Wars and guerilla gardening
War on this, War on that.
The word has been adapted into our culture… and perhaps, overused.
I believe the first adaptation of “War” was by the Johnson administration in the mid 1960’s – War on Poverty. Part of Johnson’s “Great Society”.
Seems a bit ironic since war is by nature destructive. I suppose this presumes destruction precedes greatness.
The sound bite certainly had emotional impact and was followed by war on drugs and various other wars. The “wars” seem to have gotten more trivial over time. Or at least they evoke less emotional response.
Wars are a big government thing.
Lots of soldiers, lots of equipment and resources.
What if you’re not big government but you want big change?
Individuals and small groups much less able to wage war.
But they can be guerillas.
I’ve long been familiar with guerilla marketing (I’m in the marketing field). I know the meaning by abstracting it.
But it’s not obvious to me out of context. I have my understanding of guerillas as a mammal. Based on that I don’t get it.
So… a little search engine work…
Guerilla means “small war”.
According to Wikipedia: the diminutive of the Spanish word guerra (war).
Back to the war thing.
A key element of the guerilla model is surprise. Working in small numbers, using “intelligence”, secrecy, deception and covert communications all contribute to stealth operations.
Speed is also important.
Guerilla-ites strive to avoid any confrontation at all… in small numbers, their strength is not brute force.
But wait, who cares about war – big or small. This is a gardening blog.
True. On point: Guerilla Gardeners.
Guerilla Gardeners are small groups of individuals that clean up neglected urban plots and plant a garden… often a flower garden, sometimes veggies. They generally swarm in over night. At 8pm you have a trashed up plot. By 8am you have a cleaned up plot with flowers and shrubs.
The movement took root in New York in the early 1970’s – credited to Liz Christy and her Green Guerilla group.
Guerilla garderners are throughout the world providing opportunities for neighborhoods to stop and smell the roses.
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