Whether you call it a pandemic or a plandemic, Covid and the responses to it have turned our world upside down. For some unknown but large number of Australians, the division of our country into the vaxxed and the unvaxxed is challenging what we thought was true and good about our country, and created doubt and conflict through our families, schools, communities and workplaces.
The consequent questioning and destabilisation of our faith in our support networks and institutions has caused many to pull their heads in to avoid conflict. Getting vaxxed, whether they thought it was a good idea or not, seemed to be the only way to keep the peace, get by, or even just survive. For some small proportion, with more psychological resources, it triggered a sense of solidarity with the unvaxxed who are fast becoming second class citizens.
For those refusing to comply with what we perceive as collective madness, if not evil, our free choice appears to be the end of the road for careers, homes and even families. The demonisation in the media, workplace and even within families raises the anger and hardens resistance.
Protest has been an outlet for anger, and a focus for political action, sometimes for the first time. The solidarity of like-minded others and radical activism brings the hope of turning society around, the stupidity and evil being exposed, and some form of justice.
Those who find themselves outside the tent, and those on the inside but committed to pro-choice solidarity, come from all sectors of society. They range from blue collar union workers, independent contractors and plain Aussie battlers with very few options through to members of the intelligentsia, and commercial elites trying to work out how to prepare what firepower they can muster to turn the ship around. Politically, the outsiders are diverse from hard-right libertarian to tree-hugging greenies and everything in between. The potential for these groups to come together in new forms of political organisation to reverse the changes of the last two years is enticing, and one way or another these new alliances will be part of the political landscape.
However, just as important are the quiet moves to improve resilience in challenging times. Some of the strategies ordinary folks are pursuing include:
- Downsizing to get out of debt
- Consolidating the household/family castle
- Making a strategic move to regional or rural locations with like-minded others
- Changing jobs, going part time or living on savings
- Reducing screen time, getting fit, connecting to the walkable neighbourhood
- Building skills in growing and preserving food
- Stocking up on essential goods
- Retrofitting the house with solar and water tanks
- Making a natural disaster plan part of the seasonal cycle
- Involving kids in the action and considering home and community education options
- Keeping cash on hand and in circulation
- Investing in cryptocurrencies or precious metals
Some of those already on this path see it as giving their kids some of the good life of decades past, others are motivated to live more lightly on the earth, while some see it as a boycott against the system represented by Moles, Bullies and Cunnings. For some it is a step towards new solidarity economies in the shadow of the corrupt systems increasingly dominated by a fusion of state and corporate power (which was Mussolini’s functional definition of fascism.)
Over the decades, mainstream media vacillated between curiosity and derision of both socially conservative household preppers and hippy self-sufficiency lifestylers on the geographic and social fringes. Simultaneously, a more quiet mainstream interest in the same stuff has been building across our suburban heartland and hinterlands nurtured by TV celebrity gardeners, chefs and DIY experts.
One of the longest lineages of thought and grounded action on both the feral fringe and the social mainstream is permaculture. Typically thought of as a cool form of organic gardening or self-sufficiency, permaculture is actually a design system for resilient living. It has been tried and tested around the world by people in some of the most privileged and destitute places on the planet. Permaculture has always been informed by a dark view of the state of the world, but focused on empowered action to create the world we want by living it every day. Around the turn of the millennium, as the co-originator of the concept, I focused on the creative opportunities to retrofit suburbia to be fit for purpose in challenging futures.
In the mid 2000s I created ‘Aussie St’ to tell a story of the history and prospective future of suburbia. Over the years it grew into a sort of permaculture soap opera to empower people to take control of their own lives and territory. In my presentations around the country I explained you don’t even need to believe in climate change to see the common sense in ‘Aussie St’.
My 2018 book, RetroSuburbia: the downshifter’s guide to a resilient future is the culmination of that work. Printed in Australia (an outlier in the publishing business) and not available through Amazon, this life manual is on the table of more than 12,000 households around Australia, with a growing readership around the world. Despite this success, and a foreword by Australia’s best loved celebrity gardener Costa, RetroSuburbia has never had a review in the mainstream media. Just maybe, the establishment does understand that permaculture is ‘revolution disguised as gardening’. In the honeymoon stage of Covid last year, there was a huge surge of interest in household self-reliance and we gifted online access to our 600 page book on a “pay what you feel” basis, allowing access to thousands more around the world.
