Zendik

Let’s say that I start an organization called “Save the Children with Godless Commie.” Let’s say I go on the street and solicit donations, telling people that their money is going to help kids with leukemia. Let’s say also that I recruit volunteers to come live with me so we can devote ourselves to a 24/7 struggle against leukemia. Now, let’s say further that all of those donations just went to pay my own bills...and I put those volunteers to work on cleaning my house and shoveling the snow in my driveway. Let’s say that I regularly pat my volunteers on the back and congratulate them for doing such great work in combating leukemia...by cleaning my house and shoveling snow. Let’s say, too, that I try to convince my volunteers that there is one and only one way to save the children with leukemia...and that’s by supporting my group (because all of the other leukemia groups, I claim, do nothing to help). Finally, let’s say that a critic came up to me and said, “hey, you’re not doing anything to fight leukemia...you’re just taking the money and the labor and using it for your own purposes”...and I responded by saying, “well, what are YOU doing to fight leukemia? who are YOU to criticize me? at least I'm doing something...look, I started this Save the Children with Godless Commie Foundation!"

There’s a word for this sort of thing: FRAUD. And so that’s the basic difference between the Zendiks who claim that they alone are saving the world and the rest of us who do not make such extravagantly immodest claims. And that's why it's perfectly fair to ask the Zendiks what they're doing to save the world, and not so fair to ask me or you or Greenhornet the same question. The Zendiks wriggle out of this question by reasoning, "well, we save the world by being Zendiks...the world is being saved so long as there are Zendiks around, doing Zendik stuff..." (so they are not, strictly speaking, guilty of fraud in the legal sense)...but to my mind, the claim that the Zendiks save the world simply by being Zendiks is no different than saying that you can fight leukemia by shoveling the snow in my driveway.

 

This is a very interesting issue. I personally believe that the only way you can save the world is by living as good a life as you can and showing people that it works better than the competitive culture. However, if that way of life will not work for 99.9% of the people who are actually interested in giving it an honest try then what about the general population? If the Zendiks were really interested in saving the world they would be trying to keep every single person they could get to stay involved in what was going on and starting groups all over the country and the world. Of course all those groups so far away from Arol's guidance couldn't work could it? Who would tell everyone what to do on a daily basis? It use to be about a revolution, but when they saw they were going to have to work with people they didn't like (anyone with any dissenting view), I think the focus became how to keep the group alive and supporting Arol and her family. Of course no one at the farm would even think of considering that there is any truth in any of this.

 

I think the WORST WAY of trying to save the world is to pretend that you're trying to save the world while doing nothing (just shoveling the driveway as godlesscommiie put it).

The message that sends to the idealistic people who show up at Zendik is one of cynicism and hopelessness. If those who preach so vehemantly that the world is in danger and that something needs to be done just use their ideas to survive by selling magazines and developing pristine land into subdivisions, then who do we have to turn to? Ourselves, I guess, but if the groups that are supposed to be helping are just profiting from environmentalism and from their supposed philosophical ideals, then the world becomes more doomed, not less.

At least if a group is an honest bunch of superficial "spoilers" and says so then we can see where they're coming from and oppose them, but to exploit people's idealism for profit, as the Zendiks are doing, is just awful.

 

Here's a link to an article about multimedia "Alternate Reality" games. It reminded me of the Zendik Farm experience:

http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050301/ZNYT05/503010381/1051/news01

Excerpt:

"When other people are missionaries for your brand, you've got something special," said Jordan Fisher, director of brand planning at Perceive, an advertising agency in Los Angeles. "The brand becomes something much bigger, has a purpose rather than being just another product on the shelf."

 

The "Zendik revolution" of the 1970s became the "Zendik brand" of the 2000s. The Zendiks are using the appeal that Wulf's revolutionary, socialist ideas have for those of us who are dissatisfied with the commercial culture that we're living in, and are exploiting those ideas and the name Zendik as a commercial enterprise!

How ironic and postmodern of them!

 

Here's a little something I just found. >>LInk<<
You have to scroll down a bit but here it is.....

I think the author has it nailed.

 

Somewhere along the line, Zendik lost its way and now survives on a vanquished dream. As people leave, Zendik shrinks and the Zendik "revolution" becomes ever more remote, yet to survive, the Zendiks have to keep pretending that they're really trying to change the world.

After all, how else are they going to sell magazines and "radical" music and get the idealistic to donate?

They've even pretty much given up on farming, making them even more dependent on the fiction, the lie, if you will, of the "Zendik revolution."

Now, is that any way to make a living?

 

I don't think that Zendik Farm "lost its way". A society based on ideological conformity ("unity", if you must) is totalitarian from the get-go.

