People care vs. bully culture
This is part two of an article series, read Part 1 here.
Something I have been thinking a lot ove the last year is a statement someone said in a perma event somewhere: the goal of permaculture is to ”take over”, aka to supercede the current culture of wastefulness, anti-earth care, industrialism and division.
My view on that now is it will not succeed as long as we bring our old people culture, the anti-people care into the new system we are trying to build.
Let’s be honest: we do permaculture for us, humans. Nature does not need permaculture unless we humans want something from nature or are trying to make nature regenerate faster by fixing mistakes people before us have made. Permaculture is always inherently for humans, by humans.
Therefore we must think of ourselves and our own values, beliefs, principles as well as the propaganda and cultural dogma we have been exposed to all our lives. To succeed in true Earth care, we must change People care to what it really needs to be first, and make it Fair shared.
Here are some of my thoughts about our current cold, consumer culture, the bully culture (because in essence, it values the persons who exploit and hurt others instead of people who help others).
| Capitalist/consumer culture, bully culture, mainstream culture | Permaculture, humane culture, culture of fairness |
| Valuing money and what money can buy | Valuing imagination, information and creativity |
| Valuing mass production, industrial standard and homogenienity | Valuing crafts and true individuality (not the bought kind) |
| Valuing rich, powerful, well connected individuals | Valuing people with bright minds and/or kind hearts |
| Valuing people who talk nice and look good | Valuing people that do things |
| Valuing celebrities | Valuing people who work for the community |
| Following the leader | Designing your own life |
| ”One who has, shall receive, and one who has little, shall lose what little he has” aka the rich get richer and the poor get poorer | Giving fair share of wealth and possibilities a chance |
| Only valuing people based on their past, not giving opportunities | Opening up for new possibilities, giving opportunities |
| In case of bullying, the bullied one needs to change schools/jobs/organisations | The bully faces consequences, not the victim |
| Practicing injustice/bullying or looking by others practicing it | Taking a stand against it! |
| Seeing the bullied one as ”abnormal”, victim blaming | Challenging our own thinking about who is strong and taking a stand against bully culture! |
| Valuing people that use others for their own gain as ”powerful leaders” | Valuing leaders that enable others to shine and lead by example, not by telling you what to do
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| Letting the leaders, elite, influencers etc think for you | Thinking for yourself |
| Letting the leaders, elite, influencers etc decide for you | Deciding for yourself |
| Closed circles, old cliques, elitist groups, intransparency, decision making in secret | Open circles, welcoming new people and ideas, valuing people, transparency, open communications |
| Scarcity mentality | Abundance mentality |
| Seeing some (white, own nationality, rich, powerful, popular...) people as better people than some others (poor, not well connected, wrong nationality, young, bipoc, LGBTQA+ ...) | Seeing people as inherently equal
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| Buying solutions to your problems | Using creativity and design to solve your problems |
| Not caring about the Earth, other people or fairness, greed and fear guide your actions | Earth care, people care and fair share are engrained in your heart and guide your actions |
A statement that I formulated and have really understood this past year: In a conflict between an opressor and an oppressed, a bystander staying neutral, ”not taking part” or ”not wanting conflict” is always on the side of the oppressor.
