Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise, the vacation with pay.
Want more of everything ready-made.
Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery any more.
Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something they will call you.
When they want you to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something that won't compute.
Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace the flag.
Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot understand.
Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium.
Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest you did not plant,
that you will not harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion--put your ear close,
and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world.
Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women doe not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in her lap.
Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions
of your mind. Lose it.
Leave it as a sign to mark a false trail, the way you didn't go.
Be like a fox who makes more tracks than is necessary,
some in the wrong directions.
Practice resurrection.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. I'll be honest, it's been hard to be joyful when I consider the fact that I will not be leaving for Germany on my time. However, despite what Merriam-Webster might say, joy is not just an emotion, it's a lifestyle. It is a deep satisfaction in the Lord and like any of the other fruits of the Spirit, it needs to be practiced--it doesn't just happen. If nothing else, this time of fundraising has pushed me to rely on Christ more than I ever have, and as David says, there is joy in the presence of God.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. I'll be honest, it's been hard to be joyful when I consider the fact that I will not be leaving for Germany on my time. However, despite what Merriam-Webster might say, joy is not just an emotion, it's a lifestyle. It is a deep satisfaction in the Lord and like any of the other fruits of the Spirit, it needs to be practiced--it doesn't just happen. If nothing else, this time of fundraising has pushed me to rely on Christ more than I ever have, and as David says, there is joy in the presence of God.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are your pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11
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