 

What I meant was that Zendik "lost it's way" in the sense that it doesn't follow it's own philosophy as Wulf (and their magazine) describe it. No 'constant revision of ideas and evolution' based on the "relentless pursuit of truth," no benevolent society based on work becoming joy through "the genius principle." Few efforts to save the earth. Instead, lots of dogma, peer pressure, suppression and money grubbing.

 

I know what you mean, but I think that the dogma, peer pressure, suppression, and money-grubbing are pervasive at Zendik Farm because the Zendiks really are following Wulf's teachings.

The Zendik religion is fundamentalist-- One way, One truth, One hope, One life, and all else is death and damnation, world destruction, etc. Wulf Zendik was a totalitarian. His girlfriend did the dirty work, keeping his ass fed through the manipulation of a group of shiftless hippies who had run for shelter when the free-flowin' countercultural orgy of the late 1960s/early '70s congealed. If I had no conscience, compassion, or hope for the future of humanity (and a hot ex-model chick who would give orders for me while I sat around smoking hashish, fucking twenty-year-olds, watching tv, and ranting into a tape recorder) I might be tempted to do the same.

How easily a fascist can be camouflaged in tie-dyed pajamas..

 

Speaking of fascist cult leaders, check this out...and don't ask me why this item is in the "Entertainment" section of Yahoo news:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050311/en_afp/chileargentinagermanynazi_050311140434

 

Wow! Do you really think old Wulf was that bad? What about the cosmic pizza service? Was that only lip service?

Wulf must've given something back for all of those people to want to stay and support him. I think he wasn't as purposefully exploitive as he was self-diluded.

Red: do you have hope for the future of humanity? If so, please share it with me, as I need some reassurance

 

Hey I just realized that this thread is the 6th most viewed thread on any forum on hipforums. Interesting...

 

Joe Sacco gives me hope for the future of humanity. That guy can cross-hatch a refugee's sweater like nobody's business. Plus he's dreamy.

 

Hey! Where's Siah?!!
I thought he was into answering questions from his last post... Hmmmmmmm.....
What about the great Arol?
I guesss I'd fly the coup too if I couldn't honestly answer valid concerns.
Sooooo.....
Anyone thinking of visiting Zendik Farm and has read this thread, you can see that the farm is a load of BS so come on over to http://www.postzendik.com/ and we'll start our own revolution!!

 

The Zendiks do not consider what other people say about them valid concerns. If fact I do not know if they see anything that is said by anyone outside of ZF as having any validity. As far as anyone from the farm answering questions... It is just like everything else. If the questions get too close to reality then they just tell themselves that they are right and everyone else is wrong and that they are trying to save the world and do not have time for nonsense like this forum. That is why they eventually got rid of the forum they had on thier site. Too many people asking the wrong questions. I just keep wondering why ZF would "manifest" all this hostility.

 

It's amazing that in a world of over 5 billion people that a group of 30 or so could be so self rightious and arrogant to think that they'e got the answers and that all of the other billions of people are not worth listening to.

Hey Zendiks! Wake up call! There's a big world out here with a lot of smart people in it!

 

i dont think i can gain a full comprehension of what you all went through there, all i can really say to you is im glad you escaped from that sort of situation as i am for anyone escaping an oppressor.

i dont know that anything can open some people's minds, but it is great that you are warning others. Time will end it for them and they will be faced with so many problems when they cant rely on others blindly worshiping them. if i ever run into one of the roadies though ill be sure to throw some of my own idiological bs at them

 

Alright I read through most of this thread (I couldn't find my mouse cursor any more at 279) But it seems to me (call me crazy god knows I havce crap enough wrong w\ me) that siah in his first post really didn't deny anything, he just said it was for other reasons he simply tried to mitigate things that are classified as human rights violations as no big deal, Revel didn't even bother to move so subtley as that, he flat denied and called people insane, this really does feel like a cult (in the hidden sense of the word occulation all that jazz) They deify wulf and despite the shit some people still buy it (no offense) but what kind of enlightened human being would get involved with someone who would take the soul of a cobbled together philosophy and turn it into a tool for personal power and gain.

Also all this sex, what happens to these people when some really attractive guy who is really horny gets brought in and happens to have aids or somesuch (particularly like that strain that went from HIV to AIDS in 2 months and was uber drug resistant)

Hell maybe I should start a sex cult, sounds like a great way to bilk people out of their money and soul (maybe I could get a good exchange rate w\ satan)

 

I think you can sum the whole Zendik thing up by saying that it's pretty much Arol's power trip. She may have meant well once, but having power over people who show up at Zendik looking for a better way of life, people who often have burned their bridges and feel they've got nowhere else to go, went to her head.

But Quest Techie, you don't want to start a "sex cult," really do you? Who could be so hypocritical? Who could pretend to be offering people a wonderful opportunity to leave the drudgery of working menial jobs in the isolation and heartlessness of our society and then exploit them? I'm sure Arol's self deluded enough to sleep at night, but as Wulf said, a lie cannot be sustained.