For me I see this prosess as a process of crushing “the invisible hand” created by Adam Smith, by using “the visible hand” created by Bill Mollison. This means replacing competition with cooperition. Some narrowminded people think this means replacing competition with communism. But NO, it means replacing ALL ideologies with a functional pattern language, a language that brings people in peace with themselves, with each other and with nature. And even we reach this goal one day, we must constantly continue maintaining and always improving this SHARED pattern language.

This site is a VERY important tool in the process for the creation of this language for the NEW millenium!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23817037-revealed-tony-blairs-secret-oil-links-to-middle-east.do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skudTktwnQE

Provides some quite interesting – and, checkable – background data.

http://vimeo.com/5341482

http://permaculture.org.au/2010/02/02/democracy-for-sale-by-the-corporate-citizen/

Although the presidency seems to be little more than a figurehead, it seems sure that there is now next to no chance for anyone to become president who intends to do the right thing. If a candidate intends to work against the corporate, globalised model, billions of dollars to finance the campaign of a more corporate-friendly industry puppet (like oily Bush duo were) will put a stop to it.

If we stand by and do nothing, and just ‘talk garden’, we will watch (are watching) sytems get put into place which directly impact our ability to be self-sufficient and to live in harmony with natural systems. There is a systematic corporate/political/economic war on permaculture that we cannot ignore. Political activism and discussing/finding alternatives must be part of our work or ultimately our gardens will do little to save us from ourselves.

I love the Bill Mollison quote that Thomas recently emailed me:

“If you think you can be just a gardener, you’ve got your head in the sand and your arse up in the air waiting to have it kicked by the seed companies.”

Economic and political systems are just as much part of permaculture design as chicken tractors and trellises. And getting wars OUT of our design is more than worthy of our efforts.

Same goes for our need to change the focus of educational institutions. These need to begin real education – practical education appropriate for our present circumstances, which includes teaching people not only about on-the-ground work, but also educating people in economic and political aspects so we can learn to create a framework that fosters the growth of on-the-ground permaculture systems, rather than undermining it every step of the way as it does now.

http://www.arrestblair.org/war-crimes-reports

Ad “Would you call a U.S. or U.K. soldier fighting against Hitler’s armies a ‘murderer’??”

I would say that this actually depends a lot on his conduct during war. Yes, there is something like “illegal orders”, which must not be obeyed. It all boils down to the question: Did the soldier commit crimes during war, either on his own, or by executing orders which were illegal, and where it can be reasonably expected that he should have been able to see them for what they are? (Here, things are complicated by the military’s “need to know” principle. And this, precisely, is the reason why I personally won’t work with them: If they, for strategic reasons, withhold part of the information from me I would need in order to find out whether a particular job may, in the bigger scheme of things, be in conflict with my ethical principles, I simply cannot make that decision whether or not to do it.)

The German army is somewhat aware of these tricky issues. Soldiers learn (or at least: in theory should learn) during their training when to *not* follow orders.

It is, however, somewhat interesting to note that even in the Third Reich, the Nazis respected individual soldiers’ decisions not to take part in their extermination programs.

The tricky issue is that there is a world of a difference between two concepts of “disobedience”: We generally associate the term with “misbehaving”. In my view, this is seriously wrong, and actually a major problem of our “western culture”, as there is a second concept of “disobedience”, which is rooted in good conduct. This “I will, with all due respect, choose not obey this order, for I cannot reconcile it with my own principles and my conscience” is an extremely powerful position. I sometimes get the impression that in the so-called “civilized” world, authorities have a strong interest in obfuscating this immensely important point. It is just so much easier to stigmatize anyone who won’t obey your orders as a “misbehaving troublemaker”. That way, those in power can so easily avoid having to enter dialogue with those who actually may have a very valid point.

Maybe I should write up a few notes about Gandhi…?