Last year about this time we ran a survey to get a sense of who our readers are and what they think Appropriate Technology is. Kiko Denzer, our intern at the time, decided to take the responses and attempt to analyze them. The result is that this month's Raindrops is more about you than about us . ... All we can say about this survey with any kind of certainty is that 1.5 percent of our readers are extremely kind, thoughtful, generous and patient. Many replies were extensive; full of thoughtful comments, criticisms and personality. Nonetheless, the statistics produced (ages, employment, mobility, and use of RAIN) are barely interesting and even less conclusive. However, they do, in combination with the more extensive and thoughtful replies, suggest lots of interesting questions about the magazine and about A. T. as a whole. One friend of RAIN who had known the magazine and A.T. for a long while wrote an interesting (and long, 2 pages single-spaced!) letter. It was not so much a response to the survey as it was a reflection on what A.T. is and what RAIN should be as a consequence. He said, "RAIN has always been sort of a barometer of the A.T. movement, but lately it seems to be having an identity crisis... ." At first I was insulted by such a suggestion, but then I reconsidered. I have always thought that the content of the magazine reflected the breadth and depth of the movement. So if there is an identity crisis perhaps it is not only here at RAIN, perhaps it pervades every aspe~ of A.T. But the paragraph continued: " ... if you/RAIN/want to run feminism it should have a strong A. T. angle (something like the problems of women in the solar construction business, or a feature on women who are owner builders). WIN is a publication of the left-wing movement which can publish anything remotely related, but RAIN should stick to A.T." So, according to his statement, there is a "left-wing movement" and an A. T. movement that are not even remotely related. Such is a precarious situation for two groups who desper~tely need each other's help and ideas, especially w.hen both are being threatened and further divided by the reactionary political and economic climate. It seems obvious, now even more than last year when we received the letters, that our definitions of A. T. must be as broad and as precise as possible. Some of the definitions that our readers shared with us ran as follows: They ranged from terse phrases like "Safe, simple, decentralized, October 1981 RAIN Page 11 renewable" and "Different ways of doing things, of being and living," to romantic notions of a society based on human labor, free of all technology and "labor saving devices," to refusals of a possibility of even trying to define A.T., to highly personal definitions- "what's appropriate to me," to thoughtful and complex ideas about combining A.T. theory with A.T. practice-critiquing and rebuilding at the same time. These definitions would appear to suggest that the "identity crisis" extends at least as far as our readership, since there were wide differences in outlook and opinion. Even within a single reply we were told on the one hand that A.T. is ''... the tool ... that works without upsetting the 'whole system' or invoking too many consequences on a physical, psychological, ~cological, spiritual, economic level," and on the other hand that RAIN itself is too "interesting but impractical ... to get the job done." Unfortunately, this reader forgot to tell us what, exactly, the job is. Another response gives a general idea of what the job may be-to develop a "sustainable lifestyle," in which case, he says, A.T. "becomes a set of criteria by which I determine solutions to life's problems which involve the least.short and long term costs to me and others and the environment in general." As someone who has only recently discovered and come into "the movement" I see within myself and others a strong tendency to talk about A.T. in terms of cause and effect, terms like "set of criteria," "solutions to life's problems," "systems and tools," all of which seems to fall short of the need for interconnectedness, a need that can perhaps be met only if we maintain both a critical and open attitude to the state of problems and criteria, in their various definitions, which surround us. The refusal, for instance, on the part of several respondents, to consider the place of feminism in A. T. , is typical of a closed view of A.T. which could shut out a.vital source of energy. And feminism in A.T. must certainly not be limited to "women in Solar," though the topic is an important one. It was not always crystal clear by their names, but of the thirty-seven who replied only six were obviously women, nine were unclear as to sex (some seemed to be individuals representing couples) and the twenty-six left were all men. But I am a man and this is an argument not only for feminism. The argument is also for making A. T. responsive to any and all conditions and people. The movement should be available everywhere, like the news only better. DD Kiko Denzer All we can say about this survey with any kind of certainty is that 1.5% of our readers are extremely kind, thoughtful, generous and patient.
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