Subject: The propaganda machine

From: [email-masked] (Gil Hardwick)
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 12:40:51

It is not really so astonishing how effective the orthodox propaganda
machine is; we all ought to know better by now, shouldn't we.

It took less than one generation for the founder of Permaculture to
be rejected as one of the planet's great ogres, even among those who
have since adopted what they believe to be his philosophy. At every
point the minor faults on his personality are exposed in an attempt
to show that since he is not a saint, then he must be the very devil
himself.

At every point we find his arguments being turned upside down and used
against him. At every turn today we find these "adult educators" now
running Permaculture Design Courses, whose own ancestry can be traced
to include the worst of the land speculators and exploiters and whose
business contacts read like a Who's Who of world capitalism, taking
the opportunity to criticise and abuse the person whose wisdom they
advertise themselves to be teaching. 

For your own sakes wake up to the fraud here. Bill Mollison is only a
human being like the rest of us. What he has taught us is essentially
human, and points out to us our human place in the wider scheme of
nature. That Permaculture can be interpreted as such a heresy against
orthodox Christianity is what appears to have attracted to it such an
otherwise unaccountably bitter condemnation from the Powers That Be. 

We are every last one of us being treated like the traditional and
indigenous peoples everywhere, in the face of increasing industrial
expansion and destruction of our villages and rural communities we,
like Mollison himself, grew up in. Here in this country we are facing
record levels of land clearing, and where I am the rural suicide rate
is running at 250% over the past two years.

Yet here I am being told to unsubscribe from this Permaculture list.

What hope do we have? By following such paranoid hype and propaganda
none whatsoever. If you remain in doubt, why don't some of you read
Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson in the US?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   "I consider the class of artificers as the panders of vice, and the 
instruments by which the liberty of a country are generally overturned.
. . . the long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, 
the general prostration of the farming business under levies to support
the manufacturers, etc., with calamatous fluctuations of value in our 
paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject depression."
                                                 Thomas Jefferson, 1826

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From: Emanuele John Gelsi <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 19:58:30 +1000 (GMT+1000)

Although unfortunately I am not aware of the posting which, as I 
understand, alleges that orthodox christianity considers Permaculture 
some sort of heresy, I feel compelled to make the following observations.
	I have been following Permaculture with keen interest since I 
first saw Mollisons' TV appearance in 1989 on the ABC (Australian 
Broadcasting Company), so much so in fact, that I attended a 2 week 
course in Lismore, NSW, 2years ago. Furthermore, I dare call myself a 
Christian, and a Catholic at that, and I hate to think that Permaculture 
and Christianity are somehow imcompatible. I am very much aware of the 
difference of opinion within christianity, and within the Christian 
denominations themselves. For instance, Catholics are in conflict among 
themselves over a range of issues. Unfortunately, I suspect, not all 
non-Christians seem to be aware of this. Christianity is not a monolyth.  
Often I find that Christian 
fundamentalists speak out on issues as if they alone represented 
Christianity. In fact some of them assert that other christians, such as 
myself, are not really christians. Fundamentalist christians have at times 
spoken against environmentalists and their objectives. some conservative 
Catholics have done so too. However they only 
represent a small proportion of the whole of the christian population. 
Many mainstream Christians are supportive of environmentalism and its 
aims. Indeed some of them are active environmentalists. In Brisbane, 
Australia, for instance there is a small organisation called Christians 
Respecting Earth And The Environment (CREATE) which aims at increasing 
environmental awareness in the churches, and at furthering environmental 
objectives in the region. A growing number of theologians are also 
resuscitating our creation consciousness. Matthew Fox is, notably, one of 
these. 
	I write this to underline that permaculture practitioners should 
not be fooled by some christians into believing that *all* christians 
oppose them. I have great hopes for Permaculture. Indeed Permaculture 
keeps *my hope* alive. I would be very saddened to see that vision of 
permaculture hampered by the false assumption that christians oppose 
permaculture. The Assisi farm in India, which appeared in one of the 
earlier Permaculture International Journal issues, is evidence to the 
contrary. The ideas of permaculture should be furthered in the churches 
as much as possible. Indeed the churches need Permaculture to grow
spiritually. One of the definitions of Catholic church is: "here comes 
everybody!". So lets get everybody on side. 
	What I'd really like to know is what is the "unaccountably 
bitter comdemnation of the Powers That Be"??? 
Regards to all

Emanuele John Gelsi
Anthropology and Sociology/ University of Queensland
Australia.

On Sun, 10 Sep 1995, Gil Hardwick wrote:

> That Permaculture can be interpreted as such a heresy against