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Re: "The Unsettling of America"
Wendell Berry is amazing. One of my favorite poems is Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
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
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the 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 do 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 the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Jun 20 · 3 weeks ago
I'm about a third of the way through it, and for how old it is, I'm still struck by its relevance--now probably more than ever.
📡 Queen_City_Nerd · Jun 21 at 11:19:
I grew up with a grandparent who farmed. There was about 100 acres left then and we grew mostly potatos and corn. The money however was in storage, we stored produce for the local markets and that paied more consistantly. Now I've have a back yard garden, and the trouble is scale. If your more than a few planters on a patio but less than 5 acres there's much less geared towards you. Sub acre gardens, enought to be a little more than a hobby of distraction must not be profitable enough. When we lived in the ADK's we even developed a plot that would yield enough for the freezer on small lots, but very few cared. The land can provide, if we don't treat it like commodity markets.
The Unsettling of America — Just finished reading The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry. Probably the most important book I've ever read.