As the repressive experiment in mandatory vaccination intensifies in this country, the new excluded are having to get creative to survive, and hopefully, thrive. While political organisation and civil disobedience focus anger and provide solidarity, walking away from the system to rebuild household and community autonomy, which previous generations took for granted, may be an equal strike against that repression. Through these actions, we can build solidarity across previous ideological divides and with good folk inside the system who support freedom of choice.
While I am happy to acknowledge my lineage as university educated, middle class, ex-urban left wing greenie, I have always celebrated the commonalities with friends and colleagues who could equally be described as right wing, working class, libertarian, rural rednecks. Celebrating diversity rather than monoculture is one of the best known permaculture principles. Just as we don’t discriminate between good and bad biodiversity (all plants and animals are part of nature), we don’t judge good and bad social diversity.
Over the last decade I have been increasingly alienated from the growing ideological rigidity on the so called progressive green left and, as a greenie with a chainsaw and a gun licence, willingly accepted that I will always be a fringe dweller, despite the minor fame and respect for being the co-originator of permaculture.
It has not surprised me that Covid has seen most on the green left become evangelists for “The Science” generated by big pharma and big government. However it has been more sobering to witness the struggles of my permaculture colleagues with this issue. While I refuse to judge my peers for their personal decisions, I am equally ready to acknowledge brave and practical folk of very different perspectives and experiences who have found their voice and action in growing resistance. May we offer ‘Aussie St’ and RetroSuburbia, powered by permaculture ethics and design principles, as our contribution to the fertile resistance. Let’s use our common experience to increase both our solidarity and acceptance of diversity, while maintaining our connections to our respective families, friends and peers still working within, or even for, the system that we reject and resist.
David Holmgren
Co-originator of permaculture
Melliodora
Djaara Country
32 thoughts on “Autonomy and Solidarity in a Covid mad world”
Dear David,
“May we offer ‘Aussie St’ and RetroSuburbia, powered by permaculture ethics and design principles, as our contribution to the fertile resistance”.
As a Permaculturist for over 10 years, including a permaculture business and a small family – living mostly in / part out of “the system”, I’m actually a bit insulted by the statement above, which seems to imply that those who have “struggled with the issue” by supporting “The Science” (sic) are somehow ‘not’ powered by permaculture ethics and design principles. I just don’t see the need to say this stuff.
I know you say you don’t judge, but there is division in these words, and there is enough division already.
Well said😊
Yes! Thank you for your thoughtfulness in writing it. You are so appreciated.
I find your talk about political alliances in this post very troubling. If you want to get into bed with the far right, that’s your business, but please leave permaculture out of it. There are many of us who don’t want to be associated with that.
Thank you!
Hi David, a “hard-right libertarian” may simply be someone that values property rights and personal liberty above all else. But a lot of people hear “far right” or “hard right” as meaning tending towards nationalist, fascist, and certainly racist. Given that some of the organisers of the protests — or at least those that are taking credit for organising it — have widely publicised fascist sympathies or xenophobic views it’s even more likely that people will read the bit “Politically, the outsiders are diverse from hard-right libertarian to tree-hugging greenies and everything in between. The potential for these groups to come together in new forms of political organisation to reverse the changes of the last two years is enticing…” and assume the worst so I think it would be well worth a clarification here.
Unfortunately, the worst has been assumed by many. This aligning of Permaculture and the Hard right appears to be a desperate move, and I’m still a bit shocked as to why. Yes, people can belong to these persuasions and have a common interest, but NOT the movements themselves. Clarification would be good to hear; but I suspect the original words were not chosen by accident or mistake – and this makes it all the more worrying.
It seems that my sunflower went far right, too, she is whispering every morning, that she does not want the Booster. I am really desperate. How can I handle it? More and more of my plants talk about conspiracy theories now, and they refuse to take special treatments made by science-based crop-experts. How does that fit with our community guidelines? This makes it all the more worrying!
Adam,
Thanks for pointing out the need for clarification. Rather than enticing for me, I thought it would be enticing for many at the rally to become, for the first time politically active and that given the absence of any solidarity or support from the left, then the already organised groups on the right would naturally be the beneficiaries. For that obvious outcome, I think the centre left establishment, far left and green mainstream should take prime responsibility, in the same way, that the struggling American working class demonised by Clinton as deplorables, led to the election of Trump. However at the very least, we should also expect any expanded new political organisation based around resistance to the new authoritarianism, should have the potential to moderate the extremes of xenophobia and racism in the far right groups. To dismiss this possibility relies on an assumption that these people are inherently full of hate and should be deplatformed more than they already are, which will of course, only intensify their sense of oppression and anger. Happy to discuss in more depth off line
For me this discussion raises a few questions:
1. Is permaculture apolitical? Or beyond politics?
2. Can permaculture be genuinely practised, with respect to the ethics and principles, by anyone of any faith, belief or political persuasion?
