The Way It Could Be

6/12

“Lunch in ten minutes,” Gran called as they came through the arch of vines.

“How did she know we were here?”

“Have you seen the view from the kitchen? We put in big windows there so we can wash up or work at the bench and gaze across half the town. She could have seen us coming way off. Pete’s first principle of domestic architecture is, put a big window in front of the sink and you get huge leisure benefits while washing up.”

“Can we help?”

“No thanks. Go for a three minute walk round the yard.”

Mike went out the front door, strolled around the side of the house, down a very narrow path tunnelling under vines and tree branches, and came out onto the patch of lawn in the back garden just below the steps. There was the sheep he’d encountered the night before, busily grazing. When it saw Mike it turned and started to walk quickly towards him.

This was approximately the second time in his life that Mike had had anything to do with sheep so he didn’t know what to expect. Was it one of the killer variety? It put its head down as it got within two metres and Mike concluded that he was about to be the butted, so he deftly raised his foot, planted it on the sheep’s forehead and pushed rather vigorously. That did the trick. The monster backed off, lifted its head and just stood looking dumbly at Mike, who also took the opportunity to back off.

With no further thought about the encounter he continued to amble further down the slope, impressed by the complexity of the garden. No wonder Pete and Jan didn’t have much time to tizz up the front end of the yard. There seemed to be no back fence because garden beds, chicken pens, sheds, fruit trees, bath tups full of water and pocket meadows just seemed to blend into the distance. Further down he came to the big bamboo and marvelled at its size; must have been 20 metres high with stems so jammed together at the base that a snake couldn’t have found its way through. Even though there was hardly a breeze it was muttering to itself with the imperceptible movement of stems against each other. How many little people is that mass of fallen leaves and husks a home to? How nice and cool it would be to sit on that old bench there under this enormous umbrella on a summer day. The rustling and creaking of the stems, like a wind chime. Yes, look how predictably placed that damn seat is; you could lean back against the bamboo and gaze down across the town to the mountain.

As they sat down to lunch Mike said, “I saw Manfred in action.” Jan said, “Oh yes, Amy said the kids would meet there this morning. Did they get him up?”

“Yes,” said Mike, “She was a knee. Tell me about the puppet.”

“Well, he’s been here for ages, in one form or another. He’s just one of the games a group can play. We’ve got other things like him around. Some can be worked by two or three kids. For example there’s a pedal car that needs two, one to pedal and one to steer. And there’s the sea saw jet-assisted diving board down at the swimming hole. Two kids jump on one end and the one on the other end goes into orbit. And the flying foxes and gondolas over the creek need someone to pull you along.”

“I get it,” Mike said. “They’re activities they have to work together on.”

“That’s right, they’re cooperative games. They have to cooperate, help each other, coordinate, or they won’t get the thing to work. You mentioned the big and the little kids. We always try to have old and young mixed in the things we do. We try not to have all the ones of the same age together all the time, as they are in your schools.” We think it helps to integrate, to get them used to working with all the kinds of people there are.”

It suddenly struck Mike that he had not picked up any notion of sport. “But do they play proper games, I mean like team sports”

“Yes, Manfred is a team game.”

“No, I mean where one team plays against another.”

“No,” said Jan, “We don’t do that. All our games for kids and adult are cooperative.”

“Really?. You mean no one…I mean don’t you…how can anyone win then?:”

“No one does. We don’t like winning. It’s not nice.”

“What?”

“If someone wins everybody else loses, haven’t you noticed that? Besides its not good for you to win.”

“What? It does me good. Boy oh boy there are some people in my office I like to beat!”

“Would you feel good if you beat one of your friends? Friends don’t get satisfaction from proving that they are superior to each other. Friends only want to help each other do things, or enjoy a game with them.”

“But that means you can’t play tennis, or chess.”

“Oh yes, we do. But we don’t play those games to win, to beat the other person. We play to enjoy the game. Look if Pete puts up a lollypop and I’m at the net and his court is wide open what’s the sense of me slamming the ball there so he can’t hit it. If I do that the rally is over and we all have to waste time while he goes and gets the ball and we can start again. Much more sensible to hit it somewhere near him so he can have the fun of hitting it well and the game can go on.”

Mike looked stunned. “But that takes all the fun out of it”

“No it keeps all the fun in it! Or do you think its fun standing there while Pete goes hunting for the ball I slammed past him? Pete and I are not very good at tennis and the court we play on is very rough so the ball bounces here and there and it’s often difficult to hit it well. To us the point is to keep an enjoyable rally going as long as possible, and that’s not easy. It usually takes more skill than I’ve got to get it back to where Pete can hit it and I like exercising the skill to make it go there if I can.”

“Well what about Chess? How can you enjoy that without trying to win?”

