Connecting permaculture with societal change

I'm really enjoying reading the conversations here this week. It has reminded me that I should do more than just subscribe to the daily email from permies.com -- I should keep participating, too! Thank you all.

Today I'm thinking a lot about the connections between permaculture and building a better world -- between permaculture and the kind of change that Fay and I describe in our book. I see some clear connections, and yet I think this is an idea that I need to explore some more.

For me, there's a clear connection between the permaculture approach of caring for and living with the earth and all its creatures rather than taking a kind of mining approach to food production. (I see that in standard agriculture -- its very extraction-based -- and honestly in gardening sometimes too.) That's the heart of the connection between permaculture and social change for me.

How do you see this connection?

Here are a couple of talks by Toby Hemenway which have helped me think about these things:

Toby Hemenway - How Permaculture Can Save Humanity and the Earth, but Not Civilization  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLKHYHmPbo

Redesigning Civilization -- with Permaculture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6b7zJ-hx_c

Just by walking around with my daughter outside each week for the last few years, I have met neighbors all over the nearby network of streets. Also, complete strangers in the Post Office or at Tractor Supply will come up to me and say, "I see you and your daughter out walking(/biking) all the time. It's so cute!" At first it surprised me when this would happen, but now I am so grateful for it.

These introductions have happened simply because we have gone outside in good weather over the last few years. My society's epic level of disconnection from the earth is mirrored in the disconnection of the people from each other.  I think that probably everybody wishes it weren't so, but doesn't exactly know what to do about it.

I love knowing my neighbor's names and some of their stories. Watching houses being built and bought and sold, seeing families move out and in, I feel more
connected to my place. It started with going outside. Societal change will be maddeningly slow, but we can enjoy our own social circle changing by personally taking actions to connect with others. I have lots more to do in this line, of course, but I have great hope because of what I have seen!