[deMolay]

He lives in a cave. He claims money causes poverty. http://men.style.com/details/features/l ... ntent_9817

[vision-master]

I've done slick rock, amasa back and porcupine rim.

Never did Portal and Poison Spider

[vision-master]

Hira Ratan Manek "Nourished by Sun Not Food"

Hira Ratan Manek (born September 12, 1937) claims that since June 18, 1995, he has lived exclusively on water, and occasional tea, coffee, and buttermilk. He says sunlight is the key to his health, citing the Jainist Tirthankara Mahavira, ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Native Americans as his inspiration.

OK!

[Ibon]

I found this inspirational and actually it provoked even a feeling of envy!

[jdmartin]

Stuff like this sounds intriguing on the surface but only exists because other people are doing the dirty work. Someone had to make those Carhart pants he managed to scrounge. Someone caught that tuna and put it in a can. I suspect part of the reason for not staying a Hobo in India was the very real prospect of starving to death, something that's generally avoided here in the US even amongst the desperately poor.

Not that I don't think there's some good points to be gleamed by the example - not letting money be your be all, end all. But if everyone lived the hobo life we'd all starve to death. He gets to write a nice blog because the computer, and the electricity, and the building are all funded by the working stiffs he rejects. Even his roadkill deer was courtesy of someone hitting it with a car that was purchased with money and constructed by working stiffs. If he *really* wanted to live the life of not needing anything to do with money he could simply go out into the deep woods somewhere ala Jeremiah Johnson. Instead he chooses to make his living with other people's money. I find this sad, and disturbing, especially for someone educated enough that they could be providing some of that information back to society in a useful manner.

[frankthetank]

JD-

He's no worse then a banker!

I don't know. I guess you could go that route, by why not just live in a tent or a pickup truck? I mean even a LITTLE money can go a long ways. They guy could also work for cash when he needs it.

It would be pretty tough to live for free, but you could still live pretty cheap with very few things.
Then again, who wants to live like that? It coiuld get boring... I mean even so many days on a tropical island and i'd even go nuts. Change is good, so is a thick mat of chest hair.

[hardtootell-2]

I would be more impressed if he built a cozy shack on govt land and raised a large garden

or How about this guy? Pretty impressive IMHO

http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=43806

[hardtootell-2]

I bet at least half of his peace comes from being single w/o kids! And quite a bit more from not having a job.

I would be more impressed if he built a cozy shack on govt land and raised a large garden

or How about this guy? Pretty impressive IMHO

http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=43806

[BlisteredWhippet]

You're just kicking the guy in the balls because you can.

He's poor, he's a bum, so its okay to judge him. He isn't providing back to "society" because society, in his view, doesn't provide; it takes. He's an honest parasite, which is heresy in modern conventional terms.

The article describes a true scavenger lifestyle. You're misattributing the retrieval of garbage to a selfish impulse.

Despite the fact that the piece reflects a genuine presentation of one man's total refusal to comply with the demands of consensus reality, you fail in your analysis in the classic pitfall of anthropological theory, that of cultural relativism.

I have now met quite a few deadheads and have heard a similar love of capital enterprise. I suppose it is a permutation of the glorification of the proletariat. As Lennon sang, "You look like a bunch of peasants to me". The dualistic nature of the taxpaying dropout is an exercise in psychic incongruity. More than a few deadheads revel in this apparent contradiction. I suppose its appeal is in the overt nature of the spectacle as a statement against the hypocrisy of the culture at large, which are also taxpaying parasites, but fully cloaking the morality of it in deep camouflage. Regarded by the majority as something just shy of criminal, deadheads embrace of lifestyle free of moral analysis. As Jdmartin self-identifies, his analysis is framed by the perceptional defects noted above.

I believe this strain of American culture is a direct descendant of the westward expansionists, who also purported to establish "society", while rebelling against distant authority. Many expansionist immigrants had no idea how to scavenge and pride killed thousands of them. The rest choked with hate toward the savage races which seemed to enjoy eating the most revolting things. As soon as the expansionists could, they enslaved the aboriginals and forced them to eat different foods, or destroyed the landbases that supported their customary foods.