“We just enjoy trying to think out the next move. Often we’ll get half way through a game and turn the board around, I mean swap sides, and then try to think out what’s the best thing to do given the situation you find yourself in. This way if you win it isn’t clearly because you played brilliantly or were superior. Maybe its because you left your side of the board in bad shape. So it isn’t meaningful to say one of us won and at the end neither of us has any sense of having organised a win or suffered a defeat. We try to avoid winning and losing. It’s not nice.”

“But a good chess player wouldn’t be in that, because he couldn’t organise a strategy and play it out to the end.”

“That’s too bad for him. We think it is more important to avoid competing and winning than to play games that enable or encourage that sort of enjoyment. So we don’t play any competitive games at all.”

“Well all sports I know are competitive.”

“That’s right! You might think about that. How sad that you don’t even have any cooperative sports. People around here have put a lot of time and effort over the years into working out and refining cooperative games, and some are quite exciting. Like getting Manfred to do Limbo dancing. That’s difficult and uncertain and the team has to work together. There’s the little railway near the timber mill, the one with rails half a metre apart. It has a little train and carriages the kids can sit in, and can lift if they get together. It runs down a slight slope from the mill and they can sit in and slowly roll along. The rails are moveable and groups of kids are always rearranging them to run somewhere else. Sometimes they build a low trestle bridge across the creek. There’s a tunnel too. I think there’s about 200 metres of rail now. They can’t rearrange it much without a group discussion and decision and then all helping to unhook and re-set the rails. And there’s climbing the pinacle, on the slopes of the mountain. Four or five teenagers have to work together to get up there.”

“Who makes these things?”

“Well anyone who gets an idea about something the kids or others might like to play with, but the leisure committee works on projects like this, building new things and revising. People might feed ideas in to them, and they might arrange for working bees to paint or maintain or make up devices. So you see there are lots of things for kids and adults to do for leisure.”

Pete said, “Oh Jan, did you know we’ll be playing ‘When the balloon goes up’ next weekend?”

“Really? That’s great. Amy and Gran love that.”

“What’s it about?”

“Well everyone who wants to play collects on the green on the appointed time and a big hot air balloon is lit and rises carrying a big sack. When its about 50 metres high, less if there’s a wind, the sack rips open and bits and pieces rain down. The bits are clues and everyone collects them and starts trying to put it all together and figure out the answer. You might find a fragment of yellow paper on which there is part of a message, so you’d go around asking if anyone has seen the other part. Others might be trying to put together things that seem to be intended as tools to be used. The players can be from little kids to old people. Everyone can be of some use in solving the puzzle.”

“What puzzle?”

“Whatever the devious coots on Games Committee have come up with this time. What they often do is build in sub problems that draw on knowledge or skills that only a few or only one person has. For example there’s one person in town from Croatia and once the key clue was in Croation but it took us a long time to realize that and get Petra to translate it. See the games committee is always thinking up angles like that, and when any of us gets an idea that could be used in a game we feed it into the committee. They have fun putting the events together. They play jokes on us sometimes. Once Alby put in a clue that was on the label on his wife’s undies. Should have seen the debate that caused. ”Well get them off, you’re holding everything up!’ ‘No!!’ ‘Come on we gotta have that clue!’ ‘Never!’ The girls formed a huddle and we got our clue. She was a good sport. Screams of laughter all round. Not sure Alby’s screams were of laughter when she figured out he’d organised it though.”

Mike said, “And I bet it’s relived again and again.”

“That’s right. It’s gone into the village history and folklore.”

“That’s very important,” said Pete. “Many things like that people remember and retell, like Kev being left on the flying fox. That’s all part of our local culture, our history, our shared story. It a source of entertainment but more importantly it’s a source of cohesion, things we share and things that bind.”

“It must take ages to think out all the detail of a game like the balloon one.”

“Yes, but remember people around here have plenty of time for doing things like this, and they enjoy it. Its like enjoying cooking a great dinner you know the family will enjoy. And they know it is important in contributing to solidarity. Then there’s the appreciation they get from the town afterwards.”

“Do they develop things for specific groups, like the kids or the oldies?”

“Sometimes, but for the big events they think out how to include everyone. So part of the

puzzle might involve children’s rhymes that mean nothing to the older people, so they are dependent on the kids and the kids get a sense of their important contribution to nutting the whole thing out. Meanwhile some other questions might require a knowledge of the town’s ancient history. Like once I remember a step required us to know what colour button to press on a box. We had only three chances and 10 buttons so we couldn’t just press at random. The previous clues enabled us to work out that the colour was the colour of the saw mill before it burned down. Now that was thirty years ago but several of the oldies could remember. For some strange reasons it had been bright yellow. We got the box open. So everyone’s important and all can play. Not like your Saturday afternoon football sports where a) the wingers and goalies die of boredom because the ball might never comes near them, b) half the players go home heartbroken because they lost, c) 99% of the people there take no part in the game because they are only spectators, d) the whole thing is about beating others.”

