What is it you have, and why should I listen?
That, my friends, is the nub of what you need to answer.. Clarify your message, and foment a revolution of thought in your target audience. Which is the world. Messages designed to only stroke the committed never go far. Please, stop nattering about BD America, or BD Australia. What is it you have to say? Tell the world. This talk about "democratic process", "leadership".. "membership"..... do you think Jesus, Buddha or Henry Ford had to make decisions this way? Power and influence in this life is assumed... don't try to negotiate it. If the BD message is worthy.... package it, and tell it. More you. Gary Elliott -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of D & S Chamberlain Sent: January 5, 2003 8:31 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: BD Farming in America My two bobs worth: Initially I had to agree with Greg and Allan about the apparent lack of leadership in the USA. Then I started thinking about the time I was part of the BDFGAA council (10 Yrs ago) and the lack of member support we experienced at that time. Consequently I would like to put forward a different view point. If you want good leadership in a democratic organisation, or country for that matter, it is the responsibility of the membership or citizens to use their rights to ensure that A) You have good leaders and B) The leaders carry out the masses wishes. The apathy of the membership transposes its self into a leadership that does as it pleases, mostly because the membership as a whole does not carry out it's responsibility of informing the leadership of it's requirements. Alternately it may be that the leadership is carrying out the memberships wishes and it is a vocal few who would have us believe otherwise. Usually when the above happens those who strongly differ with the leadership resign, then have no official place in the scheme of things and snipe from the sidelines where they are only of nuisance value only and cause a stronger entrenchment of the leadership they oppose. Perhaps the snipers should consider following the democratic process, be part of the membership and challenge the leadership for their positions, unfortunately snipers are usually too busy to follow that process and the current leadership continues because no one else will take on the job. So perhaps the answer lies in giving the current membership a good boot in the arse instead of useless railing against the leadership. Do you really want the alternative of everything being controlled by the all knowing guru? Perhaps it would be more appropriate to have an organisation such as Biodynamics Australia (formerly BDFGAA) who encourage their membership to learn BD for themselves and organise themselves accordingly? I have to agree with you on the poor job the Anthropops are doing selling Steiner to the world and what appears to be either an elitist contempt for passing on the teachings or a lack of understanding of the teaching. I suspect both. I own and have read many Steiner books, I have just finished "The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World" and the thought I had on finishing was similar to many times before, the book is the usual collection of Steiner lectures given over a long period of time to people who supposedly understood where he was coming from, it had all the usual inconsistent names and distortions that come about because of the insistence of publishing the spoken word of Steiner. The whole book could be edited down to a quarter of it's size to give a clear and concise account of what Steiner had to say. This makes me wonder as Greg suggests, do the Anthropops understand what they are espousing? One would have to doubt it. I suggest they do Steiner a great disservice by spreading such a muddled message. My thoughts David C ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allan Balliett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, 6 January 2003 12:07 AM Subject: BD Farming in America > >There's no one there to teach them. No leader. No wise man. No wise > >woman. No body. Vacuous. A vacuum at the top, middle and bottom. > >Good people leave organizations like these - one way or the other. More > >often than not, if they try to enlighten them, they are kicked out. > >Which is good for all humanity because this moves things along the Path > >of Truth. > > Greg brought up the above. > > I've been re-reading A.P. recently. Here is an effective transmitter > of Steiner's vision. What is it nowadays? 700 farmers working under > A.P. and 2,000,000 acres in EFFECTIVE biodynamic management. There > are many BD farmers in Australia and one of the major reasons is that > BD WORKS under AP's administration. For me, aside from A.P's obvious > insights and gifts, one of the major reasons that BD works in > Australia is that AP has set up a program of farm visits and of > experienced BD farmers working with inexperienced farmers. He doesn't > make the service available, he actually demands that anyone starting > in biodynamics work with someone A.P. approves of, someone already > getting results with biodynamics. Remember, A.P. first demonstrated > that BD WORKS in Australia, and then developed his organization > afterwards. We've yet to have anyone really do that here in the US, > with the exception of Hugh Lovel (who I'd have to say is probably in > the best position to explain why we have no equivalent to AP's > success in the US) > > What I'm getting at is that felt a lot of remorse brought on by the > fact that we have no similar organization in the US. Many of the > questions that are brought up by new people on the list would be > dealt with so much better through a farm visit rather than a reading > list or a wisdom thrown into the dark. > > Barring the development of an organization of cooperative farmers, > even simply returning to the 'professional BD farm advisor' system > that existed when I got started in biodynamics would be a wonderful > thing. > > -Allan > > --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.435 / Virus Database: 244 - Release Date: 30/12/02 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.435 / Virus Database: 244 - Release Date: 30/12/02
