A crash course in changing the world.
True resiliency: Nature...always willing to cooperate with little fuss, only respect and living holistically
I believe the most resilient option available to us, is a return to the land and when I say this I am not referring to a return to agriculture. We must return to the time before agriculture. We must return to the "garden."
I've been playing Farm Town on my Facebook. Rather than farm, which is environmentally destructive. I got the idea to plant fruit and nut bearing trees instead (and if the game allowed which it does not--I'd have planted a very biodiverse arbor all of varieties of berry bearing shrubs). Slowly I have been planting trees as I can afford them, as the game does not necessarily support the adaptations I am trying to make. Interestingly, I realized that economically this is a better option, because once the trees are planted there are no more costs associated with buying seeds, paying to till the soil, paying for fuel etc. Not only is it more sustainable, good for the earth, but there is little work to be done other than go gather ones food each day. Mmmmm. where have I heard of this idea before?
Historically, back before the land was "enclosed," people lived freely. In English history, at the time of the Magna Carta there was a Charter of the Forest which assured the right's of the people to use the forests for food, wood, herbs, etc. This is the way all native peoples lived before the conquerors destroyed the indigenous cultures and enslaved the peoples of Earth. This is a way we might live again.
When learning about the efforts by the Indigenous Law Institute to understand the "legal basis" for the enslavement of Native American people and the laws which justified the stealing of their land, I became aware of the Papal Bulls which set the precedence of the Law. http://ili.nativeweb.org/ili_info.html#5, I was stunned when perusing the web sight when the author wrote of how the native peoples could not understand once the United States won its independence from England, how they might substantiate further enslaving the native peoples. As the author pointed out, the native people had been free, and the new American's had never been (or hadn't been for generations since the Romans pillaged the rest of Europe). What might the new American's really know of freedom. Certainly it would be difficult to be truly free by continuing to live within the legal, religious, economic system of the enslavers--no matter ideas to the contrary.
My goal is to create such a garden. It builds on the ideas of Willie Smits in Indonesiahttp://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/willie_smits_restores_a_rainfores...
and Janine Benyus' Biomimicry: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_actio...
Housing can become once again more natural and blend into the landscape rather than obliterate it. The possibilities are endless and have been sustainable been done for tens of thousands of years prior to history. We need only free our minds from the more modern, thoughtless examples which have mesmerized through our histories of enslavement.
Indigenous Law Institute: http://ili.nativeweb.org/
List of Papal Bulls, note particularly 1455 and 1493, these bulls established the basis by which the people were enslaved into perpetuity and the land seized--and purportedly all in the name of religion or "god.": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_papal_bulls
Views: 3
Tags: Imagine8, Resiliency
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Comment by Turil Cronburg on May 4, 2010 at 2:43am -
I am especially amused by your creative use of the Farm game! That's a good way to educate the ma****!
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Comment by Catherine Gentry on May 4, 2010 at 2:34pm -
Turil, Yes I thought it was pretty cool. I only began the game as a subtle means of catching up with a friend I'd lost touch with, who had since moved to Hong Kong. We used to speak for hours on the telephone each week and swap long voluminous letters. She's now busy with work and family, but I noted she was playing the farm game and thought it'd be a good way to reestablish contact. Once I started playing, the ideas for sustainability occurred to me. I've actually learned quite a bit by playing, especially as I watched my "Farm cash mount up into the hundred of thousands of dollars because I didn't need to purchase anything once the trees started "producing."
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Comment by Nick Heyming on August 9, 2010 at 7:33am -
You'll love the Gratitude Gardens, we're creating a game that would allow you to do exactly what you posted...
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Comment by Catherine Gentry on August 9, 2010 at 12:42pm
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@Nick. Thanks for the information. I read about the idea on your blog. Do you have a link for the game. I'm not sure about actually playing but will pass the information on.
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