We had a whole Forum on the Diner, the Doomsteading forum dedicated to topics like permaculture. I chartered a 501c3 nonprofit corporation, the Sustaining Universal Needs (SUN) Foundation to help educate and build sustainable living communities. We had many members over the years who were permaculture enthusiasts. Some even had their official Permaculture Certificates. Eddie has one of those. I published numerous blogs by others concerned with this topic, Toby Hemenway for one. I talked several times with Irv Mills on Video. We did a show on food preservation, including cheesemaking, pickling and canning. Don't know why you never got response to your PMs, but you could have posted on the forum anytime. I often took detailed posts and threads from the forum and turned them into blogs. I was always looking for new authors and contributors.
My own area of expertiese is not in this field, it's in mathematics and economics, along with biochemistry and psychology. I don't write about permaculture because I'm not familiar enough with it.
As to the potential for permaculture to save the population, I don't know how many people it can feed on the earth, but I don't think it is 7.8B. Many of the techniques come from antiquity, but it was consistently out competed by more intensive methods that grew the population faster. You need a big population to have a big army, of course.
When it comes to being duped into the military at 19, no I was not. I knew it was trash by the age of 15 for sure with Vietnam, possibly earlier than that. I did almost get duped though, because I applied to the Air Force Academy out of HS. I wasn't accepted because I was too young graduating HS, I was 16. You had to be at least 17. They invited me to reapply the next year (I got a call from a General at the Pentagon personally inviting me to do that). I didn't want to join the Air Force to bomb people though, I did it because I wanted to be an Astronaut. At the time, the only way to get that job was to have experience as a military pilot. They didn't send 90 year old actors into space in those years. lol.
Do I forgive 19 year olds for being stupid and voluntarily signing up to kill people? No I do not, stupidity is no excuse for making a **** poor moral choice. I do not Forgive and I do not Forget. People need to be accountable for their mistakes. I am accountable for all mine, fortunately they don't include killing anybody else.
It would be nice if everyone was good and kind and generous, but sadly most people are not. Most people are stupid, greedy and selfish. The WORST people are smart, greedy and selfish. So it goes.
RE
Sorry - I should have mentioned that I had large gaps in my Diner experience. While building a house in the mountains of Montana, a couple of miles from the Divide, I was offline for a couple of years. Off grid really. I know that is an impossible concept for everyone else here. Then came a crisis I won't bore you with other than to say it involved the gruesome murder of a friend and neighbor, official malversation, complicity and corruption, a crooked court system and constant danger for several years, resulting in a forced move. I was armed 24/7 for a long time. I was distracted with our actual survival. I still can't sleep without making sure the firearms are there and ready. We still keep several extra big dogs - in excess of what the sheep need. They work all night. I didn't have much time to spend discussing Doom on a theoretical level. If anyone thinks I'm bullshitting, I can send along links to the newspaper articles and TV clips - but I'd rather not think about it. To anyone who thinks it can't happen here or it can't happen to them, don't worry about a thing, the authorities will take care of you.
So, no doubt I missed some of the best the Diner had to offer.
And, I should not smooth over the fact that I am inept on the damn computer. I used to write a weekly newspaper column and I've written for Permaculture publications, but beyond primitive knowledge of the keyboard, I really don't get it. I could not figure out how to post an article on the Diner. That was part of the reason I messaged you. I wanted also to just comment on some of Cat 5's projects with some photos of my own, but couldn't figure out how to get photos on the site. I still can't post photos here - even after K-Dog tried to help me. As I told him, I approach the computer every day warily, and with a whip and a chair. So my being incompetent is also a major reason I didn't contribute.
Toby Hemenway was a professional friend of Mrs. Digwe. He was a great guy and a good man. He made Permaculture accessible for many through his books. We owe him a lot.
The Diner introduced me to Irv Mills. I like his stuff. I still check in on him occasionally. He works in an exciting ecosystem, right there on the lake. After collapse boats will still float, making low-energy transport of goods and people on the lakes a positive for the region. Irv can get evangelical about his Atheism. I skip those parts. I don't agree with all his assumptions about the way communities will organize themselves after collapse, but hell he's Canadian, by nature civilized, rational and just slightly morally superior to his southern neighbors. He does good work.
I recall that Eddie has his PDC. That's good. After getting my PDC I got a teaching certificate but haven't been in front of a class for years. I'm shy of crowds. Mrs. Digwe however, has spoken to thousands and does very well at it. I stay in the shadows and grub in the dirt.
Can Permaculture feed 7.8 billion people? We'll never know. The current paradigm will stay firmly in place as long as corporate capitalism is the operating and organizing system. The wealthy of the world have no intention of sacrificing anything they own or control for a greater good.
So, rather than viewing Permaculture as a system that can transform and replace big ag or suburbs now, I have evolved my view of Pc. I consider it a really good post-collapse strategy and valuable for individuals to implement now for a healthier and more reliable food supply. It has some success now in a capitalist system. There are folks who've adapted permaculture techniques to their farm or business and done very well. But that is not happening at anywhere near a pace that will overtake and replace industrial ag before collapse. Permaculture really is a system designed for a post-capitalist era.
You are much harder and more judgmental than I am about young men who enlist in the military. You aren't dealing with some young fuckhead who holds up a liquor store and shoots somebody. These are youngsters duped by the entire establishment into thinking they are heroes saving democracy and the free world. I can tell you they are accountable for their mistakes. The vets I know pay for it every day of their lives. WW2, Vietnam, Iraq (twice), Afghanistan, all those guys paid or still pay.
You were too smart to believe the bullshit. Just because they aren't as perspicacious as you does not make them stupid or evil. Having said that, some who participate, of course, are stupid and evil, finding joy in destruction and slaughter. They aren't in my house.
Indeed many people are stupid, greedy, selfish and fart in bed. But I still believe that it is important to resist them and do good whenever we can. I'm not saying we will win, or get recognition, or alter the the tsunami of events headed our way. And I am definitely not the person to define what is "good" for anyone else.
Back where I started, I think many of us can make more positive difference working on small solutions than arguing about the choice of which nation-state's children will starve. Those giant questions are very important and I'm here largely because of them, but my own inclination is to do something positive in response to these crises. My own abilities are very small scale. Others with more reach and influence can do more big picture stuff successfully.
Digwe Must