3. Does ‘the who’ really matter as long as they’re on the permaculture path of self responsibility, earth care, people care and fair shares?
Thank you for another inclusive article. Its much appreciated during these trying times full of segregation and division. Much love ❤
Thank you David for another writing on this subject. It is certainly much appreciated in our household. We look forward to more from you along the same lines- celebrating diversity, building solidarity and resisting corporate and political fascism.
I hope permies can unite on these lucid and critical points.
Many thanks 😊
I think that David is saying: lets not judge others we think of as different to ourselves, if people are feeling repressed by an authoritative government then we have something in common. Regardless too, —I am assuming— of your vaccination status. Let celebrate the commonalities with those who we find different, diversity is good, and there too lays the power. So whatever label we/they carry, lets take the opportunity now to use permaculture thinking as presented in Aussie St and RetroSuburbia as the solution to the problem, build house hold and community autonomy. Get going together, despite differences, disregard the government, build resilience, and we need to do this collectively.
Id like to point out about your comment saying anti vaxers are “fast becoming second class citizens” that there is a choice here- where those who are really less priveledged do not have countless choices or opportunities to live the way you do.
Thank you for your work, nice article. I bought your book Retrosuburbia earlier in the year and think it’s wonderful. As a renter it helped empower me to dig the lawn up anyway and plant a garden. Has been a valuable learning experience and there’s no time like the present. The descent into the madness of the last few years has truly been eye opening. Writings such as these have been good to keep grounded and open me up to different perspectives to the world that I probably wouldn’t have considered. Thanks.
Can’t believe what I’m reading. The far right is completely antithetical to permaculture ethics. What has happened to you, David?
Thanks David. I believe now is also the perfect time to come together with like minded alternative thinkers from around the world. The world of long format, critical thinking podcasts by other ‘outcasts’ has exploded and is linking the world in free thought. I would love to see you David, have a chat with Brett and Heather from Dark Horse podcasts. Their book 21st Century Hunter Gatherers sounds very interesting. They also have a huge audience and reach, which could spread permaculture en masse, turn 12,000 Retrosuburbia sales into 120,000.
Thank you David for yet another balanced and sensible article. I for one attach no importance to the words “left” and “right” and suspect that the vast majority of people who use them to define either themselves or others do so only because they have been made to believe that that is how one must identify oneself in modern, civilised society. If we were all to focus more on the values and opinions of individuals – divorced from political labels – I suspect very few of us (politicians and corporate billionaires excepted perhaps) would not get on.
I also find it amusing/enfuriating to note once again the tendency amongst those who criticise your articles to point out the corporate ties between right wing movements and big business when there are as many (perhaps more even at the present time) tying the left to equally nefarious organisations, specifically in the areas of big pharma, social media and academia.
In short, are we all so brainwashed as to be incapable of thinking outside of the right wing-left wing paradigm? It is as distressing to see how many in the permaculture movement obviously have been as it is reassuring to see that you have not. Thank you again.
Nick, I agree with what you say about left and right labels. I use them most reluctantly for short hand purposes of self described groups. You and others may be interested in the framework I developed for thinking about political philosophy in the modern world in the essay Money vs Oil; the battle for control of the world. https://holmgren.com.au/writing/money-vs-fossil-energy/
agree re the left and right comments – people have a knee jerk reaction. It’s time we got away from the party systems altogether – they are so much of the problem! Trying to split humans into one of two camps is extremely limited and simplistic. What we need in government is individuals from all walks of life chosen firstly for their ability to collaborate…then let’s see what happens. It is the attitude rather than the political beliefs and methods of a person that matter. If there is a desire for harmony, co-operation, diversity, synergy, good design – all the qualities of permaculture, then we are able as people to have nuanced conversations – something that is currently being repressed and censored in our world. Great article thanks David! It just feels good – and that’s how I navigate the current terrain – because there is so much that does not feel good right now..
