Gardens of Resistance by Gilles Clement
A Dream in Seven Points for Gardens of Resistance
• A garden of resistance is an area, public or private, where the art of gardening – for sustenance, pleasure, parks or other programs of accompaniment, urban or rural –is practiced in harmony with nature and man, free of market domination. Diversity, both biological and cultural, as well as the preservation of water, soil and air is encouraged for the common good.
• A garden of resistance is part of a life style that, in a larger sense, reflects the relationship between man and his socio-biological environment . As in the Garden in Motion, this relationship, or the economy of life , does as much for and as little against existing energies. This applies to daily acts in all domains and is relevant at all levels. However, a constant state of alert must be maintained in order to avoid confusing consumerist values with ecology.
• Environment friendly practices emerge from gardens of resistance. They propose a way of life that is not wasteful of the common good as a basis for a new economy.
This economy is the confrontation of two processes:
- One is the planetary stirring of all living things and of distant exchange systems, leading to a series of biological and social readjustments : emergent ecosystems.
- The other, delocalization of exchange and distribution systems, minimizes global production and management costs, hence controlling pollution and carbon balance.
Planetary stirring multiplies exchanges and encounters between beings and cultures traditionally apart. These encounters produce the natural and cultural hybridization involved in the global process of evolution.
The delocalisation of exchange and distribution systems resulting from planetary stirring is an important aspect of the emergent economy, composed of new patterns of exchange (emerging ecosystems) and of new priorities: spend less and better, consume less and better, establish a dynamic sharing process.
• The emergent economy of gardens of resistance consolidates two opposing forces:
• One is connected to distant exchanges, generating dependence
• The second , connected to local exchanges, allows self-sufficiency
The emergent economy of gardens of resistance does not favor one or the other with regard to bulk exchange but establishes the frontier between dependency and self-sufficiency affirming that :
• Non-vital exchanges are tied to distance and dependence. A distant accident would only have an incidental impact upon the emerging economy and would not place it in danger.
• Vital (or highly necessary) exchanges are linked to proximity, hence to self-sufficiency. A distant accident would not modify performance.
• None of the exchanges that could occur in gardens of resistance should, in principle, contribute to the deterioration of the biological or social balance
• Gardens of resistance already exist on the planet in dispersed form. This dispersion (“atomization”) is the logical consequence of self sufficiency but does not necessarily require a network.
A policy favorable to the emergent economy, originating from gardens of resistance and in a larger sense from the Planetary Garden, should federate a system with no legislative curbs in order to:
• establish fair exchanges
• establish forums for high level artistic and scientific exchanges
• encourage the exchange of immaterial goods derived from planetary cultural diversity
Dispersion (“atomization”), difficult to apprehend, operates in favor of resistance .
• As long as the belief persists that capitalism is the only possible model, its destructive presence must be energetically challenged by multiplying “resistances” on the planet, forming a Milky Way that gains in force and intensity with time.
The substitution of one system by another is not necessarily a deflagration but an implosion, an irreversible shift from unjust to fairer distribution of imposition , from unjust to fairer distribution of goods – at least statistically – and from the privatization of the common good towards their municipalization.
It then becomes possible to federate a dispersed “(atomized”) system and establish a political project in harmony with the planetary garden.
• The Planetary Garden merges the Gardens of Resistance into a single concept. When resistance operates on a planetary level, a plan for humanistic ecology becomes possible.
The Planetary Garden is based upon the notion of diversity, underlining humanity’s dependence upon biological and non biological heterogeneity and hence its vulnerability. A key question is “How to capitalize from diversity without destroying it?” Indeed, any modification of the ecological balance through human behavior, causing the disappearance of non human species, ultimately condemns mankind. A scientistic vision of the future, substituting technology for circumspect management of natural resources, could only precipitate the “garden” towards destruction.
The Planetary Garden must federate comprehension of the living with intelligent use of technological assistance. It presumes a level of knowledge sufficient to run the garden by offsetting removal and return to the milieu. Symbiotic man is in a key position to maintain this balance while biotic potential continues to obey the evolutionary process.
Theoretically, these seven points open the way to new governance and, implicitly, prepare a new political program leading to the establishment of a novel government, complete with ministries and their responsibilities. As in a dream, the outline of a Constitution whose introductory articles establish the foundation for a society in which sharing and growth of knowledge supplant competition emerges.
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