One question I have comes from a recent article in the Nation, "Why Now? What's Next? Naomi Klein and Yotam Marom in Conversation About Occupy Wall Street." In the article Naomi Klein states, "the key is in the combination of resistance and alternatives." Yotam Marom also states, "You usually have one or the other. You have alternative institutions, like eco-villages and food coops and so on—and then you have protest movements and other counter-institutions, like anti-war groups or labor unions. But they very rarely merge or see their struggle as shared. And we very rarely have movements that want to do both of those things, that see them as inseparable—that understand that the alternatives have to be fighting, and that fighting has to be done in a way that represents the values of the world we want to create. So I do think there’s something really radical and fundamental in that, and an enormous amount of potential." Naomi Klein responds, "A friend, the British eco-and arts activist John Jordan, talks about utopias and resistance being the double helix of activist DNA, and that when people drop out and just try to build their utopia and don’t engage with the systems of power, that’s when they become irrelevant and also when they are extremely vulnerable to state power and will often get smashed. And at the same time if you’re just protesting, just resisting and you don’t have those alternatives, I think that that becomes poisonous for movements."
Toby or anyone else, what are your feelings on these statements? Also, what are your feelings on the Occupy movement and the potential for the linking of alternatives and activism? What is permaculture's role is our changing world and especially during this time of change?
As a quick side note, Toby I really enjoyed your article, "The Myth of Self-Reliance." It brings up how our true focus should be on the community rather than the self. We need to support each other rather than isolate ourselves. The DIY community should change their focus to DIO (Do-it-ourselves). Awesome article.
Thanks for your time,
Will
