Zendik

I wish that some caring adult had seen me reading the Zendik magazines and steered me toward anarchist literature. Link below to an essay by Pyotr Kropotkin which addresses the concerns of young idealists-- people who are experiencing the same sort of life crisis that continues to draw kids to Zendik Farm. An actual revolutionist, Kropotkin believed that, to inspire the masses toward action, one must focus not on threats of impending political doom, but on the evidence of social progress and revolutionary feeling evident in every corner of society:

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/appealtoyoung.html

If that essay makes your heart swell, find a copy of Colin Ward's "Anarchy in Action" ( http://www.akpress.org/1996/items/anarchyinaction ). It is an effective anti-depressant, and quite relevant to the question of social alternatives and power. And the best introduction to anarchist thought I've seen.

 

Wow, sewers.

While I agree with the Zendiks that our society is basically corrupt (based on lies, commercialism, environmental destruction, isolation, materialism, etc.) and that we've all been adversely influenced by it, sewers? That Arol sure knows how to make a person feel good about her/himself.

Are the Zendiks aware that 200 or so years ago when most people ate organic food and lived on farms the average expectancy was oh, say about 45 years, while today in this "poisoned world" the average life expectancy in the US is about 75?

The Zendik's simplistic little black & white world doesn't recognize confusing facts like that.

I think Red Lentil's post goes back to the idea of modeling a new community on Zendik. Part of what holds Zendik together is the us vs. them mentality. "You don't want to leave Zendik and go back to being a sewer, do you?" In a healthier community some other sort of cohesive force will have to unite the community, making it very unlike Zendik.

 

I think the Zendiks are making the all-too-common mistake that social harmony can be achieved through ideological conformity ("hey, if we all believe the same thing, our 'community' will not sustain conflict" goes the "logic"). The Bush administration and its supporters do the same thing-- they accuse those who dissent of harming our "unity", an attitude which causes even more of an "us/them" mentality.

Bush uses the same cliched rallying cry that Wulf did: You're with us or you're against us.

People from disparate backgrounds will come together (in community) to work toward fulfilling common needs. A focus on those needs unites.

Group hug.

 

SouthernBelle
Well zendik farm is a 501c3 PUBLIC organization and enjoys tax free status so it is not “her home”. Like all such organizations they are answerable to the public. Also, from what I understand, she built nothing! If you read this hole thread you would see that the farm was essentially built on slave labor. If you ask me, I say THEY are the ones who truly own the farm. The ones who paid for it with sweat and blood!

Anyway, I was not talking about a coup as you call it. Like any “community” which is what zendik farm is supposed to be, the leader should be answerable to its members. I simply suggested that if enough people got together they could promote some positive changes and return the farm back to it’s original philosophy. As it stands now, the farm may not last much longer and that would be a shame. If they just practiced what they preached, the farm would become a strong thriving community. A coup as you call it may well be the farms only means of salvation!

Hey I get to argue for the other side for a change.

Greenhornet

Yes, I agree that there are a lot of good points to the zendik teachings (as advertised) and as a group we can vote to adopt some of those ideals if we chose to do so.

Yes I agree that we would have to have some structure or else nothing would ever get done. For example we would have to have people who would be responsible for the day to day affairs of the organization. But I think those people should be elected by the membership.

I agree with that. I think that living in your own isolated world does nothing to help our planet. I think we should be involved in promoting change on both an educational and political level.

Someone mentioned being free to express their art and I think that is very important. Free expression, in my opinion should definitely be the backbone of the community. If others don’t like what you are doing then they don’t have to participate in it. ( of course if the art or activity is in direct opposition to the mission of the community that would have to be addressed somehow.)

Someone else mentioned that you have to be able to kick someone out. To an extent, I do agree with you. However, I don’t think it should be easy. If someone has been in a community for a long time and contributed to it I do not think they should be kicked out on a whim. As a group we could have a vote and require a 2/3 vote to evict someone. Also, I think the person should be given some sort of warning before such a vote would take place. Give them a week or two to clean up their act before voting to out them.

 

Dalamar: Arol owns the land, end of story

 

I kind of see this in the same way. Arol and the "Elites" of the Farm have had a free ride for a long time on less than what Wal mart would invest in their employees, it's disgusting.

The problem is their Board of Directors which is the "Inner Circle" or the biggest investors, taking over wouldn't happen...

