You'd think that out here doing much more ourselves in the woods - free from the so-called red tape - we'd be getting it done right quick. Well, kind of, for certain basic tasks. It depends on what you mean by getting it done though. The more you do locally, the more you try to really pack it in - stacking functions so to speak to maximize the density of work done, maximizing efficiency - which is an important permaculture principle, though permaculture was not the discipline to discover this principle, which is itself a very old principle.
Say you fell a tree for resources. There is a whole lot to that tree beyond just felling it and bucking it up. You might get some lumber out of it, and then use less suitable sections for firewood. And then you get a bunch of branches, which could be used for crude building material, kindling, landscaping and hugelkultur fill, or chipped up to be used as mulch, pathways, and finer fill. The finer branches could be scattered for forest food, or they could be moved to be used for fill, mulch, or compost material somewhere else.
The type of tree and location of the tree could be selected for getting more sunlight where it is felled, and changing the mix of trees in the area, or opening up a wider flight corridor for birds of prey, which could help control rodent populations in a particular area. What's done with the stump? Is it cut flush with the earth? Is it left to stand for seating or for a table out in the woods? Does the species coppice and will that coppice be managed in the future? Or will the whole thing need to be yanked out to clear for useable space?
All these separate forms of work draw out the process of felling and processing a tree substantially, so the process takes a lot longer, and is much more involved than one initially thinks, and at first glance it doesn't look like much is happening. But these different scattered forms of work also make maximal use of the felled tree, which itself makes for a somber sacrifice and significant transfer of resources to many disparate processes and functions, which will hopefully work together synergistically to a produce a more powerful outcome over a longer period of time.
And perhaps this is a better meaning for "red tape," that seemingly sticky, constricting bramble that slows everything down to a state of ineffectiveness and paralysis. But slowed down for what purpose? To what end? Regulations tend to crop up through greater guiding visions for larger processes, and those visions can have a tendency to degrade and lose coherence, with various countervailing interests getting involved where there is weakness and vulnerability, and then the regulations can crop up into convolutedness with a dispersing purpose, and then you may really have the fabled "red tape" on your hands.
My life activity now could be analyzed in these terms. On the day to day, I'm getting a whole lot of little things done, which all relate to certain broader goals. In the short term, it seems like it is taking forever to get anything substantial done, but all of these smaller efforts are hopefully accumulating across disparate functions which will hopefully act synergistically to produce a larger outcome further down the road. The trick is angling all of these disparate functions towards a broader coherent purpose, stacking as many harmonious activities as possible in service to that coherent purpose, and not just dispersing all of that energy out into the ether.
I guess my point to all this is that the fastness or slowness of getting certain things done is relative and appropriate to what needs to be done, and how. Emergencies certainly need to be handled in a timely fashion, but then there are plenty of other things that should be done slowly and with care, stacking their functions together so that they work well together.
And sometimes slowness is a desired property in itself, as it gives things time to breathe or ferment, and it gives time for deliberation and the proper guiding of larger processes on a longer timescale, processes whose initial velocity need to be carefully managed, as the later velocity of them becomes more difficult to influence as they really get going.
