Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
\nby Wendell Berry<\/p>\n
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
\nvacation with pay. Want more
\nof everything ready-made. Be afraid
\nto know your neighbors and to die.
\nAnd you will have a window in your head.
\nNot even your future will be a mystery
\nany more. Your mind will be punched in a card
\nand shut away in a little drawer.
\nWhen they want you to buy something
\nthey will call you. When they want you
\nto die for profit they will let you know.
\nSo, friends, every day do something
\nthat won\u2019t compute. Love the Lord.
\nLove the world. Work for nothing.
\nTake all that you have and be poor.
\nLove someone who does not deserve it.
\nDenounce the government and embrace
\nthe flag. Hope to live in that free
\nrepublic for which it stands.
\nGive your approval to all you cannot
\nunderstand. Praise ignorance, for what man
\nhas not encountered he has not destroyed.
\nAsk the questions that have no answers.
\nInvest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
\nSay that your main crop is the forest
\nthat you did not plant,
\nthat you will not live to harvest.
\nSay that the leaves are harvested
\nwhen they have rotted into the mold.
\nCall that profit. Prophesy such returns.
\nPut your faith in the two inches of humus
\nthat will build under the trees
\nevery thousand years.
\nListen to carrion \u2014 put your ear
\nclose, and hear the faint chattering
\nof the songs that are to come.
\nExpect the end of the world. Laugh.
\nLaughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
\nthough you have considered all the facts.
\nSo long as women do not go cheap
\nfor power, please women more than men.
\nAsk yourself: Will this satisfy
\na woman satisfied to bear a child?
\nWill this disturb the sleep
\nof a woman near to giving birth?
\nGo with your love to the fields.
\nLie easy in the shade. Rest your head
\nin her lap. Swear allegiance
\nto what is nighest your thoughts.
\nAs soon as the generals and the politicos
\ncan predict the motions of your mind,
\nlose it. Leave it as a sign
\nto mark the false trail, the way
\nyou didn\u2019t go. Be like the fox
\nwho makes more tracks than necessary,
\nsome in the wrong direction.
\nPractice resurrection.<\/p>\n
\u201cManifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front\u201d from The Country of Marriage, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1973. Also published by Counterpoint Press in The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1999; The Mad Farmer Poems, 2008; New Collected Poems, 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n