I believe a group could sustain itself through their art, Zendik has and look at their crap! It's all the same and a knock off of Arols, it's depressing, "you know"? Being a recording engineer and musician most my life I tried to get them to diversify to add as many styles of music as musicians on hand to get the message out to as many groups as possible.
It can be done. A non profit can have many for profit and non profit organizations under itself with almost unlimited possibilities for grants. Farm grants are into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and writers can get grants for just being talented and published. An informative Mag can be written and sold on the streets just as well. Take a look at Zendik Farms $$. They have a bunch!!
It's hard though, because of all the obligations we have to this society, to find people who can be dedicated to a rough startup.
I started a non profit to do just a thing here in Portland but ran out of steam so the organization has lost it's non profit status, I think.....
If I can keep up the Slave Labor I have to do now it may be easier this time around...
I think I'll give it another shot.

 

Yes but, without supporters she has no organization.

You are speaking of legalities while I am speaking of using internal pressure to bring about change. What if the group as a hole or, at least a large chunk of it, just refused to comply with their “orders” or just stopped working. What would the privileged inner-circle do? I am willing to bet they would decide to negociate with the people. You would not likely get everything but I think they would agree to make life more fair rather then kick out a large chunk of the people and be forced to do work themselves.

 

Indeed a working farm can get all kinds of grants. Did you know that as a working farm you can get money from the government if you agree not to grow certain things. Once you get going there are all kinds of possibilities. The trouble is getting money and people to get started.

 

Hey you guys wanna see something I found very funny...


http://store.yahoo.com/hippychixshop/stre34slsh.html

Haaaa haaa ha ha ha!!!!!

 

$28???

 

Well in response to all the talk about starting another community...


I have been trying since I left the farm the first time to get people interested in starting a community. I have had many people say to "call them" when it is built, and many more say they were interested in getting something started but as of yet I have not met anyone who was willing to make any real move toward the goal. Yes I agree that money is the biggest wall. Though I do not think it is impossible to start a group without a large chunk of cash. The whole idea of a community is that you live together for mutual aid and survival. I am assuming that most of us have some type of job and are probably living alone or with one or two other people. All that would really have to happen is if a half dozen or so people who were actually committed to making the dream a reality could get together somewhere, rent a big house and live communally. We would be able to pool resources, share expenses and start to organize for when there was enough money and support to find a bit of land to get the farm going. The group could even keep the house in the city and you could rotate from the farm to the house when you wanted your city fix. All it would take would be the people and a willingness to make it happen. I have tons of ideas about how the community could support itself and about different ways we could get things going. It is easy to say that you would be interested in something like this. It is much harder to actually commit to doing it and following through with that commitment. Imagine what we could do if a handful of us ex-zendiks were willing to give it a try. Anyway more on all this later.

Rasha

Oh and if anyone knows how to get in touch with Aera please let me know or pass along my email address to her.

 

rasha

Yes getting people motivated to take the first step is the hard part. Right now I am doing some research on grants and such to try and get something going. If I come across anything of interest I will share what I find out.

Yes, and the biggest influence on life expectancy is sanitation which is why I was surprised to read that zendik farm uses outhouses. That is just begging for illness. I am surprised people did not get sick at the farm. I mean they built buildings that included electricity so, it should not have been too difficult or costly to add a pluming and septic system as well.

 

Actually in regards to the outhouses at Zendik, they are a hold-over from the Farm in Texas that had composting toilets. They tried to build a septic in NC but with 50 plus people it was not big enough for everyone. They did have indoor toilets in both Texas and NC, but they were not used very much except in very cold weather and often in NC they were locked. Another issue is that with composting toilets you have no black water to dispose of so all the other plumbing could be done through greywater systems. Why they chose to build pit out houses in NC instead of composters I do not know. My main concern about the outhouses in NC were the fact that they were unhill of the creek and there was, in my opinion (not that my opinion ment anything to anyone there), a very high potential of contamination of the water. Composting toilets are the way to go. Septic systems are really a very poor way to eliminate waste. But yes I do agree that the pit out houses were a bad idea. They smelled pretty bad as well.

 

I've read as much as I could stand. Got to page 12 before things got very redundant.

Without a doubt, the very foundation of ZF is one mans beliefs. Even in death he remains the focus. This alone makes it quite clear how outside beliefs won't be welcomed. If you plan to join ZF then be prepared for a cleansing and rebirth. This is the foundation that will never change. It's also clear that it would take a very specific type of personality and attitude in order to make it at ZF. Someone willing to dump their entire self being and adapt to someone elses ideas. This is why it's so important to recriut and gets thousands of people flowing through the community in order to have enough possibilties to find the few desirables. It doesn't matter how they recruit and what they claim either. The foundation mentioned earlier is still clearly visible for all to see. And far as I can tell, no ZF member has attempted to disguise this foundation.