Yes Bouillir it is a time where we have to rely on our instincts. Unfortunately information is not free.
I loved this article very much David. It was a breath of fresh air to me as I have observed a huge move to monoculture thinking within the permaculture community, and I really appreciate how you referenced diversity of ideas and thinking. This constant fear and dehumanization of those who are called “anti-vaxxers or far-right” is troubling because history has shown us time and time again that when you marginalize any particular group of people, terrible things can happen. People seem to have forgotten that the holocaust started with a health scare of typhus and an obsession with cleanliness.
This “pandemic” is nothing but a huge power grab from the controlling elite and it is painfully obvious. All the big banks, mega corporations, corrupt governments, and NGO’s controlled by the banking families are in on it. Just follow the money. The fact that more folks in the permaculture community can’t see it, is somewhat shocking to me. However, I have personally observed radical left-wing ideology infiltrate the community over the last 10 years and it has steered peoples thinking into dark places. So much of the environmentalist and social justice ideologies are baked in straight up marxism and communism which is at their core, coercive and centralized. Two things that do not exist in nature. Nature is diverse, adaptable and anti-fragile.
If one can see the global problems with industrial agriculture, the commodification of food, land and farmers, also, the war on drugs and the war on terror. The endless cycle of problem, reaction, solution that humanity has a hard time transcending, how can we not see that this so called “pandemic” is the same thing? It’s a war you can never win against an invisible enemy with a centralized solution based in fear, profit, and coercion. Since when are permaculture people waiting for the latest pharmaceutical product? How does that provide anything from a systems thinking approach?
I know you have taken some flack for coming out with your position. This is another example of how monoculture thinking has infiltrated our movement and cancel culture is the result. Stay true to yourself and don’t let fear of being marginalized sway you. It’s worth it. I came out against all of this stuff years ago and I have found once you drop the fear of being cancelled, they can’t cancel you. You become anti-fragile. All of it will make you stronger.
Much love David.
Curtis.
Thanks Curtis for your support and your perspective. In relation to Covid and its discontents, it is ironic that the focus on polyculture (diversity) in the origins and articulate of permaculture is so strong and yet in this case, many permies have felt that monoculture is the solution. Vandana Shiva’s “monocultures of the mind” and most recently James C Scott in Seeing Like a State describing the necessity for nation state powers to simplify their mapping of territory and populations in order to understand and control them at scale, have for me, been important reinforcements of permaculture ethics and principles. I am dismayed that the design principles have done little to innoculate many permies against this idea that one big, fast, globally co-ordinated, but novel solution, from Big Pharma is necessary and that the suppression of any alternative responses is also ok in these circumstances. Nevertheless I remain interested in divergent perspectives while not being afraid of being marginalised. In any case how could I be, given the principle of Using Edges and Valuing the Marginal or as Charlie McGee’s mum said “if you not living on the edge then you are taking up too much space”
Thanks for that David. I agree 100% on Vandana Shiva’s perspective as well. She has actually been totally consistent and bang on since the beginning of this insanity. The thing that is interesting about her is how her words transcend any stereotypes. If you actually just listen to her words and you didn’t know where they were coming from, some mainstream people would describe what she says as “right-wing conspiracy theory”. She has been going after the Rockerfeller Foundation and Bill Gates for years. These people have been poisoning peasant farmers in India and Africa with their big agri-business chemical solutions for a long time. They have been also experimenting with vaccines on women and children in those countries for a long time as well. Companies like Pfizer have a long history of mass murder in the third world and the fact that many people in western society chose to overlook that, then go and stick their product in the body, is beyond me. However, you can’t expect logical consistency when most of the world has gone mad.
Also I am not sure that nature is anti fragile. The Australian endemic ecosystem is the most fragile in the world. We end up with a monoculture by failing to appreciate diversity and the consequences of our actions. Charles Darwin notes the Australian ecosystem, having developed in virtual isolation for many thousands of years was one of cooperation rather than competition.
Thank you David. I am a self described commie convict (though mostly greenie/permie) rat bag. I too am dismayed by the so called “left” and the new tendency of many who identify as “left” to discriminate rather than understand. I am concerned by the many comments here which lament your willingness to point out what we have in common rather than what divides. We need only look to Japan to see how even the official government health website emphasises personal choice and calls on citizens and businesses not to discriminate those who choose not to take part of what is really, as Greg Hunt said, the largest ever vaccine trial. If everyone in Aus was vaccinated we would not have control group and the study would be a fail. Also permaculture is political and constantly engaged in debate, to say that permaculture cannot apply to and comment on political issues is nonsense. I also remember from my permaculture design course many years ago being taught to apply protracted observation to the land and design issues. When we look at a problem from many angles and different vantage points without prior assumptions we are able to see more of what is there and find unique solutions.