Half way through lunch Pete got up saying, ”Oops, forgot to turn off the sprinklers on the pumpkins. Be back in a sec.” When he’d gone Mike said to Jan, “Is Pete in finance?” She looked puzzled. “No. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I just overheard him clinching some deals on his mobile this morning.”

Jan said blankly, “Pete doesn’t have a mobile. No one in this house uses one.”

Amy had been quiet throughout most of lunch time. Mike was puzzled. She had seemed cheerful and chatty when she’d come in but now seemed sullen. At one point Jan had asked her if she was alright. She left the table early.

Eventually Gran said, “Michael, what are you thinking about?”

Mike took his time, “Oh a lot of things Gran.” Then after some seconds, “Look, its all very quaint, cute. Its very nice…but economically and industrially it’s…well much of its not even Twentieth century. Yes you do use a few modern things, like computers, but I mean… handmade furniture and bread and slippers and pottery. It’s delightful, …but…really…”

“Irrelevant, to the Twenty-first century?”

“Yes, to be brutally honest. I like it. Don’t get me wrong. It’s cute. But you are a

backwater. For the billion people out there in developed countries bread and crockery are

made in gigantic high-tech industrialized factories, shipped all around the world in

containers, and you buy them in supermarkets and take them home in your four wheel

drive. The world can’t be expected to take any notice of you lot making things in tiny

family owned firms, and making things in craft ways.”

“Maybe not, but…”

“Look, its just too…extreme. Don’t you take the quaint, cute thing much too far? Surely

it’s not necessary to go that far. Surely we can move to sustainable ways within a

modern, industrial and consumer society, for instance by tightening pollution legislation,

more recycling, moving off the fossil fuels.”

“Hang on. Firstly you do realize don’t you that we have some normal modern factories in

the region. The fridge center for example, and the radio complex, I mean where radios

are made and repaired. And there’s the shoe factory over at Wintonvale. Its very small,

because it mostly only supplies this region, but it has high tech mass production

machinery.”

“Yes I realise that. But as you explained most of your real economy’s not at that

level. It’s households and working bees and commons and Tom’s bakery and the pottery

and bike repair, all operating with, actually with feudal .technology, I mean hand tools

and human energy. Really. People will say, why the hell should bread be made by hand

when it can be made by the megaton in computerized factories and trucked into the local

supermarket?”

Mike thought this must have struck home because Pete and Jan looked a bit stunned.

Then Pete said, “Well…I suppose that just means you weren’t too convinced by the

preamble in our position statement.”

“What position statement?”

“The one that was sent three weeks ago.”

“What? I didn’t get anything.”

“Oh no. Oh, for Pete’s sake.” Pause. “Struth. That explains quite a few things. Well, well…”

Jan and Pete again looked at each other for a few moments, Pete rubbing his chin.

“I guess we’ll have to try to rewind the tape a bit. See we were proceeding on the

assumption that you’d read the preamble and had understood the background, the

reasons why we are doing all this at The Glen, the way we see the world and therefore

why we’re trying to pioneer a radically different way. Crumbs, without knowing that most

of what you’ve seen will not have made much sense at all. It will have seemed like a

nutty obsession, or at best a lifestyle option or hobby that people can follow if they feel like

it but isn’t important. Gawd, where to begin?”

“Well, I’m sorry but nothing got to me. Mind you I can believe that our office stuffed up.

It’ll probably be in my in tray when I get back. What was it?”

“Well, this, “ said Pete, reaching over to rummage through a stack of papers and pulling

out a stapled document. He passed it to Mike. “It summarises the entire world view and

rationale for what we are doing in this town…”

“Well look, I really am sorry. So, OK, lets try to rewind a bit. Can you summarise the

main themes quickly, and I’ll go through the document when I get time later?”

“Yes. Let’s try. Pete, get the man another cup of tea.” Jan reached to take another copy

of the document from Pete, folded back the top sheet and took a few seconds to glance

down the page.

“Mike, our beginning point is a very clear and firm conviction that consumer-capitalist

society is grossly unsustainable and unjust. I don’t just mean that it has serious problems.

I mean that there is no possibility that it can be kept going for long, let alone that the so

called living standards you have could ever be extended to all the world’s people. I mean

the per capita rate of resource use, and the environmental impact is many many times

greater than can be sustained. The overshoot is so huge that it’s extremely unlikely

technical advance could ever solve the problems being caused by the present rates of

production, consumption and resource use.”

She paused, turned another page and scaned down.