The few who survive this mayhem of being cleansed of their self worth will have shown ZF that they are willing to fully accept their new lifestyle. The rest aren't worth ZF's time or effort since they'll leave anyway. These people have to understand that being part of ZF or any community is not automatic. If it was, can you imagine the insane amount of people that would come and stay at these communities and have no work ethics and poor attitudes. ZF set entrance goals based on what they believe would single out the people they considered desirable. It's their choice to do so.

Whether ZF is bad or good is of no concern to me since I don't plan on joining any commune that has a foundation based on one mans beliefs.

 

"Stop Bitching, Start a Revolution," "For funky and fabulous fashions!" Wow! I'm sure Zendik approved of the "Hippy Chic" shirt sales because they've trademarked the phrase like the good capitalists they are.

"Stop Living by your Supposed Ideals, Sell another 3/4 Sleve Tee Shirt!"

 

This project is a lie-why do you keep knocking these people, when you are no better!!!! You don't mean a thing you say, you started this project for 2 reasons:1-because you are angry with Zendik Farm people for not liking your stuff, and 2-we'll just keep to ourself, unless you really want me to be open in public??
Hard to find people....??You didn't want any help from anyone, unless ???? You waisted time pleading THE WRONG people to join instead of just doing it and letting people that are interested be a part of it; you even let a terrrrrible person knock your beautiful writing (she was JUST like the people at Zendik Farm-one of "the plague")-and you paid her to!

Hopefully, if you do give it another shot, you will do it with more honesty and keep certain things separate-you know-do it like you MEAN IT-AND IN YOUR OWN WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can do it!!

And please remember-This Zendik place is only part of the problem-the real problem is that they are part of some big ugly picture that is ALL over the planet-you should be more open to stopping the BIG ugly plague-I know you know what I'm talking about-stop taking their crap personal, and start doing something about the Big picture-I know they really messed with your poor head-they tried to, anyway-

The truth is, you don't need them to validate the the incredible music talent God himself gave to you-you already know you're great-
and don't forget to play nice-you can't knock these peoples' idea of "art or music" because you don't like them/it?
You were shown this in your life to maybe make things different for something in the future-you, as well as ALL you guys here, are waisting time on this bunch of ...

After reading the questions about Zendik Farm from all these young people, and then reading all the wise advise and responses, the reactions of the young inquirers should tell you all something:::THEY SEEM TO WANT TO BE EXPLOITED AND SEXUALLY ABUSED-THAT IS THE SCAREY THING-I mean-What in the world would make these KIDS WANT to be involved in a communal lifestyle anyway??? They are too young-The problem is, as I see it, that these groups of people are all over the place-in government, in schools, in churches (not just Catholic!), and that's why Zendik Farm hasn't been INVESTIGATED and SHUT DOWN?????-Society-
THE best way to difuse such things is to teach our children the right way-but most importantly, it is for US to LIVE The right way-not becoming marters, or trying to reach the oblivion!! LIVE it, then, they will come.
I guess that's all I have to say, so PEACE!!!!

 

"girl" I don't think it's appropriate for you to post on this forum to scold or flatter or stalk FTNW, or whatever your motivation is. It seems to me that your comments to him are of a personal nature!

 

Yeah. What Greenhornet said.....

 

girl

I am totally confused by your post? I can’t tell what you are advocating for/or against! Part of you post seems to be arguing against a project that does not exist yet? Your argument that people who want to live in a communal lifestyle just want to be abused is absurd and you presented no facts to support such argument. Over all it was just a poor post that I can’t make heads or tails of.

If, as suggested above, you are just attacking FTNW then, this thread is not approbate for that. People here are debating serious issues and looking for helpful answers.

 

First-I came to my conclusion that the kids that inquired in this forum about Zendik Farm totally ignored the warnings from several peop[le here about young people, mostly, being sexually abused by the "elites" at Zendik Farm-a problem that goes much deeper than communal living, and ZF.
As for FTNW, I am just saying that this guy, and I know for a fact, has reason to advise people to stay away from ZF, but really needs to take a look at himself-It is a project that DOES exist, but is not in good faith-