Bill Mollison, natural ideologue and father of permaculture
The type of society we build also builds us in relation to the landscape and the environment.
Permaculture has established itself as a path towards communitarianism, but one that is in full symbiosis with nature. In practice, it is more than just a combination of agriculture, horticulture, architecture and ecology; it also suggests we have access to land, the responsible management of resources and their sustainability, as well as other variables that are fundamental to how we organize our existence.
Rather than a technique or a simple alternative farming system, this is a philosophy for life, one which is integral and questions, from the land’s perspective, the way we inhabit the world, those mechanisms we use for production and our social constructions.
In permaculture, no practice is ever isolated: productivity, collaboration, food and aestheticism, among many others, are powers that occupy the same stage and which, by converging harmoniously, nurture each other.
Together with his colleague David Holmgren, Bill Mollison (Tasmania, 1928) created this model. Much more than a scientist and a naturalist, this Australian is a type of pragmatic ideologist who, taking advantage of the knowledge he learnt from nature, the ultimate source of knowledge, he established a practical platform that enables us to be in sync with its rhythms, and thus take advantage of its cycles.
Whether he was aware of it or not, Mollison is heir to some of the most beneficial discourses and schools of thought, set forward by characters such as Buckminster Fuller and H.D. Thoreau, which, together with premises derived from ancient wisdom and synthesized through a modern and pragmatic filter, result in a precise formula that can help us tackle some of the greatest latent challenges that humankind faces.
Together with others, and taking a leading role, Mollison and his permaculture were able to change mass culture with premises like collective organization, creative approaches to problem solving, recycling as a form of self-sufficiency, and the taking advantage of natural forces to benefit ourselves and the environment; principles that to a great extent support a new eco-friendly paradigm and natural autonomy.
Promoter of the “peaceful sedition” and facing a society riddled with unnecessary services and a comfort-loving spirit, this organic revolutionary invites us not only to produce our own food, but also to cultivate our own living conditions. And, because of him, our unsustainable practices are becoming more obsolete with the passing of time.
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