13051 Road bumps in the Story

One of the most important insights of the new systems theory is that life and cognition are inseparable. The process of knowledge is also the process of self-organization, that is, the process of life. Our conventional model of knowledge is one of representation or an image of independently existing facts which is the model derived from classical physics.

From the new systems point of view, knowledge is a part of the process of life, of a dialogue between subject and object. I believe that the world view implied by modern physics is inconsistent with our present society, which does not reflect the interrelatedness we observe in nature. To achieve such a state of dynamic balance, a radically different social and economic structure will be needed; a cultural revolution in the true sense of the word.

The survival of our whole civilization may depend on whether we can bring about such a change. It will depend ultimately, on our ability to...experience the wholeness of nature and the art of living with it in harmony. — Fritjof Capra

One accusation thrown up against permaculture is that implementing permaculture across our entire society would hurt some people. “And I thought y’all cared for people. How’s that working out for ya?”

If everybody stops buying new cars, then automobile manufacturing companies will collapse and their employees will lose their jobs.

Yes, this would happen. It’s what happened to buggy and wagon makers and breeders of draft horses in the early decades of the 20th century when the automobile replaced animal traction for moving people and goods across the land and city scapes.

Did that “hurt” wagon makers? It hurt the earth more, but yes, wagon makers and the associated jobs experienced negative economic consequences. Meanwhile, people who got jobs at the new automobile manufacturing companies experienced positive economic consequences, although the process was negative for the planet’s ecologies. Some of those people who got those jobs had previously worked for wagon and buggy makers.

In our time, if automobile manufacturing companies go out of business, people who work for them will experience short-term negative economic consequences but they will receive long-term benefits from the positive impact on the earth’s ecologies of the decline in the use of automobiles. Meanwhile, the need for people to move around and haul stuff will not go away. It will happen in different ways and it is likely that those ways will be more decentralized and operated by smaller businesses. Even in our distorted and irrational times, one fact of economic life is that small businesses create most new jobs.

So the likelihood that former auto-workers will find work in the new jobs created by the end of the automobile era, and the long-term ecological benefits they receive, balances the personal economic problems that they may face. They would be part of the transition to new and better ways of doing things. That will happen for lots of people. It will be important for the invisible structures of our society to support this transition by providing intellectual, regulatory, and commercial space for it to happen.

At least under this permaculture scenario, new jobs will be created.

There are other ways the automobile era can end — scenarios that are more catastrophic and dystonic. Autoworker jobs could disappear with no new jobs being created to replace them. That’s the likelihood outcome for autoworkers without broad-scale hacking of permaculture.

One of the problems with our present economy is that many forms of honest work are practically illegal for those not already involved with such work. Laws restrict where people can work. It would be illegal, for example, to set up a food truck at highway rest stops. It would be illegal in many areas to repair cars in your driveway. There are limited numbers of taxi licenses in most areas, so it would be illegal for you to just start working as an independent taxi, without benefit of government licenses. This slows the transition to better economic times and creates more economic hardship and poverty.

Permaculture transition plans support responsible structures that help workers displaced by the economic and ecological necessities of the future so that they can find other ways to make a living.

The consequences of delaying, avoiding, or otherwise marginalizing permaculture transition and thus minimizing its impact on human and natural systems will be catastrophic for all life. It could possibly lead to the outright collapse of our economic and technological systems and contribute to a terrible die-off of the human species. That dystopia will hurt people a lot more than anything connected with permaculture transition could.

Permaculture provides the possibility of a soft landing and a carefully managed transition from the dysfunctional systems of the present to the humane and ecologically sane systems of the future. Beware of people who do not care for people, do not care for the planet, and could care less for the future. They are the ones with plans that lead to collapse, death, and suffering on a world wide scale.