In reply to Curtis I want to share an observation which may or may not be right. Based on a section of your comment I think you may have misunderstood Marx if you think that it has anything to do with what you call cancel culture or monoculture thinking. Marx is a product of his time and was very much concerned with the human dignity of the working class in the new industrial era. The fact that the so called “left” are now so out of touch with the working class shows us that Marxism and communism is not central to this movement anymore. Marx envisioned a utopia of shared rights and responsibilities. He offered a lucid critique of capitalism and showed us that capitalism will eat itself. He offered how we could move away from capitalism by establishing workers cooperatives and putting the means of production into the hands of the working class. I have struggled with Australias response to the pandemic not because I think my individual rights transcend the rights of the collective but because the rationale for this response, in particular the mandates, is flimsy and continues to fall apart. And yes many a suspicious deal and suppression of information. Take care and thank you for your thoughts.
Marx was funded by big banking families like the Rockerfellers, he was also an aristocrat himself. He never worked a day in his life. He even had his own personal maid. When I used Marxism to describe the disconnect, it’s rooted in Marx the man himself, then compounded to the movement. Completely disconnected from reality. Just like most NGO’s and organizations today who espouse Marxist ideology, are funded by huge corporations and foundations. The point is that the aristocratic elite of the world, care not of any particular ideology. They will use any idea or method to achieve their aim. To divide and conquer the people. As Carol Quigly documented in Tragedy and Hope, these people will use any ideology or ideologue to achieve their aim. Whether it’s fascist, capitalist, communist doesn’t matter. The intent is to use collectivism to create minorities that can be marginalized and then scapegoated. It’s more less exactly what is happening now.
Thank you very much Curtis, for your comment, your interesting thoughts! I agree. For my understanding of the things a book from Prof. Rainer Mausfeld was very helpul, a German psychologist and university teacher. I hope his book “Warum schweigen die Lämmer” will be translated to english soon(?) All the very best! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Mausfeld
thank you for the article David, and the opportunity to comment
one of the great things about permaculture is its emphasis on human agency – as your article says “However, just as important are the quiet moves to improve resilience in challenging times [followed by a list of things you suggest one can do]”.
As The Australian Psychological Society notes in its The Climate Change Empowerment Handbook (2017): “Action is the best antidote to despair and helplessness.”
also worth noting are comments by Murray Bookchin in a “Economics and the Moral Order” lecture (1976) (freely available podcast by the Schumacher Center for a New Economics): “When people—young and old—can get involved in forming a food co-op, in tending a garden, in establishing some form of association where they feel they not only have a modicum of control over their private lives, but they have a modicum of control over their social lives, we are doing something that is so profoundly important—over and beyond the fact that we grow our own food, and over and beyond the fact that we conserve energy. What we are conserving literally is the human spirit here.
Thank you for your amazing work David and your bravery in continuing to stand up and speak out for the people who have no voice despite the intensity of the bullies. It is a terrifying future that we are being herded into and thank goodness there are public voices of reason like yours.
David, as always, your strongly earthed clarity shines brightly around the ills currently confounding the world and your suggestions for what we could do about it. Sadly, many are blinded by their own bigotry and unable to see that your refusal to judge either side of what you term ‘hard-right libertarian to tree-hugging greenies and everything in between’, is not an indictment on your character, but rather the opposite.
Reading without innate bias, one can see that you were merely saying that this is an opportunity to come together and co-create anew, from the compost of the decaying body politic of old. The one which has always had us at odds with each other, in order to take the attention away from the real problems of political/corporate corruption, destruction and pollution. Some are so entrenched in their egoic positions that they may literally die defending them, rather than concede that they have been duped into demonising the ‘other side’.
Being one who has worked decades with hands in the earth and head in the cosmos, who has always been a green permie with an animistic perspective on the world, I am deeply grateful for you. Please continue challenging the comfort of those who are afraid of you as the only living founder of permaculture, sharing your thoughts on where we find ourselves. Your ability to analyse the facts and come up with sensible solutions, has clearly not waned over the years! x