Dear Will, Are you the Winter from the BioDome in Waynesville, NC? You used to send me flyers about all kinds of things like sacred geometry and pyramid energy. I used to think you must be full of bull. Yet, I imagined you as a salesman who understood what it is important to sell--a really sterling quality. I questioned what you might deliver in your workshops, but I never questioned the rightness of what you purported to sell. That is, if you are the person I think you are, you were always selling the right stuff.
What we folks need who have really gotten down in the dirt and done all our homework and developed really cheap, ecological, handy methods and insights is a GOOD salesman. It that something you can offer? Give us credit. We have done the work, and can generally do what we say, are doing what we say. I'm growing corn as a soil improvement crop with no fertilizer. Or, conceivably with a little fine tuned biological fertilizer which would be needed on quite a few midwest corn farms dependent on bins and bushels high production can be sustained with few inputs, and ultimately no inputs. On some of the soils in the Missippippi Delta I think we could achieve 300 bushel corn with no inputs, the environment is so good for it. But even though all the variables are not worked out, the potential is clearly there. Farmers could get off the input tit forever. And if they don't have to pay for fertility, or disease/insects/weeds they can hardly be put out of business while they grow the highest quality by the cheapest methods. Yeah! Do you have a clue on how to sell this? God bless you if you do. We need a good salesman. And where, if it WAS you in Waynesville, you didn't sell me, that's no invalidation. I'm not an easy sell. Most of the farmers using chemicals are sold and were sold very easily. How can we get these easy-sell folks in our corner? You might be the salesman, even though we nuts and bolts folks should surely be the teachers. Best, Hugh Lovel >on 11/10/02 12:21 AM, The Korrows at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> Will >> I for one have not been sitting on my hands for well over 20 years. > >> So I don't want to see Think LOKI or anything else. > > >Thinking and talk is fine, > >> If you want to talk about doing a project, then cut the BS > >Dear Chris >I hate it that I seemed to have provoked so much DEFENSIVENESS. I am not >mocking what you have done and I could already sense that you were producing >volumes even before you listed them. I am pretty sure we are on the same >team too and I had thought we could work to destroy the "enemy" out there >not each other. > >I thought we had been discussing Michael Moore's work in particular (rather >than anyone's resume in this group) and, when I said "Think LOKI, I was >referring to tools and metaphors one could use to understand HIS technique, >not yours. To me, the real point, and the only point I was trying to make >is WHAT BEST ACHIEVES A PARADIGM SHIFT? > > Too much violence, too much humor or too strident a tone can be >counter-productive. We had a perfect example here in Minnesota last week >when emotions ran high at the Senator Paul Wellstone memorial. A lot of >strident words were said and they had the opposite of desired effect: those >words basically elected the Bush lapdog, Norm Coleman. The whole world will >all pay for that for years to come. > >On the other hand, we might not have had an effective Civil Rights Movement >if we had stuck to the NAACP plan. From Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, >Stokley Carmichael and a lady on the bus who refused to give up her seat, we >had paradigm shift. A bloody one, but it worked. > >In the '60's JFK caused a huge national paradigm shift with his stirring >speeches and many people I knew joined the Peace Corps and, from his words >alone, were permanently changed to the cause. For me, it was not only JFK >but it came mostly through the MUSIC of the times. The words of the Beatles, >Bob Dylan, Crosby, Sills, Nash and Young and so many others INFORMED ME and >caused me to leave the safety of my upbringing, develop the conviction to >stand my ground, and ultimately get tear-gassed and even jailed for a cause >I didn't even understand at the time. When Viet Nam was over we were stunned >that we were actually right! Hell, we were just farm kids in the Midwest. > >MOVIES have changed my life, permanently. A string of anti-war movies >starting with Catch-22 (perhaps the best movie ever made IMHO) and Dr >Strangelove , showed me war is wrong, A string of anti-racism movies >starting with To Kill A Mockingbird, to Hair, A Musical, changed my life >forever. This continues to be a powerful vehicle of change in my life. For >me, I can see the big picture better if I am clubbed over the head with >humor and absurdity (which is why MM works for me). > >There are also BOOKS capable of starting a life change. I was reading >Richard Brautigan's hilarious prose and poetry during the meltdown of the >'60's. I read Juliette de Bairacli Levy's "Herbal Guide to the Dog" and >tossed away 8 years of sterile education as well as a safe secure career for >this mess of a career I have loved (and cursed) for the last 25 years. One >book! > >So, in conclusion, I come back to us. On one hand you tell us you feel >"thinking and talking is fine" (which is what I thought was the purpose of >this "discussion" group) then on the other, you tell me that MY thinking >and talking is bull shit. As a newcomer to this group, I really want to >know: Are you trying to inflame me to action using insults (tip: My past >history indicates that SHAMING is an ineffective motivator for positive >change) or trying to shut me up with a resume measuring contest? > >Will Winter Visit our website at: www.unionag.org
