If you enjoy something - gardening or anything else - that's great. If you are doing it because you feel you have to, maybe you need a t-shirt like this. See http://idlefoundation.net Mr Livered

Have a job you love and you'll never work a day. And quit being so pissy to eachother; it's a tshirt! Everyone has had bullshit jobs- if you haven't you can't possibly appreciate a good thing in the future! M

I think you guys read into this shirt an awful lot; I've always just thought that it meant "love what you do". If you have a job that you really enjoy and doesn't force you to compromise your values (maybe running your own publishing company?), are you really working? I wouldn't think so... and you wouldn't have to work today, tomorrow or any day for that matter. J.T.

gardening is work. Its more helpful to grow food then to go to your pathetic 8 hour day job getting paid just enough to have what you NEED. Awesome shirt, this explains exactly what im working toward. REVOLUTION! Lacey

I think it's only idealistic kids who haven't truely been poor who think this shirt is realistic. There's no such thing as free energy- meaning, someone had to input energy, which in our society (as in almost all societies) is rewarded with $, before they could get something else back. So, for our rebellious rainbow child here, they're gardening as an alternative to working at a job they hate in order to be given money with which to buy food from a big store. Well, how was the land paid for that they're gardening on? Did they haul the water from the nearest public stream or lake, or is someone contributing energy (a city worker who helps purify city water, a pipe layer who helps bring water to their neighborhood, a contractor who installs and assembles the plumbing on their property, a parent who pays the water bill) that they are essentially stealing from? Whether what you do for money, or land, or trade of energy of some type of payment... is called "work" or "play", is all about your attitude, and a little about whether God put you in a first world country where you got a free education and were able to go somewhere and apply for a job you prefer, instead of being born into an impoverished family in the third world that may have had no choice but to send you to work in a sweatshop or out harvesting in the field in exchange for your family's rice. Whatever you end up doing for a living, let it be done with joy, thankfulness, and a willingness to serve others and give back. If you can garden so fucking much that you can sell or trade extra produce in exchange for your shelter, food, clothing, and gardening supplies, (and any and all other resources you will use) then more power to you. Otherwise, you're just another deluded punk kid leeching resources and energy from your community. not very cool. I hope the people who buy this shirt are the ones paying rent in vegetables.. otherwise, it's pretty lame. haley perez

I went to work yesterday, where I used a hoe to cultivate some organic carrots (and enjoyed it, despite the heat :) and did lots of other things on the farm. I love the message behind this shirt, although I guess I'd be lying if I wore it. Sarah

After reading all of the other comments about the true meaning of this shirt,it really got me thinking "hey I shouldn't get this shirt now".Than I decided the fact that I didn't goto work today and am not going to go tommorow justifies me getting this shirt.What do you think? xoeitheror

i would recommend all of you to read bob black's "abolition of work", which i think expresses this shirt perfectly. i havent read evasion from the lack of resources, but it sounds like a dropout book. I dont think dropping out changes anything, nor do i think life should be an egotistical search for "freedom" and lost individual hopes. I think the most important part about work and how it relates to the system is that work isnt really necessary to maintain our quality of life, but to keep the poor poor and the rich well, rich. On the same side, i dont think that a couple of (sorry here it comes) american suburban punks (no pun) (who can actually find foodstuffs in dumpsters) are contributing in any way to anything, and they would just be a burden to society, even an anarchist one. I think this design says that its awesome to get rid of having a job, and at the same time do work that is productive. it goes along the lines of "i dont need a boss". its not along the lines of "be a lazy orgastic bum who just likes to play UNPRODUCTIVELY all day long". even bob black said so: "make production fun". On another note, im sick of people who dont know poverty to say its alright. its not alright. people who live in poverty dont have the time or the safety or even the opportunity to have fun. I have friends who are punk rockers and social anarchists, who detest the "being poor is cool!" thinking, and they are poor. Now a rant about this bunch of american suburb (even downtownish) kids: people who really live in poverty cant get out of the house without risking getting killed, literaly. they have to help their parents who will starve if they dont help, AKA if they act too 'anarchistic'. They dont find food in the garbage because people dont throw away usuable shit in the first place. they dont have the money to take up any activities, nor the space (gardening? theres not a piece of arable land in kilometers), and they dont play with toys liek you do, they pretend a piece of computer chip is a car, and they pull on it with a string. their beds are bare metal springs that cut them while they sleep, and they live off cooked bananas and stay malnourished their whole life. perhaps the whole thing should be called "not going to work and living in an upper class neighborhood off the things that you didnt help produce at all is fun!" ok, sorry for the rant. and as for me ranting on internet: who cares? internet is a tool. its not go walk around in the streets all day. i do take my ideas into the street, but i consider myself lucky to have access to a computer, and i might as well use it to learn and express myself in new grounds. not spend my day on the sidewalk learning "how to live the life", which looks pretty much the same every day. ok im done smurfy

everytime i'm browsing microcosm and see this shirt it gets me thinking (and feeling a bit guilty). i love the design... it represents me and my state of mind. but i have a job at a chain restaurant and i'll go to work tomorrow and the next day... until i figure out a feasible alternative. so basically i fucking love this shirt because it hits home. i need to do something about this. s.e.d.m.

