Scum of the Earth

For those who favor free markets and limited government, the struggle for such things as a true gold standard and a political discourse where the participants understand, at a minimum, the lessons of Henry Hazlett's classic, Economics in One Lesson, seems endless. There is, however, a group out there so forlorn in their struggle that the struggle of the free marketeers pales in comparison. One could feel sorry for them if only they weren't so darn evil. Radical environmentalists who advocate something called "Permaculture" want to radically remake society.

Permaculture is contraction of the words "permanent" and "agriculture". Unsurprisingly, its advocates favor organic farming but it's much more sinister than that. Here's one of many virtually identical definitions of permaculture:

Permaculture is a practical concept which can be applied in the city, on the farm, and in the wilderness. Its principles empower people to establish highly productive environments providing for food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs, including economic. Carefully observing natural patterns characteristic of a particular site, the permaculture designer gradually discerns optimal methods for integrating water catchment, human shelter, and energy systems with tree crops, edible and useful perennial plants, domestic and wild animals and aquaculture.

Permaculture adopts techniques and principles from ecology, appropriate technology, sustainable agriculture, and the wisdom of indigenous peoples. The ethical basis of permaculture rests upon care of the earth-maintaining a system in which all life can thrive. This includes human access to resources and provisions, but not the accumulation of wealth, power, or land beyond their needs.

In other words, these people want to create an agricultural paradise where humans subsist on plant foods, they all magically get along with one another, all kinds of vermin live in close proximity, and every person is a jack-of-all-trades. Say goodbye to automobiles, big houses and anything you have now that you would be unable to make for yourself with only very primitive capital. Of course, there will be far fewer humans inhabiting the earth in a permaculture wonderland. Here are their three guiding tenets:

1. Care of the Earth
...includes all living and non-living things-plants, animals, land, water and air

2. Care of People
...promotes self-reliance and community responsibility-access to resources necessary for existence

3. Setting Limits to Population & Consumption
...gives away surplus-contribution of surplus time, labor, money, information, and energy to achieve the aims of earth and people care.

Number three says it all. Your bourgeois lifestyle has got to go. But what is the point of shedding light of these obvious wackos? The point is that every time you hear some person from an environmental group like the Sierra Club, Earth First!, or Greenpeace spouting off about mining, logging, oil drilling, urban sprawl, animal rights or global warming remember that their strategy is to use environmental law and any other means to stop human progress (as we non-crazies define it) in its tracks. Don't be fooled by rhetoric that says that environmental measures these group advocate are just "common sense" and cost-free. For example, Julia Butterfly Hill, the girl who lived in a tree for two years to protest logging, openly recommends using the Endangered Species Act to stop development that might cost us some "cherished tree."

The permaculture movement represents the ultimate expression of the environmentalists' core philosophy: There are too many humans; lifestyles which go beyond subsistence on plants are immoral as well as unsustainable; and fossil fuel use must end completely.

Fortunately, these people see virtually everything done in the world as strike against their cherished earth, from SUVs to urban sprawl. Therefore they often view their goals as nearly impossible to achieve. At recent forum sponsored by The LA Times at UCLA, a panel of environmental wackos all expressed their frustration. The aforementioned Ms. Hill wore a shirt that read, "Do Something." A desperate pleading from a poor vegan girl who just doesn't have much to offer that any normal person would want to hear.

Permaculture links: A real active permaculture community

For a more philosphical take on these types of groups see:

"Why Hippies Loved VW Bug" by myself

"Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism, and the Division of Labor" by Murray Rothbard

July 13, 2001

Greg Davis [send him mail] lives in Arizona and, as a former Infantryman in the US Army, has done enough primitive living.

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