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The Fourth Principle

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David Holmgren, Co-Originator of the Permaculture Concept,

Fourth Principle from "Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability", 2002

The Fourth Principle of cooperative ecopolitical design (D. Holmgren): Apply self-regulation and accept feedback. One might read this as an implied corollary of the Golden Rule. Why? The sins and blessings of the patriots and matriots are revisited by and with children unto the seventh generation. If we are to develop healthy and robust democratic self-governance then we must grow cooperative ownership and stewardship of feedback systems, especially from those whose outcomes are least robust among our slowly extending global family. Feedback comes in two trends, regenerative-positive, which often has some form of creolizing, creative, recreative dimension to love's evolution, and degenerative-negative. It is important to accept both kinds, to welcome both kinds, especially when they are offered together, within some nondual co-arising double-binding frame of appositional dipolar reference, to become grateful for both kinds, to express this gratitude for both kinds, life's apparent blessings and curses. So, whether Republican or Democrat, or something Libertarian Green in-between, an important litmus test for the savvy ecopolitical consumer and producer of national and state and local leadership and maturity that we sometimes ignore at our own disgruntled peril, and at further peril "unto seven generations" of potentially robust regenerators, from Bodhisattva PeaceWagers and CoInvestors to CoMessianic Salvific GoodNews CoRedeemers: 1. How has this candidate for public office demonstrated and grown mature self-regulation in his/her personal and public economic and political-relational life? Essentially a question to compare cooperative ownership and governance trends with overly competitive elitist and supremacist egocentric trends. 2. How has this candidate demonstrated growth in regenerative capacity to absorb, learn from, and become grateful for positive and negative feedback in his/her personal and pubic economic and political life? How might you compare this to your own life, both naturally organic and spiritual? Perhaps the overly competitive economic and politically aggressive public servants we have been electing and hiring to represent our healthiest interests are the to-be-expected answers to the absence of higher-priority questions, too degeneratively short-term focused and polarizingly narrow-minded, questions unmindful of the Fourth Principles potential for more robust Golden Rule cooperative outcomes.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2017




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Book: Reflection on the Important Things