Permaculture in a time of crisis…
How does permaculture show leadership during the pandemic?
“This is a time to think about others, to serve, to prepare, to keep calm, to reassure, to protect, to be heroic.”
I was inspired by the recent email that quote is drawn from. It called on our better selves to do those things, to rise up and take positions of leadership during the Covid crisis. Could we call on permaculture practitioners to do the same thing, I wondered?
Permaculture is not a personal lifeboat strategy. It is a collective strategy.
Our role
What is our role as permaculture practitioners during the crisis and shutdown?
One thing, we have to make sure we and our families have sufficient food and shelter and maintain our health. Permaculture, though, is not a personal lifeboat strategy. It is a collective strategy. It means we assist others where we can and according to the resources we have. Some call doing that the Third Ethic.
…we assist others where we can and according to the resources we have…
“Well, here we are in rough and uncertain times again. People are not showing their best selves. People are scared. For several years in a row now, people have had their true north obscured and disoriented by daily examples of bad leadership — of ego and selfishness and downright incompetence. But, in a way, that doesn’t matter. As Marcus Aurelius said, what other people say or do is not our concern. What matters is what we do.”
The words are those of Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman in their Daily Stoic, a website about how the ancient philosophy of Stoicism can be applied in our daily lives. It has never been as important as in our present health crisis.
What we do
It’s about what we do, Marcus Aurelius said all those centuries ago.
One thing we might be able to do is make regular contact via instant messaging, video calls on Skype, Zoom or whatever, and phone. Hearing another’s voice and seeing them on our screen is the closest we can come to personal contact with fellow-permaculturists in our own circles of friends and with family to check how we are all going at this time. What’s the lockdown like where you are? What are you doing during the lockdown? Do you need help with anything?
I think that doing this and offering whatever help we can, though it will be limited during the lockdown, fits well the philosophy of mutual assistance that comes through in permaculture literature and in David Holmgren’s recent book, Retrosuburbia. What use would the retrosuburbia idea be without mutual assistance? It is permaculture’s Third Ethic, after all.
What can we do? Beyond our own families and our own homes, we can’t do much in person at present, however we can do something online. We already see this where permaculture practitioners and their fellow travellers post useful information, debunk fake and misleading claims, share their knowledge, offer advice and repost useful information on social media and in our blogs. Permaculture beyond the garden gate is very much an online practice during the Covid crisis. Online systems have shown their great social value during the shutdown, and during the summer of fires that preceded it, and have become the medium of self-help and mutual assistance.
This is personal action we can take now. While we might have space to grow some of what we eat, we shouldn’t forget that others don’t, and those who the pandemic has stimulated to start growing food might do with a little advice from the experienced. When the crisis ends, assuming it will, can we keep in contact and bring them into the permaculture/retrosuburbia fold?
How do we practice permaculture now?
So, how do we practice permaculture this way?
One way is to avoid reposting unverified and unverifiable information on the social media we participate in:
- when we see extraordinary claims about the pandemic, let’s remember that extraordinary claim require extraordinary evidence; where is it and even if it is there, is it valid?
- if something seems improbable, it probably is
- if something seems questionable, let’s ask about the track record of the organisation or people it originates with, ask whether it stands up to common sense reasoning and precedent and ask who has what to gain from posting it?
- when we speculate, and doing that is alright, let’s make it clear that we are speculating
- if we admin a social media site, let’s realise that the coronavirus is the big current issue and not impose a too-limited interpretation of what is on-topic; go with what people want to talk about; to do that is to be adaptable, and to adapt to changing circumstances is to observe and interact, according to David Holmgren’s permaculture design principle
- remember that we are partially responsible for the impact of what we recommend people do or things they can make
- let’s make sure what we say is based on verifiable evidence, not assumption
- and… keep posting humorous stuff.
Seeing opportunity in problems
“We can choose to see this as a tremendous opportunity”, Holiday and Hanselman say about the pandemic.
Seeing something like a pandemic as an opportunity might seem counterintuitive. It is no opportunity for those afflicted with the virus, for those whom social isolation leads to mental problems, for women trapped in isolation with violent and abusive partners, for people trying to home school and look after bored kids. If it is an opportunity for us then we are privileged, and we should embrace that and use it for good.
What Holiday and Hanselman are doing is unknowingly adopting the permaculture principle of seeing solutions, not problems, of seeing the opportunity that lies in many of the problems we encounter. It’s about what we choose to focus on — problem or opportunity?
That’s not to ignore problems. Many problems need to be dealt with directly. We can’t solve problems if we avoid them. Problems might not conceal opportunity. What it is about is to see how problems can open doors that we might otherwise walk by.
Perhaps in practicing our permaculture on the digital platforms we use we can consider what Holiday and Hanselman suggest: “This is a moment to be heroic. To think about others. To serve. To prepare. To keep calm. To reassure. To protect. This is a time to reevaluate our priorities. To ask ourselves what’s important and what we’re working towards.”
I think there is much wisdom for permaculture practitioners in that. They go on:
“Courage is calling you. Self-discipline is essential. We need your moral and civic backbone…and do we need wisdom right now more than ever. We need you to embody those things. We need them right now.”
Read more about Marcus Aurelius: When the System Breaks Down, Leaders Stand Up
Note:
Stoicism is not some esoteric, high-sounding waffle. It is not like studying philosophy at university. Nor is it the property of academics. One of its key figures, Marcus Aurelius, was a military leader and a leader of Imperial Rome during the Antonine plague as well was a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability in the Roman Empire at a time when external pressures were starting to bear.
Tune into Daily Stoic-Ancient Wisdon for Everyday Life.
