our sharing of ethics and ideas. That the changes we are making in our own lives accumulate into the potential to change the world.


"As people, we need to adopt an ethic of right livelyhood, for if we bend our labor and skills to work that is destructive, we are the destroyers. We lay waste to our lives in proportion to the way in which the systems we support lay waste to the enviornment. Although societies for social responsability are rapidly forming, we need to expand the concept to social and enviornmental responsability, and to create our own financial and employment strategies in those areas. We should not be passive workers in established destructive systems, but rather we can be investors in life. We cannot profess or teach one ethic, and live another, without damage to ourselves and to common resources."

-Bill Mollison, A Designer's manual p. 507

Another quote that struck me as truth, but this one I struggle with daily. I know that my employment and finances are dependant on such destructive systems, but I feel trapped by the social pressures and family obligations that merge together into a seamless prison of expectation. I simply don't have the courage to break free, especially since that would conflict with the responsability I feel to provide for my wife in a way fits with the society we were raised in. Giving up the security of a steady paycheck to take our chances on the streets really isn't an option I'm willing to entertain, but I don't believe that there are ways to make a living in this country that are benign. So I do small things that seem achievable and hope that one day I will find my way to a culture that values health and truth above profit.

Thank you for listening to me vent. Thank you for being out there and caring. Thank you for existing in The Permaculture Nation. I hope you can do better by Bill Mollison and gaia than I have so far.

I empathize with what you're saying Josef. I do believe that there are ways to make a living in this country that are (more) benign, but they may require a drastic change of way of life and loss of a degree of security, which most of us with family are not able to do, and which it might not be responsible for us to choose (as you mention living on the street, or under a tree, for instance). I think if we're making incremental steps in the better direction we're doing the right thing by trying, and sharing these ideas and taking what practical steps we can. I want to encourage you to keep trying.

Thank you Tyler, I will keep trying.

Totally agree with you. I been constantly looking for a way and it seems I'm constantly dodging obstacles.

A common ethic. A right livelihood. Yes. Because talking about a common ethic does not necessarily lead to "right livelihood" (action). There must be a connection between idea and implementation in order to Become. to Be Real. to Mean It. This is extraordinarily difficult to do alone. I have not been able to implement this reality, as I am Alone, finding no actual person willing to act With Me. Having too much to do alone, 200 acres with all the equipment but no individual who will even ride my horses with me (free fun), much less Create or Sustain Livelihood. This is why We Need Community. Yes, I know (Enemy Mine Drac quote here:) "We are all alone. Within ourselves." And yet....