Diversity rules

one size fits all doesn't has failed

A big jigsaw puzzle with millions of pieces each one different. We have tried systems that try and paint them all the same colour, the colour of a nation. yet each time we do this the original colours of each piece bleed through. These are the local identities that political regimes try and try again to repress yet they continue and resurge again and again.

The puzzle is fractal and scales, we can dive into an individual piece and inside we find more pieces and again each one is different, that’s us as individuals each person different from the next. Yet we try and work with policies that deny this and because they ignore this fundamental characteristic they are flawed. Yet we try and try again, electing new leaders who promise to run the whole nation whilst ignoring the fact that the one size fits all policies fail, each time.

Take farming as a case in point, farmers across Europe are protesting against conditions imposed on them by centralised governments many of which were developed by the European commission. A look at these policies reveals their lack of appreciation that conditions in one part of a country are fundamentally different to another part. I’m involved with two projects in France, one in the south-east Ardèche region the other in the far west, in Brittany. The first is at 600 metres altitude featuring deep valleys and steeps hills, which have been terraced over generations, the second is at 20 metres altitude, an undulating where terraces are not needed. The soils are different, the climates, the weather, the people too.

A 15 minute drive southwards from the place in Ardèche and the vegetation changes abruptly and becomes much more Mediterranean. Drive the same time north from the project in Brittany and we arrive at the coast. I cannot use the same growing techniques or planting times in both places, the Ardèche gets much hotter and drier than Brittany. It also gets colder, the hills rise up steeply around the project and a 10 minute drive takes us up to over 1000 metres, these hills were once covered by deep snow each cold season, over the last few years this has changed, this year and the last there was little snow.

I have friends who can easily digest Jerusalem artichokes, others who just get bloated. Another friend was recommended chamomile tea to help him sleep, it gave him a massive headache and stopped him sleeping (he tried it several times to confirm!). Zoom again inside the fractal puzzle, inside each person and again diversity rules. Two identical twins are born with different microbiomes, often with only 30% similarity, despite having developed in the same environment. The butterfly effect, tiny differences are amplified through the system to become bigger ones, in the womb and after.

Understanding that diversity rules at all scales reveals the dangers inherent in trying to paint the whole thing the same colour. The old ‘one size fits all’ paradigm has been shifting in some areas to be replaced by a more adapted ‘diversity rules paradigm’. Medical research is heading this way having understood that a pill will do one thing to one person and something else to another. Society has seen some changes too, the old binary woman/man, male/female point of view has been changed by the younger generations to be more inclusive of our inherent gender diversities.

One of the problems with the jigsaw metaphor is that it gives a static image when the opposite is the case. Understanding and comprehending diversity also means appreciating fully that it is all dynamic and that change is a fundamental characteristic of all systems. Diversity, adaptation and the interdependencies between organisms produce dynamically systems. Riding a bicycle is a dynamical system, stop and we struggle to not fall over, keep moving and balance is easier and of course we continually have to adjust how hard we pedal, how we steer and all the other little constant changes we have to make.

In a dynamical, changing, adapting and diverse world we try and impose and maintain rigid structures and force them onto each new generation. We continue to believe that a political party can form a government that can manage a nation that is a mosaic of diverse micro-regions inhabited by individuals each one different to their neighbours. We insist on dividing things into one thing or another when in reality they are on a sliding scale. Someone may be quite conservative when shopping for food, always tending to buy the same things, that same person may be much more willing to try new things when invited to a friends house or in a restaurant. The binary conservative/progressive analysis is flawed as, within a group, someone may be very conservative and someone else extremely progressive, most people will find themselves somewhere around the middle.

Permaculture designers understand about diversity, we have to as we work in different regions with different people who have different visions. Diversity, adaptability and interconnectedness are fundamental features of good Permaculture design and engineering. After all Permaculture grew out of scientific ecology which has studied the importance of diversity since it began. This, in the context of today’s societies can present some difficulties, no Permaculture designer worth their salt will impose a solution on people. They will present a spectrum of possible solutions and work with the people involved to find that which is the best adapted. There is no ‘this is your situation and this is the solution’, somewhat different from the way politics is done. Proposing the same solution for an entire nation would be anathema to a Permaculture designer as it won’t work across the board, it simply can’t and history shows this only to well.

Solutions?

Diverse, adapted and mutable.

For farmers the problems can be solved by each one looking at the more sophisticated growing techniques that exist and adapting one or more to their local context. In general cutting out the food industry and supermarkets from their production and distribution will help, how to do this depends on, again, the local context.

For governance the approach is similar, management of local areas by the people who live there. Decision making systems adapted to the local people and their local context.

For economic systems we must move away from macroeconomic policies to microeconomic ones that address local needs.

As individuals we should be working, each one of us, to appreciate the value and importance of diversity, adaptability and interconnectedness.

As Permaculture designers we should work more effectively to bring about social change in our local areas. We should be encouraging people to see that there is a third way now, rational effective redesigning of all our systems to move us out of the binary trap we made for ourselves.