“And mainstream society is grotesquely, brutally unjust. The global economy not only

delivers almost all of the world’s resource wealth to the few who live in rich countries, it

takes the productive capacity of most of the world’s people, the people in the Third World,

and devotes it to the enrichment of the corporations and those who go to

supermarkets in rich countries. For example most of their best land produces crops for

our supermarkets. If it was a just world, if you had to get by on your fair share of the

world’s oil or fish or rubber your living standard would be a small fraction of what it is.”

Another pause. Mike said nothing.

“See, it’s the magnitude of the over-shoot, the degree of unsustainability that’s crucial.

For example if we want to stop the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from rising above twice the pre-industrial level, the per capita use of fossil fuels would be around one eighteenth of the present Australian rate. Now how the hell do you expect to do that unless you face up to enormous reduction in the volume of producing and consuming going on. And that means largely scrapping this economy, and accepting revolutionary change in values and habits, to very frugal and simple lifestyles. You will not be able to have freighters bringing goods half way around the world to your supermarkets.”

Mike nodded, indicated that she should go on. Pete came and sat looking down, with chin in hand.

“And I haven’t yet referred to the most disturbing aspect of the situation. I’ve only

indicated some of the lines of argument showing that our present way of life is quite

unsustainable. But the situation becomes far worse when you realize that our society’s

supreme goal, its totally unquestioned commitment, is to increase the volume of producing

and consuming going on all the time, as fast as possible and with no limit in sight. The top

national priority is economic growth, when we’re already far beyond levels of production

and consumption that are sustainable or that all could have.”

Pete said, ”See the fundamental cause of the global mess, the cause of the

ecological destruction, the poverty of the Third World, most of the conflicts, the resource

depletion, is simply the obsession with affluent lifestyles and growth. The entire Western

way is about living affluently and getting richer, and the resources of the planet can’t

sustain that, let alone extend it to all people. Only one sixth of the world’s people have it

now.”

Mike replied, ”But haven’t you completely overlooked technical advance. They’re

always finding better ways of producing without polluting, and better recycling, and

they’re developing renewable energy sources. Surely your conclusion is far too extreme.

We don’t need to make such huge changes. The Glen is a million miles too austere, too

frugal. Surely we’ll defuse the problems if we get everyone to do things like sort their

garbage, use efficient shower heads, and get companies to recycle their wastes and shift off coal to solar power…”

Mike cut across him. “While everyone goes on living affluently and corporations go on

increasing the volume of sales through supermarkets, and governments go on seeking to

increase the GDP, for ever?”

“Well, that’s what ecologically sustainable development is about isn’t it, finding ways to run

our economy and provide our high living standards without causing the problems we have

now.”

“Yes that’s precisely what people who rattle on about ESD think they are trying to do, but

it

s impossible. The problems are due essentially to grossly unsustainable levels of

production and consumption and a sustainable society can’t be achieved without dramatic

reduction in these, hence dramatic change in lifestyles and in the economy, and dramatic

change from consumer values. Most of the rhetoric about ESD never realises this. Yes of

course, advances in technology are being made all the time but the task is clearly far to

big.”

“How do you know it’s too big? That’s the crucial point in your position isn’t it?”

“Just look at some basic multiples. For example if by 2070 the expected 9 billion people were to rise to the level of consumption that we in Australia would have if we average a mere 3% p.a. growth until then, then the total volume of world production in 2070 would

be…how many times as great as it is today?”

“No idea.”

“Five? Maybe ten? Could the world cope with ten times as much production and

consumption going on all the time as there is today?”

…

“It emphatically could not, because present levels are unsustainable. But the multiple

Mike, is actually 60. There would be 60 times as much producing and consuming going

on.”

“See Mike,” said Jan, “No economist would be satisfied with 3% growth. They’d want 4% at least, and that still wouldn’t eliminate unemployment. At 4% the multiple is not 60, its 120. Now lets assume technical advance could cut the impact and resource use rates per unit of economic output to one-sixtieth of today’s amount, then we would still have a total

impact equal to what it is today, which is grossly unsustainable!”

“OK, I’ll check your arithmetic later, but that does sound impressive.”

“Now if we’re right then the solution is clear and inescapable. It has to be in terms of shifting to ways of living that do not involve anywhere near so much resource use, transport, production, work, investment, trade, travel, etc. The change has to be extreme, far more extensive and radical than most people who talk about sustainability ever imagine. And that’s why firms like Tom’s carpentry and our old house and Fran ‘s tiny palace and Harry’s patched trousers make sense. They might be quaint and 19^th century but they allow us to function on a minute rate of non-renewable resource use, while they provide satisfying livelihoods to people and provide crucial goods for the town.”

