Points of Divergence

By Ethan Indigo Smith
Source: opednews.com

  A definite point of divergence took place when Europeans arrived to the Americas and first began interacting with local indigenous people. One story goes that the Europeans traded farming tools to the American Indians and then showed them how to use to them. On learning the natives laughed. Now because of the language barrier the Europeans thought the Americans were laughing at themselves for not coming up with the idea to make and use such tools before. In actuality the Indians were laughing that the Europeans did not see the expansive garden they had fostered already.   

The American Indians practiced permaculture, not agriculture.   

The Americans had fields where wild food grew for all. They already had fields to harvest from and animals to eat. They did not see the point in wasting time working agriculture when the permaculture provided everything already, in bounty.  

    There is a point of divergence.   

The white western world was based on agricultural trade. And the indigenous American world operated through permacultural hunting and gathering. Now we have corporate agriculture. The reason we are an agricultural society and not a permacultural one is because permaculture cannot be controlled and sold.  

    The mentality depicted in this point of divergence is applicable to the systems of energy distribution throughout the world today. The point of divergence relative to this story occurred when Rudolph Diesel mysteriously died at sea. Diesel promoted the localization of fuel sources through biofuels designing his engine to run on hemp oil or whatever was locally available. When he died at sea mysteriously we diverged from the localization of fuel sources to the globalization of fuel sources.   

All energy, be it oil or nuclear is distributed in an oligarchic design where the few are in control of the resources the many need. The only way to solve the world's energy problems is to integrate localization of fuel sources. For instance if solar was promoted and integrated with new and existing structures we would require less oligarchic energy distribution. If people were allowed and encouraged to harvest hemp biofuels we would require less oligarchic energy distribution. Hemp is one of the oiliest plants there is.

    Yet we have designed a system which does not promote localization and does not empower individuals, a system which in fact promotes homogenization and empowers oligarchical institutions. All energy distribution benefits the few over the many and it is time to review and reverse this point of divergence.

    Prophecy Rock in the Hopi Nation in Old Oraibi illustrates a point of divergence. Its meaning is layered, but it definitely depicts a point of divergence. One line becomes two and people go astray from our true nature of farming, whether permaculture or agriculture, and gravitate toward the materialistic and shallow world of nuclear power plants instead of growing powerful plants.