William Barry

Paul,

"Be the change you wish to see." I believe it's my responsibility to improve myself every day, to change for the better. It isn't my wife's responsibility or anyone else's responsibility to improve me or change me. But, when anyone else has a criticism of me, or offers a suggestion that might make me a better person, before I allow myself to become defensive and reject what they're saying, I have to ask "Is there any truth in what this person is saying?" If there is, then I have to decide whether it is worth sacrificing a small part of who I currently am, to become someone better and benefit other people directly or society as a whole. If so, why wouldn't I want to change? I've heard a lot of people say things like "Love me or leave me." We shouldn't change because others want us to. We should change because we want to. It's just that sometimes other people can help us identify things we might want to consider working on that we're oblivious to.

As far as some of the things people think about you: "Some people think I am too arrogant, too fat, too obnoxious, not as funny as I think I am or too rude," I don't care if you're obnoxious or any of the other names people have called you. I'm good friends with some fairly obnoxious and/or rude people. I listen to some radio talk show hosts that are obnoxious, as well, and they provide a great service to society, as you do. But I just think you would be surprised at how many people avoid situations where crude language is used, whether in movies, with certain friends, or on permaculture sites.

I like Charles Kleff's post above about releasing a second version of podcasts, DVD's, etcetera, that have been edited. That way those who giggle when you swear can still have their laugh, and those of us who don't want to hear crude language can still benefit by the many great things you have to offer. You could put a G-rating on the edited version, and you could put an F-rating on the other.

Just think of it as a true capitalist would: How can I increase my income the most for the smallest effort? It sounds as if a lot of people enjoy hearing your swear, but it would be interesting to see how many people really don't appreciate the colorful language and would opt to buy or download the edited versions of your products instead. My bet is that the edited versions would be a fairly significant percentage. It might be a fun experiment that actually increases your bottom line.

Anyway, it's your blood, sweat, and tears - I'd just like to be able to feel comfortable about going to your site or buying your products, and I would like to be able to share your site with a lot of people who feel the same as me. After all, at the end of the day, aren't you trying to persuade as many people as possible to get on the permaculture bandwagon? On YOUR permaculture bandwagon? If so, then maybe you might want to add a few additional seats on it.

Thanks for your time!

Will

Paul,

Recently I became interested in Rocket Mass Heaters and found a book called "Rocket Mass Heaters - 3rd Edition", by Ianto Evans and Leslie Jackson. It is well-written and full of useful information, but I wanted more information about the subject. I found your Wood Burning Stoves 2.0 - 4 DVD set: Rocket Mass Heaters and Rocket Stoves on Amazon, and was tempted to buy it, but I read the reviews first. I like to see what people have to say about a product before buying it myself. Someone mentioned that it wasn't family friendly - that you use vulgar language for some reason in a couple of places. So I didn't buy it. But I did find your permies website and signed up on your email list. You sent a link for your Rocket Mass Heater Podcast Gob download. I downloaded it and started listening to your podcasts and was bummed by your "colorful" language. EVERY podcast had F this and F that! There definitely is power in speech. The questions to ask are, do people feel safe to have a conversation with you or not? Does a person's speech make others feel better or worse? As a religious person, I'm concerned with hearing a lot of that type of language, because the more you hear it or read it, the more it is in your mind, and the more likely you are to use it yourself. Yes, if you use the F-bomb around people, you have power over them. But who wants to have power over someone else when it's based on vulgar language? In any case, hearing the language in your podcasts really turned me off.

So I have a dilemma. I looked through your website and found it to have a lot of great information on permaculture. It may be the website with the most useful information. The wide range of subjects you cover makes permies.com a one-stop shop for all things permaculture. A person could go so far as to say that yours is the most prominent voice in permaculture. Unfortunately, from some of the other posts here, your language is driving a certain group of people away from your site. There is a segment of the population that wants to do right by the environment that is religious, or that likes more appropriate language than what you seem to need to display.

It would be great if your prominent permaculture voice were more restrained so that you truly were the voice of all people when it comes to promoting permaculture. After all, if I'm a vulgar bugger and were listening to a cleaned-up version of your podcasts or your DVD's, I would not be offended. But I couldn't finish listening to all of your podcasts because of the language. And I'm a grandpa who has been involved in athletics, hunting, gardening, home improvements, and all kinds of other manly type of activities my whole life. Manliness isn't about cussing to make yourself seem tough. Manliness is all about controlling your words and actions so as not to offend anyone. And I promise there are more of us out here.

You may say if someone doesn't like listening to the crude language in your podcasts, they don't have to. But if you're unwilling to clean up your act for the benefit of folks like me, then think about the money you'll never receive because of your language. I will not be purchasing your new DVD's unless you have some type of guarantee that the language won't be vulgar. I think you could realistically net about 10% more income just from cleaning up your language and letting folks know that you are committing to that. That could be tens of thousands of dollars. I'm not asking you to stop being a vulgar and crude man, I'm just asking that you stop being that way whenever you record or write anything for public consumption. If you do as I suggest, I will definitely buy your new RSMH DVD's. If you don't, I won't.

Thank you for your time!

Will Barry