Subject: Wow

From: Jack Rowe <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 12:57:25 -0400

Safe, effective, inexpensive laxatives are available in any convenience
store...

A note on Synergy, that improbable property which confuses mathematicians
everywhere and dazzles the rest of us with wonder:
Anger/Self-righteousness, whether outwardly-directed as a manipulative
tool, or inwardly as a means of covering some hidden pain or fear, is
counter-productive toward establishment of synergistic interchange within a
group with ostensibly-similar goals. Directed at the student it does not
elucidate, but instead directly discourages discovery and learning,
training toward rote absorption of what is already "known" ["knowledge is
dead-but-not-buried imagination"... e e cummings]. Among associates it is
repressive of open discussion aimed at raising questions as well as
answers. Re mr cummings remark above, answers are dead, questions are alive
(are you listening, world's religions?).

Re: Molly-bashing: Mr. Mollison is very intelligent and has a watching eye
whose penetrating sharpness can be disquieting. I doubt if his
observational acuity points only outward (though such a condition is not
uncommon). I can only assume from his cantankerous -- often even seemingly
puposefully-offensive -- behavior, that he himself is not fond of
pedestals. Without, in fact, "bashing" ANYONE (which is gratuitously
unnecessary and bespeaks "protesting too loudly"), we can all benefit from
questioning everything (hence the legend sometimes found at the bottom of
my rantings: "QUESTION REALITY" Wish I'D made that up!). Perhaps the
comments in question did less actual Mollison-bashing, and more of a
general bashing-all-around.

Re: guilds... everyone is right. The idea of guilds (however we name them),
as applicable directly to food production right now, is in fact embryonic
-- as are many of the ideas put forth under the heading "permaculture".
This doesn't detract from the value of the idea, unless we make the common
mistake of looking to Mollison's compendious work for ANSWERS instead of
for its many deep and penetrating QUESTIONS. Some of the systems have been
worked out to a great extent, as in the tropics whence Mr. Mollison
proceeds, but here in the temperate zone the questions clearly outnumber
the answers. That, I think, is the point of the book... further, we are ALL
"Mollison", and willingly occupy an historically-crucial position. Let's
give ourselves -- and each other -- credit for that, while recognizing that
in producing our own answers we will, if we are paying attention, ALWAYS
uncover more questions than answers, for the Universe is (purportedly)
infinite. In this so-improbable, infinite Universe, all things are
possible. Weird, but true, as the New Physics and the Old Masters tell us.