"Maybe the whole topic is above my head."
Probably not. I remember sitting in class back in the 60s. (Long ago) The professor was trying to explain the impact of Ludwig Bertalanfy's System Theory on traditional scientific thinking.
Mostly the students trained in traditional engineering and science simply could not under stand it. Those of us from a liberal arts background and especially those who were studying ecology got it immediately.
It is not a matter of being 'above anybody's head'. Its a matter of being able to understand something ordinary -- like your back yard --- as a system.
Bertalanfy defined a system as: elements in interaction. Once you understand this interrelationship of things in a dynamic system, as apposed to the traditional "the whole is the sum of its parts" then you can immediately understand what permaculture is about.
Graham Burnett's drawing: "Work with Nature Not Against" made permaculture 'click' for me as a concept.
http://www.spiralseed.co.uk/pe...
O.k. That did not work. Go to the list on the left hand side of the page and click on number 7. Work with Nature not Against.
This is from Graham Burnett's Permaculture, A Beginners Guide.
