From: John M Grigg (starman125@mailcity.com)
Date: Sat Jul 01 2000 - 14:33:30 MDT
Bonnie wrote:
Along those lines I'd like to mention one of the few books I keep on the shelf behind my desk, always close at hand: _Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future_ by Bill Mollison.
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I am going to have to get a copy for my mother. She loves books on this topic.
you continue:
I'd like to quote from Bill's book: "We know how to solve every food, clean energy, and sensible shelter problem in every climate; we have already invented and tested every necessary technique and technical device, and have access to all the biological material that we could ever use. "The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy, and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us, and devise ways to help ourselves."
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This point indicates to me how the lives of the people on this globe could be so much better if greed, incompetance, and mistrust did not get in the way of making sure the basic needs of people were met. This book sounds to be a potential bible for those in the third-world, and not just for Americans trying to escape the "rat race."
There is(even if unintentionally) a strong extropian thread running through his final statement. When nanotech arrives with the possibility of near-anything boxes, the "powers that be" may do all they can to not let us arrange for our own food, energy and shelter, which would break our dependence on them.
you continue:
So, yeah, a person can grow their own food, build their own shelter, educate themselves (for me education is a fun, never-ending process), and look for work--or do the work, as the case may be, and have time left over for socializing, listening to music, reading novels, just hanging out, orwhatever.
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Bonnie, I simply love reading the posts where you describe your lifestyle!! I admire what you have done so much! The way you have gone from being employed as a high-powered lawyer, to living off the land to a great extent, in a home you built yourself is just amazing. Have you ever been written about in your local newspaper? Someone should write a dang book about you...
If I had only three nanoreplicator anything-boxes to give out, you, Damien Broderick, and Brent Allsop would each get one.
best wishes,
John Grigg
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