When we want to insult someone we tell them to "Eat shit", right? This reflects the experience of humiliation. Recall the opposite of humility: Pride. To eat "shit" means being culturally denatured. Notice how tightly human cultures are bound to certain foods. It is not surprising that murder suspect Tremayne Durham traded freedom for KFC (http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=72303). Look what we're trading for ground beef: the climate, the soil base, etc.! Take away someone's traditional cultural foods and you have one depressed human being with a profound existential dilemma. This is why no amount of agitation will remove the high fructose corn syrup and beef from American hands. Not now, not ever, unless you're willing to rewire brains wholesale.

To a modern American, the dumpster-diving hobo touches our deeply-embedded disgust circuits which fire the neurons that bring about perversely irrational, reactionary judgment. This is a harmless human being practicing a benign lifestyle. Therefore, the cultural reaction must be to judge him, excommunicate mentally the concept that threatens the mental cohesion held together by A-1 steak sauce and fried chicken grease.

Nothing informs our beliefs and value systems like our food rituals. To eat people's garbage and disgusting things is as disturbing to the mass social mind as Crazy Horse ranging free on the High Plains... a spectacle to be defined out of legitimacy by hyperbole.

I went to a bluegrass festival recently. These are de facto deadheads: capitalists clinging to the remnants of a gypsy fantasy fueled by gasoline and german automobiles. I actually informed one woman at the Porta-Toilets that soap and water are indeed the magical combination which kills and removes bacteria. Is the authentic appearance of neolithic lifestyle is a flagrant insult to those without the skill or brains to devolve properly? Self-abnegation is an art form- it is not available to the masses where the mean I.Q. is 100.

In deadheads, cultural rebellion is a fashion sense, a taste, or a lifestyle for the weekend. A bunch of people hanging around, drinking beer, smoking weed, barbecuing and listening to country music is not really a separate paradigm from the mainstream. "All we are are dust in the wind" is just a slogan. The reality is that they have health insurance policies and rely on civilization for everything except entertainment. I don't think caveman will feel Peak Oil or Economic Crisis. He will go from canned tuna and roadkill to roots, tubers, and rabbits, probably happy as a clam. There are many on PO.com that should be beating a path to his blog to try and learn something.

I expect our caveman to be soon routed from his peaceful, non-polluting existence by federal agents on the charges of occupying "public" land for private use.

If he *really* wanted to live the life of not needing anything to do with money he could simply go out into the deep woods somewhere ala Jeremiah Johnson. Instead he chooses to make his living with other people's money.

-This is the rhetorical device: misappropriate fact, then use that assumption as a basis for criticism. He's obviously living without money, not "making" the living, but just "living". Why does he go into town to use a computer, read books and talk to people? Because his humanity demands the communion of socializing... with his people. Namely, us. Not Indians or Ecuadorans.

As for Jeremiah Johnson, puh-leeze. None of Vardis Fisher's white characters ever went ascetic caveman.


Look! Hippies picnicing at music festival. The wardrobe that defined a generation.

[Sixstrings]

Suelo, who keeps a copy of the Bible for bedtime reading, is satisfied with a few grasshoppers fried in his skillet.

If TEOTWAWKI doesn't happen, then this guy isn't being rational. But if it DOES happen, I'd wager he'd survive it. Fryin up grasshoppers in a skillet? Now that's survival IMHO.

HE WASN'T ALWAYS THIS WAY. SUELO graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in anthropology

Oh my, that explains it.. mamas, do NOT let your babies grow up to study sociology or anthropology. I don't know which it is, whether loons are attracted to those fields, or if those fields drive people crazy.

[Narz]

Have to agree with Whippet here, we shouldn't judge him for taking for free what would otherwise be wasted? Hardly parasitic.

[vision-master]

Have to agree with Whippet here, we shouldn't judge him for taking for free what would otherwise be wasted? Hardly parasitic.

+1

[perdition79]

The fact that people can survive upon the waste of a complex civilization should serve as an insult to that civilization. Instead, readers of that article will either pity such a man or envy such a man. Personally, I envy him.

[dinopello]

The fact that people can survive upon the waste of a complex civilization should serve as an insult to that civilization.

There's some lovely filth over here...

[vision-master]

The fact that people can survive upon the waste of a complex civilization should serve as an insult to that civilization. Instead, readers of that article will either pity such a man or envy such a man. Personally, I envy him.

He's got guts. More than the rest of you status quo robots.

[Grautr]

I bet at least half of his peace comes from being single w/o kids! And quite a bit more from not having a job.

I would be more impressed if he built a cozy shack on govt land and raised a large garden

or How about this guy? