Zendik

Living at the Farm was definitely a complex and memorable experience, and so it’s impossible, for me at least, to simply be "pro-Zendik" or "anti-Zendik"...hence my recent gabbing on this message board, an attempt to process these experiences in all their complexity. I think about my Farm experience like (I'm guessing) some guys might relate to their memories of being in the Army...the service “made a man of them,” they’re glad and proud they did it, and so forth...but they’re also pretty damn happy that their Army days are over and done with! Which, of course, begs the question, just why the hell would anyone want to put themselves through an experience (of the Farm) whose closest analogy is joining the Army...

 

Good point.

I found another thing to be interesting :

According to the web site I thought that eliminating competition was supposed to be part of the zendik philosophy.

I am somewhat surprised that a bunch of former zendiks don’t get together and start their own community.

 

Dalamar asks:

When I was at Zendik there were several "inner core" people from rich families, one from England, from one of the richest families in England, I was told. She's left since then, but for a while the Zendiks had connections with some well-connected individuals. Others, such as Red Lentil, may know more about this.

I do agree, however, that the majority of the people who show up at Zendik are poor.

In regards to godlesscommie's reference to Zendik as a family: it's some family which throws it's long-term members out on a moment's notice for nothing more than having disagreed with Arol a few times. A family accepts people (especially those who have been there for years) and tries to work with them, not just toss them out when the first problem surfaces.

 

Dalamar writes:

Creating an exZendik community's a great idea, although I think that many exZendiks now have more complex lives and may not be as footloose as they were when they headed out to Zendik.

However, the idea of helping create a community based on democratic principles & sustainability fascinates me. I do think, however, that the idea of creating a commune with the goal of overthrowing the US government (as Zendik claims to) is a bit silly.

As for Dalamar's question about Zendik being a place without competition as their website claims, all I can say is: don't believe the hype.

 

Now that is not on their web site.

Hence the smiley

It is an interesting idea though.

I would have no idea how to even start such a project.

 

Aera is the English person and she is it Alpha Farm in Oregon last I saw her a few summers ago. I didn't know if her parents had money but Chey's did and some girl who had something to do with Kaiser Aluminum came and went as she pleased, I heard she gave them some big donations...
I showed up with close to a $1000.00 and the didn't get a cent of it, didn't tell them about it. I figured my carpentery and musical skills would be of more value. Law, the head carpenter at my time there had some big time compitition issues with me just having a hammer. They did buy me a new tool bag and belt along with a real framing hammer but again... I had to ask Jyre to use the skill saw, I think Law was afraid of losing his position.
I also got alone with the old timers, Zara was my regular "date" and we did sleep the entire night with eachother a few times. Zara was a real nice person, it would have been easy to love her, she's a beautiful human being...
I believe an organization could make a huge impact on the world, starting one is not easy though...

 

Oh yeah...
The Mag I got defined the word "Zendik" as "Outlaw" One who lives outside the established order because one who seeks the truth in a corrupt society is an Outlaw.....
I am a Zendik, I was born a Zendik and will die a Zendik the thing is that there aint no Zendiks at Zendik Farm.

 

From the www.zendik.org FAQ page:

#2 Does it cost any money to visit or live there?

No. BUT... we do survive through donations, so anything you can afford to pitch in helps. If you ARE a trust fund baby, however, please consider a career in philanthropy. You've never seen money so well used before.

...
Most the Zendiks I knew were from middle-class (and up) backgrounds, most joined in their late teens/very early 20s. Educated, attractive, articulate, white. This isn't different from other intentional communities. Most had emotional, social, or drug problems-- we became Zendiks in an attempt to alleviate our anguish (aside from the altruistic stuff). The labor we provided was just as valuable as a car (though cars last longer on Zendik Farm than people do), so if you were a good worker, you were welcome.

 

Red Lentil: Don't mean to nitpick, but I'd disagree strongly with your characterization of the average Zendik as "educated." I suppose they're educated in the sense that they're not illiterate, but the most educated Zendiks I ran into in my time at the Farm had only one or two semesters of college under their belts. I point this out because one of the things that drove me particularly batty about Zendik was the fundamental anti-intellectualism and philistinism of the place, a sort of Beavis and Butthead "books are for squares" attitude that the Zendiks seemed to share almost unanimously. I think it's possible to think of Wulf's Blackhawk as the greatest novel ever only if you've never read any other novels in your life...or indeed, to find Wulf's overall philosophy compelling only if you've never read another philosophy book in your life (Carlos Castenada doesn't count). Sorry for the elitism here, but man, that drove me crazy...

 

After participating in this discussion and reading the various posts there seems to be only one absolute truth about the farm.

warning opinion only

You must be a diehard zendik to survive there. It does not mater what your background is if you are not a true believer you won’t make it. You could be a wealthy person but, if you are not a true believer you might be tolerated (until the money runs out) but that is all. On the other hand you could come off the streets totally pennyless but, if you follow their philosophy and prove yourself to be a true zendik then you just might make it. I don’t know if this is an accurate statement or not but, as I said this is just my opinion based on what I have read so far.

Of course the real question is what do they believe? What does it mean to be a good zendik?

 

Remember the scene in Star Wars where Obi-Wan Kenobi teaches Luke Skywalker about The Force? (“The Force is what surrounds us and binds us” and so forth.) Well, as far as I can see, the Zendik belief system (with its concepts of “seventh consciousness,” “elemental energy,” “the cozmic pizza service,” “ecolibrium,” “creavolution,” etc.) isn’t much more sophisticated, clear, or systematically worked out than Obi Wan’s discourse on The Force in Star Wars. It’s not philosophy: it’s theology, a sort of hippie apocalyptic Manichaeism, which divides the world into the saved (the Zendiks) and the damned (all of us poor slobs in the Deathkultur), with some dumbed-down psychoanalysis and militant leftist rhetoric thrown in just for fun. As a theology, the Zendik belief system depends on a leap of faith, rather than reasoned argument or actual knowledge about the world. You can decide for yourself, though, if the Zendik view of the world is worth taking seriously...they’ve got plenty of material on their website which outlines their beliefs.

 

Most ex-zendiks on this forum seem to agree that the farm does not follow the philosophy outlined on the web site though.

Anyway, I take it you agree with this statement:

 

I’m not sure what you’re asking me, exactly. It’s hard to say whether or not they practice what they preach, because what they preach in terms of dogmatic philosophy is incoherent, and pretty damn silly. (Then again, perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention during my Zendik “philosophy classes.”) Ask the Zendiks what they mean by their concepts of creavolution, ecolibrium, elemental energy, and so forth, and they probably won’t have a straight answer for you...not because these concepts are too complex for your uninitiated non-Zendik mind, but because they simply don’t THINK through these ideas, they just adopt them as all-purpose self-help slogans. Sort of like the medieval peasant who knew all the prayers in Latin, but didn’t have a clue what the words meant. On the other hand, some of these ideas are just self-evident truisms that any reasonable person would immediately consent to...such basic virtues, they’re almost tautological (so the Zendiks seem to think that they invented the idea that one should be honest, strive to improve oneself, etc.).

 

So basically noone, including the zendiks, “knows” what they believe. Kind of like they are making it up as they go along.

It is too bad really, because at first glance they seemed to have good points to their philosophy (for lack of a better word).

Perhaps they are still evolving and learning and one day will have a coherent vision. It seems to me what they lack(among other things) is a true leader that everyone respects.

Right now it seems like they are a bit chaotic. You could go through your time there and do everything “right” yet be asked to leave. Like you suddenly committed some sort of “sin” that noone bothered to tell you about. That, in it’s self, seems to be against their published beliefs. I wonder why they would want to kick anyone out. Trying to run a farm like that is hard work and if they keep kicking people out I do not see how they could survive. However, it does also tell me that some of the more serious charges leveled against the zendiks may not be true. I mean if you are committing major crimes you certainly would not want to kick people out on a regular basis. Those people would be full of anger and resentment. Where do you think they would take that anger? That is right, straight to the authorities. That would be the last thing you would want. right? So, I think some of the stories might be a bit exaggerated or might even be true from a their point of view. It is all very confusing.

 

I wouldn't say that the Zendiks kick people out for no reason...there are always definite reasons, just reasons that sometimes make sense only from a Zendik perspective...someone normally gets kicked out because the powers-that-be have determined that he/she isn't with the overall Zendik program, isn't "evolving" fast enough, or whatever. It's not a matter of people getting kicked out for some little mistake (because they screwed up on a job, or broke something, or said the wrong thing), but a matter of the Zendiks detecting something that they don't like in the person's overall personality. (And believe me, if the Zendiks don't like something about you, they'll tell you...)

Often, though, we're talking about cases of people getting kicked out simply because no one can stand living with them! The Zendiks have a perfect right to kick out whoever they want...you and I choose who we live with, and the Zendiks have the same right. It's not a government-sponsored homeless shelter, where anyone, in theory, who needs this service is entitled to take advantage of it. The question, though, is, who's got the power to make the decision to kick someone out...is this a decision arrived at democratically, with the interests of the community in mind, or a matter of the higher-ups forcing people out for their own personal, private reasons? And as others have pointed out here, there's the related issue of how fair it is to kick people out with only the clothes on their backs, as if their 5-, 10-, 20-year contribution to the place was worth exactly nothing. For what it's worth, I can think of a number of cases of people being kicked out, but welcomed back to the Farm after a disappearance of several years. So at least in the period I know, there was such a thing as a second or third chance to be a good Zendik...

 

Fair enough and to an extent I do agree with you. They do in deed have the right to kick out whom ever they want. I mean they let people stay there for fee right. It just seemed from some of the previous posts that some were kicked out with no rhyme or reason behind it. Yet they do, as you said, have a perfect right to do so. I am just wondering, if they warn people in advance that their status in the farm is in jeopardy so, the person has an opportunity to study/work harder to change?

I have no idea that is why I asked the question.

I do not think it is fair at all but, as you pointed out in a previous post, the people at zendik farm live in poverty so perhaps they do not have the resources to do more than that. Though how hard would it be to at least give them buss fair, or drop them off at a local social services agency.
BTW- unfortunately, life is seldom fair.

Thank you for sharing that. Noone has mentioned that throughout this hole thread. So, perhaps the zendiks are not as uncaring as they have been portrayed in this topic so far.

 

But the whole problem here is that you get kicked out unless you're a "good Zendik." That doesn't mean being a good caring person, necessarily, it means subverting your identity to the group, of shutting out the whole world except Zendik, acting positive & cooperative no matter what you think, swallowing Wulf and Arol's pronouncements hook, line & sinker: in short, being a good cult member. Red Lentil compared the Zendik reeducation with the Chinese Cultural Revolution. We'll take care of you so long as you fit our idea of what a person should be like, or we'll throw you out on the highway. They kick out old-timers, perhaps with the hope that they'll come back desperate enough to submit completely.

I think it's really a form of control to hang being kicked out over people's heads. It's like somebody who threatens to commit suicide unless they get their way. Zendik is about control. That's why this forum annoyed them so: read back to Siah's and Revel's comments. They're angry, and if you read closely you'll see that they're angry because they have nothing over us. They can't use the Zendik Jedi mind control on us or threaten to kick us out.

 

You are probably right about that (though I am not sure how much I agree with the cult part yet). However, they do have the right to do so. I mean they are providing food and shelter, in most part for free. All they ask in return is that you live according to their set of “ethics” and accept their “values”.

I think the zendiks would do well to explain this to people up front rather then have people come to the farm with false expectations. Most people looking to live in a communal setting are looking for a place where things are democratic and the hole decides what is good or bad. That does not seem to be the case with the zendiks (from the posts I have read here). However, there is nothing “wrong” with that either.

Greenhornet, did not the zendiks take you into their community with no questions asked. Provide you with a roof over your head and food for your belly. There are not many people in this world who would do that. You stayed for a summer I believe you said. You listened to their teachings and decided that you disagreed with what they taught(nothing wrong with that) and so you left car and all. What is wrong with that?

Now, I strongly understand your feelings about how the farm did not live up to you expectations. I had a similar thing happen to me with a different organization. I am sure you fee hurt, betrayed and scammed. The question is, were you really? Are those just feelings, or are they fact? Perhaps they are a little bit of both? Letting go of that anger and hate can be a hard thing to do. I am having a hard time doing it. But I think it is something you have to do at some point. It is something I have to do as well.

 

Nobody lives at Zendik Farm for free!!!

I worked 12-hour days, farm labor! WE DIDN'T HAVE DAYS OFF BACK THEN, EITHER. Ever load hay bales onto a moving truck in the noonday sun? Oh yeah--and then get accused of being a dilletante because you weren't lifting those bales with enough enthusiasm? When I wasn't in the fields I was in the fucking kitchen cooking meals for forty. I didn't eat for free!

Even people who visited FOR A FUCKING AFTERNOON were put on farmwork crews! Digging trenches for four hours to work off that green salad, 1/4 cup of beans, and leftover barley they're going to munch on at lunchtime. Oh, yeah.. and these people were also solicited for donations. A few dollars to cover the cost of their meal...

It is not we who lacked gratitude.

 

Nowhere did I say that you lacked gratitude!

In my previous post I also said that I thought it was unfair that they just dropped people off in town when they kicked people out. Especially those who have been there for a while.