i think nicole's point is that this working class pride skin head bullshit isnt gonna change shit.. im not trying to say that working is for poseurs, im just saying that when you say if your not working class, your not welcome, then your just holding up the class system that you say your fighting.. a.oran.

hey Nicole, I gotta call bullshit on the internal logic (or utter lack of it) in your arguement. Just trying to unravel exactly how people have to spend their day before they can qualify to criticize leaves me sea sick. The terms you use to discuss poverty make it sound like a vacation. Which makes me wonder what you are describing with the word "poverty". You're call to action is admirable, are you getting off the internet and into the streets or do you still refuse to attend demos because either they are too wimpy or you don't want to risk arrest because you might want to be a lawyer in the future? Also I gotta ask what yer nieghbors think about your newly minted "post" race world. Could you ask them for me? For the record I thought Evasion was a decent document of how to be ineffective, and I think most of the Crimthinc ouvre is pretty and shallow; there are occasional gems in both, I think this shirt borders on derision of workers. Ben Saari

As someone involved with the editing process of Evasion, I find it very amusing that once again, it is under attack by ANONYMOUS folks on the INTERNET. Clearly, you stand behind all that you say! The cover (including the apparently 'offending' statement) was created and designed by the folks from Crimethinc, not Mack. Furthermore, I'd like to take this oppurtunity to tell you to lighten up, because really, if this classism is just too much for you to handle, maybe you should get off the internet and off your ass to change it. If you are so bound to this absolute participation in the system because of your 'disadvantages,' how do you have time to be on here commenting at all? The book is a collection of zines and journals; it's a PERSONAL perspective. I know that if some folks don't have someone else to put down for being privileged and a poser their lives just aren't complete, but really. Being poor can be fun, don't let the system get you so down. No one involved in Evasion 'goes back' to their parents house, not all of us are male, 'white' (however, I think that anyone who still abides by such rediculous terminology and assumes that skin tone has ANYTHING to do with personal experience and background, is full of shit, but that's a different story.) or privileged. Feel free to stop being a coward and confront any of us directly at anytime, I've included my email. Nicole.beyries@gmail.com Nicole

The author of Evasion obviously never went back to his mom and dad. Uhm.

In reply to one of the statements below: not to mention Evasion is the worse book ever. Just that statement on the back of the book about "if your homeless and not having fun your not doing it right" has to be one of the most racist/classist/priveledged statements ever made. Being homeless sure is fun if you can just go back to your white middle class mom & dad when it gets a little too tough. anonymous

re: solorebellion: Okay, tell that shit to people who don't have a choice. Not everyone lives in our little punk rock, dumpster diving, don't work because I don't want to pipe dream. anonymous

I think a distinction should be made between "work" and a job. People choose to live their lives different ways and if you say want to open a coffee shop, that isn't work it may be a job but work in my mind is something that you have to do. There is nothing wrong with having a job that you enjoy greatly. But one shouldn't go to work just for the money Worthoag

After reading Evasion I quit my job. This isn't saying much as I am still a minor, but I love it. I do whatever I want all day long. I read, write, sticker, think, whatever I want. This was what I wrote to my "manager" when I quit: "I just realized that my time is worth more than money. I hope you can realize the same." You shoud quit your job if you would rather be doing something else. solorebellion

amen...haven't been to work in ages. i think i got fired anonymous

most comfortable shirt ever worn. chris

Hunter gatherer doesn't mean you can't be vegan (hunting for delicious in-season berries; gathering what you need, and leaving enough for others including animals to sustain themselves). I'm vegan and have gathered multiple times while backpacking... Anyways I like this shirt and I am big fan of gardening and especially respect self sustainment..I am attempting to get a job at a bike shop though so...I guess me having this patch makes me a hypocrite. peace snucks

as a vegan i can't endorse a shirt depicting hunting as a positive lifestyle choice. anonymous

I like the idea of subsistence production as an alternative to a job... but how about one with a depiction of a hunter? It would be more meaningful. Agriculture is the reason we have craft specialization (i.e. jobs) in the first place. Joe

I think the gardening is depicting what you'd do if you didn't go to work! Emma

is this saying that the gardening is the "work" part of it? or is it saying that the gardening is what this persyn is deciding to do instead of going to work? because gardening sure is fun to me. (the message is that gardening is an alternative to work -joe). anonymous