Pete took up the explanation. ”That’s the context for everything we do here. That’s why

we build from mud and live in very small houses and have edible landscape and

commons and bicycles for getting to work and little firms close by and leisure rich

landscapes and a localised economy, because only those very frugal and self-

sufficient and cooperative ways can deliver a secure high quality of life on very low

rates of resource use and environmental impact. There is no other way. The solution has

to be some kind of Simpler Way. The Glen’s trying to show all this. Does it make more sense now?”

“Yes, I think I see the rationale.”

“And the most important point The Glen is trying to make is that the Simpler Way yields a

higher quality of life than the consumer rat race, that we can move to ways that not only

save the planet, get the rich world off the Third World’s back and defuse most global

conflict, but actually deliver to everyone a much nicer life experience than they had when

they were receiving large incomes and having to spend them in supermarkets.”

Mike sat looking at the floor. After a pause Pete said, “Well, that’s basically it. That’s

where we’re coming from. If you can see where we’re mistaken, let us know.”

“Yeah. Sorry I didn’t get the documents. They would have got me off to a better start in

grasping what you’re up to.”

Pete suddenly said, “Oh damn! If you didn‘t get this document, that means you also didn‘t

get our suggested itinery.”

“Itinery? No.”

Again Pete and Jan exchanged worried glances.

“So you didn‘t know we had all this activity lined up, or that you’d be staying with us?”

“No.”

Stunned silence. “Aw hell. Our turn to say sorry. You must have thought we’d gone mad.

Body snatchers at best. We’ve taken you over, bullied you here and there all day.”

“Well I did feel a bit overwhelmed. I thought I’d sleep most of the day in a hotel room

and come out now and then to take a look at the town, maybe even talk to someone occasionally.”

“Oh dear, oh dear.” Jan sighed, rolling back in her chair. “Look we explained in the

documentation what we do for special visitors, I mean, the full-on, guided tour, crammed

demonstration of how the place works.”

“Its OK. I’ve capitulated long ago. I’m happy to go along with the itinery.”

“Well are you sure its OK? We have things lined up pretty continually but we don’t

want to push you through all that if you aren’t comfortable with it.”

“No, no, its OK. I’ve adjusted my grasp. It’s all very interesting. I’m looking forward to

what you’ve got lined up.”

Jan started clearing the table. ”What time are you due at Cedric’s Peter?”

“No fixed time. We’ll cycle over when we’re ready, maybe in twenty minutes. That alright Mike?.”

“How about I wash up? “said Mike.

“Oh thanks but we usually do the day’s lot after dinner. Can help then if you

like. Grab the opportunity to get away from us for a second!”

He took the advice, ambled down the back steps and across the grass, thinking about

what Jan and Pete hae been saying. He then found himself looking over the low fence

through a gap in the foliage into Harry’s vegetable garden. Frieda and Harry were there,

Harry hoeing between knee high rows while Frieda was pulling out weeds and trimming

foliage, putting bits into a basket and taking them to the compost heap. He thought about

saying something, but then concluded he’d had quite enough people for a while, so just

watched them at work, occasionally chatting and pointing things out to each other. “OK

Gran” he said to himself, “I can see that they’re not really working. I must admit you’d

feel pretty good to have grown all that virile looking tucker.”

He was about to go when he heard Harry saying something about a garbage gas unit. He moved back towards the fence a little and could make out Frieda saying, “Isn‘t that grade too low?” Harry said, “I don’t think so if we put in a 100m m pipe. The original idea was 50 mm. See the one at Patrick’s is a lower slope but it’s 90 mm and Noel says we have never had trouble with air locks in that one.”

Frieda said, “OK. That’s persuasive. Has Noel told everyone that?”

Harry said, “It will be in his update.”

“Good. Really hope we can go round the fruit trees.”

He strolled around the open lawn area, then back to the house. As he reached the kitchen door he overheard Jan say to Pete, “I think there must be some problem between Mike and Amy.”

“Why?”

“She said she didn’t like him very much.”

“Well, he is an alien.”

“No, it’s more than that. Something’s wrong. I think we should keep our ears open.”

Mike had paused, out of sight, then decided not to reveal that he had heard. He thought for a while, and decided that he should try to sort it out with Amy if he could. Might be a good idea to go look for Amy right now. She probably wouldn’t be around but he decided to take a quick walk around the house.

He found her sitting on the front steps. She was distinctly unresponsive and he could see that there was indeed some kind of problem. Best to get it out into the open. “Is there something wrong. You seem cheezed off with me.”

“Well, maybe I am.”

“Why then?”

Amy paused, then said, “Because you kicked Padme.”

Mike’s mind raced, then got it. “Oh, you mean on the lawn, before lunch? I didn’t know you were watching.”

“You mean you wouldn’t have kicked her if I had been?”

“No. I mean no I didn’t kick her. I thought she was going to butt me. She was coming at me, so I sort of stopped her with my foot, and sort of pushed her off.”

Amy was clearly unconvinced. “She never butts anyone.”

