Grow your own garlic

I grow my own garlic - that you already know. I derive great satisfaction from my industry, from the fruit of my labour, but there is a lot more to the activity than just producing a few head of garlic - it’s a symbolic stand against the empire that claims ownership of this world’s noble but willingly deceived citizenry. The empire of which I speak is big business, shareholders in supermarkets, those temples of our times who have bought and enslaved urban populations the world over. They pose as servants of the people making our dreams a reality, whereas the reality is that we have become their slaves, beholden to them at every turn. Growing my own garlic (at which I’m rather good) is a stab at the evil empire, a stab that they will probably not notice and from which they will not suffer, but a stab nevertheless. This small act of defiance is a throwing off of the yoke of bondage, a reminder to myself that I have a self and that my life is my own, not theirs. Growing my own garlic also reconnects me with the earth and with the natural order. Man was designed to be a tiller of the earth, a producer and not just a consumer, each person meant to own his means of production himself and to own (and share) the benefits of his labour with others. Supermarkets dictate our desires, tell us what we really want with their slick advertising; they put fancy notions in our minds and then sell us the objects for which they have made us desirous. They have convinced us that it is our right to have out-of-season vegetables and fruit whenever the fancy takes us. They tell us we’re worth it, it is our right, we are all gods. Growing my own garlic gives me the sense of escaping the clutches of the empire. It is an act of subversion. When I go to the supermarket to buy cheese I laugh into myself at their efforts to get me to buy their garlic. I feel like a member of some resistance movement and I invite you all to join me - GROW YOUR OWN GARLIC COMRADES.