“Well I don’t know much about sheep and she seemed to be coming in for the kill. She’d lowered her head as she got closer.”

“Of course, she does that because she wants a pat. Why do you think she’s called Padme?”

“Padme? I don’t know.”

“Because whenever she sees anyone she comes up, puts her hear down and says ’Pat Me!’” Amy’s exasperated tone said, “Fancy having to explain all this”. She glared at Mike, then turned and walked off. Mike thought it best to let her digest his account and try to assess later whether on reflection he’d been acquitted.

Anyway Pete came to the rescue without knowing it. “Come and have a look at our home workshop.”

Pete led down into the shed just past the lawn. Because it was largely covered with vines and under the branches of low trees growing over from next door Mike had hardly noticed it, and certainly didn’t realise how big it was. It seemed crammed and cluttered, with all manner of things on benches and in racks and hanging from rafters.

“Beautiful illustration of a Permaculture principle,” Pete said. “Don’t confuse order and efficiency with neatness and tidiness. Rainforests are almost perfectly efficient nutrient cycling systems; almost nothing flows out in the clear stream waters. But what a mess to look at. This workshop looks chaotic but we get a lot of production through here. Must be six jobs on the benches there half done. See Amy’s bedside light; must fix that switch today. There’s a broken rake handle. There’s a saw to be sharpened. And, under all this, is Jan’s Christmas present…for the year before last. It’s a glass-fronted cupboard. I don’t think she’ll be getting it this year either.”

“Does she use the shed?”

“Oh yes. See over there. She’s gluing up a vase we broke. And that’s her basket making area. There’s our drill press, and there’s the saw bench. Its very small because any bigger planks I need to rip I can take down to the saw bench at the community workshop. There’s a lathe down there too, so I can do any heavier metal work there. I made this small wood turning lathe. We made the bowls and candle stick holders in the living room on it. By the way down at the community workshop there’s one so big we can turn veranda posts. Plumbing things over there. Twelve volt electrical fittings here. Our house is old so there’s always maintenance to do. We do most of the fixing. These are some taps we replaced but I’ll get them apart sometime and make them useful again. Ah, and this is, I hope, going to be a better solar tracker, to make solar panels follow the sun, without complicated electronics, but I’m having a bit of trouble nutting it out at the moment. If I get it going well it’ll be useful at several places around the town.”

“I like the rocking chair.”

“Yes, great design that one. Tom developed it. It’s been road tested by lots of backsides over the years and he’d got the angles just right. Really comfy without cushions. It’ll last a hundred years. And there’s no plastic or metal in it at all.”

“What about screws and bolts?”

“No. Just tapered joints tapped into holes, and plugged by wooden dowels. There’s no energy cost in it, apart from hand tools I used to make it. By the way see the gouges I used to shape the seat? I made them on Merv’s forge, from old car springs.”

“What’s that, buried there? A tramp ship?”

“Yeah. Gee it must be ten years since I did anything on that. Let’s see if I can lift these aside.”

He pulled some sheets of three ply aside to expose a ship hull at least two metres long, a long way from complete and covered in dust. “It’s to go on the lake, some day.”

“Great!” said Mike. “I was into model aircraft as a kid. The interest never really dies out does it. Often wish I could get time to tinker again. My kids aren’t interested in making things much. Most practical thing they do is get the television switch into the on position. But you have five days a week more than I do for things like this.”

“Yes, I should have got it finished long ago. But I do get some windjammer models done. I made the one in the case in the house. Look, where are they now…this one I think.” He reached for a drawer in a large cupboard and pulled out a tray. “These are spars for the one I’m working on now.”

“You all seem to be doing thousands of things at once.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I like it like that way. Do a little of this when it takes your fancy, and then something else will catch your attention. Finishing it isn’t very important, with arts and crafts anyway, it’s the making you enjoy. Gardening’s like that, and Gran knits because she likes knitting…and cooks for the same reason. What’s important is enjoying the journey and not just focusing on the arriving. Means rather than ends.”

Mike said, “You mean you don’t paint a picture in order to have a picture.”

“Exactly. And to me life’s about making things, creating, sometimes just making a new door stop, up to working on your artistic Magnum Opus, making good gates, chicken pens, and tapestries and pottery. Remaking a gate latch so it works well now. And a big part of it is design. You’re always thinking about plans – how could I best do that tracker, what’s a good layout for the annuals this year, what’s a nice mosaic pattern to decorate the new pot with. I think about things like that most of the day, and then you watch how you projects are coming on over time, and that feeds back into your ideas about how to make the next one. Purposes, purposes. Millions of people in your society suffer dreadfully from lack of purpose.”

“Yes, it’s pretty different to my neighbourhood. Our houses hardly have any backyards so people can’t do much there in their leisure time other than watch TV.”

“And that’s so passive. They aren’t creating things, or initiating, or planning or producing. Most people never experience how satisfying creating is. It’s one of the big distinctions between consumer society and us. And I think it feeds directly into the readiness to take social responsibility.”

”How? That seems a big jump.”

“Yes, I’m not surprised you think so. I see it in terms of having a practical outlook, a strong desire to take action, to make things work well, to design and develop and trial better ways, a better gadget for the gate or a better social arrangement. Around the homestead you have to be thinking all the time about how well things are working. If the gate latch doesn’t work the goat will get out, so you have to take responsibility for that and create something that’ll work well. That’s how I think about a society. It’s made up of mechanisms and arrangements that sometimes need fixing and we should always be thinking about how well they work and what might be a better design. You know, things like poverty and drug abuse strike me much the same as a gate that squeaks; its disturbing to think that something has been neglected and needs fixing, it’s ugly. An engineer would be ashamed to think he’d let the oil run dry. Let’s just get out there and fix it.”

“Are there any other ship builders in town?”

“Oh yes, all sorts of hobbies around here. Not much television watched; notice we don’t have a set in our house. Plenty of radios of course. Anyway people are mostly active, engaged in projects and building things, and they have all that time to get into arts and crafts. And for any one activity you will find many people in town who are very good at it, so you can get advice on anything any time. I have no idea how many drama and dance groups there are in the region. But Mike, I’ll bet you can’t guess what my greatest creative activity is, the thing I’m most interested in building, the creation that gives me most satisfaction. You know that feeling when you sit back and just gaze at the job, and it’s good. You say to yourself, ‘You doon a great job there mate.’”

Mike thought for a few moments then just shook his head.

“It’s the Glen. It’s our beautiful creation, and I helped to build it. I dug the Smith Street pond, along with others of course. Look at it now, a fabulous scene. They come from miles away to paint it. I was on the working bee that painted the Chinese bridge. I planted some of the pencil pines around it and the bamboos. I fed some good ideas into the celebrations committee last week. Jan and I took those flowers to Mario’s., I saw how to resolve the disagreement between Harry and Pat. Lots of others are doing these things all the time. Between use we have made the Glen what it is, and it’s fabulous.”

Mike paused, then changed direction. ‘By the way, another thing, “Shouldn’t Amy be in school?”

“She is.”

“But I thought you said she’s going to help Andy maintain the water wheel.”

“That’s right. Sit down Mike, this is going to take some time. The Glen is Amy’s school. She has approximately 1000 teachers. Today she’ll be learning more about how the water wheels work, what they do for the Glen, how to calculate power in falling water, about ball bearings and pumps and wear, and how to nut out faults, and how to listen to what Andy’s saying, and how he goes about the job, and how to organise lunch for the group. When she comes home we’ll get her to explain things to us and I’ll get out a physics book and go over some of the theory and some of the maths. She had to organise herself this morning so if she forgot to take some tucker she’ll have a problem.”

“Ok, that’s an excursion. Where’s her normal classroom?”

“Look if Amy lived where you live her life chances would depend almost entirely on whether she learned those few things they put in the end of high school exams. Her score would determine whether she could go to university and get a high paying hob. So for twelve years she’d have been herded through those subjects, whether she liked them or not. What you call education is only about getting the certificates that show you have the narrow skills and the conformist attitudes consumer society wants. It’s got nothing to do with capital E education. In fact it seriously interferes with Education. Just look at your university graduates! They staff your factories and offices diligently and without dissent, they design and market its products, and they consume voraciously as required, but they are almost totally indifferent to the state of the planet, as if nothing that happened in their fifteen years of so-called education ever risked arousing any critical or independent thought, or awareness or concern for what’s happening to three billion people out there.”

“OK, I agree, that’s more or less what happens in a normal education. Maybe a bit exaggerated, but more or less.”

“Now what do Amy’s life chances depend on? Not on getting into a high-income career. She will have a happy and worthwhile life here if she learns a. how to do some of the many useful and mostly simple productive things that need doing around here, b. to be a happy, inquisitive, thoughtful, critical, creative, helpful, friendly person, with many intellectual, emotional and artistic interests and skills, and keen to go on exploring and thinking and learning all the time, and c. to be a good citizen, eager to contribute to the processes that keep out town in good shape. If she also wants to become a specialist, such as a vet or a nurse or an engineer that’s fine, but that’s got nothing to do with

Education. Do you understand, that’s mere training and it has to be kept quite distinct from Education. Your universities are only about training. Any Education that happens there is incidental, its not even planned for. For example you give to the average student no time whatsoever for learning about your society’s problems, or how to work on their own personal development, let alone how to be a good citizen.”

“But surely a person who has been at high school for six years and then at university for another six to get a Ph.D is a highly educated person.”

“Not necessarily, and indeed not usually. You can have a highly trained surgeon who’s very poorly Educated.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well it’s a matter of how you define Education, we see it as involving things like being interested in books and ideas and inquiring and learning about the world, being a good thinker, being able to critically analyse, to put together a good case. It’s about becoming wiser, having the equipment to think about the things you encounter, such as a basic understanding of the main ethical theories, of evolution, and religious positions. It’s about wanting to understand, to learn, to find out, to think about the world. And it’s about personal development, becoming a more mature person, more aware of one’s own nature and strengths, more able to negotiate life, deal with problems and with others. And its about coming to terms with social responsibility, with questions of compassion and suffering and the plight of others and what makes a good society and the importance of cohesion, and what it is to be a citizen. So you see merely learning to lay bricks or do brain surgery has nothing to do with Education.”

“But our educators say they are about all those things.”

“Yes, that’s what they say! But they aren’t! Just look at what kids put their time into. How long do they spend studying maths? How long do they spend studying ethics or critical thinking or how to cope with grief or philosophy of religion or how to appreciate what they’ve got? Virtually none at all. So don’t try to tell me that these things are important goals in your system.”

“OK, sounds nice, but what about classes and teachers and things like that. Surely there must be some organisation. Surely you don’t just assume her education’s coming on satisfactorily as she wanders around the town fixing water wheels.”

“Oh, we plan and monitor very carefully. There’s an Education committee and there’s a big file on Amy, on what she’s done, what she’s having problems with, what we have yet to get her into. The committee organises visits, discussions, excursions, working bees and indeed lessons. Some of these are regular, like Harry’s sessions on health and hygiene.”

“Do they get tested?’

“All the time, in a sense. People check out what they know, mostly just by asking and discussing. Usually there’s no need to record anything. We know what maths Amy can handle, what plays she’s been to, what books she’s read, and what things on the list she needs to get to soon. Her file has the details too. But there’s no exams, grading, competition, first in the class, or prizes. The point of Education can’t be extrinsic, a reward outside itself. The point of Education is to make more sense of the world.”

“What about teachers?”

“We do have a few people paid part-time to teach and administer it all, and note where Amy’s at, but much of the teaching is voluntary and much of it’s informal, carried out by the people of the town as they talk with kids. For example Trevor is really good on ethics, knows the theory well and is great in getting it across simply, so from time to time he’ll have an oganised session with various groups, maybe on a picnic or at lunch time on a working bee. Which one’s Amy been at is recorded, along with which of Cedric’s tours of the fridge factory she’s been on. Remember there are 500 adults in this town and most of them are doing this kind of thing all the time with kids. Mostly its informal, just discussing and asking and explaining and expanding horizons and suggesting things to read. Then they talk to each other about how the kids are going, so we have a fair idea where Amy’s at. We adults also conspire to get them into projects that have scope for learning. For instance Amy and her mates are running a little shop.”

“Selling what?”

“Fish.”

“What!”

“Thought you’d be surprised! Well, see various groups of youngsters take on some important tasks for the town, usually managing some of the commons, under supervision of course. Amy’s at present in a group running a fish farm, a small pond on the other side of town. There’s a stack of stuff to learn there, and that farm makes a very important contribution to the town economy, and the kids know it. So they’re learning to pull their weight, and they’re learning about the respect that comes with that. By the way the kids are teachers too.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, they just help each other out, and that’s experiencing mutual assistance and taking responsibility and initiative. They don’t just wait for the teacher to organise and explain. See everyone here realises how very important learning is in keeping this town in good shape. The more knowledge and skills and inquiry and good thinking and looking up we have here the more likely we will run our affairs well. And by helping each other they are learning to cooperate. They don’t compete against each other for higher marks.””

“Hmmm. Not sure it adds up. What about doing work, studying for exams, learning to do what your told…just sheer discipline. You make it look as if the kids just have fun all day, learning what takes their attention for the moment, with teachers running around after them to follow their whims.”

“Good point. Important issues. We believe there’s little or no point making them learn anything. If they don’t want to learn it and you force them to they won’t learn very well, and maybe not at all, and most important, they won’t be interested in it. The crucial thing about learning is that there must be interest, a desire to know and understand the stuff. Without that you will not build a positive attitude to making sense of the world. So yes this means teachers must go with, follow, interest…and to stimulate interest.”

“So there’s no place for learning to work, for a teacher saying ‘Learn this whether you like it or not and if you don’t you will cop it’?”

“No, that has a place in training. If you’re training people how to build bridges it makes sense to force them to learn things they aren’t interested in and test them on it. But we aren’t talking about training are we. We’re talking about Education, and there can’t be a place for force in Education. If you force, or get heavy and authoritarian you’ill interfere with, damage, Education.

“So are you saying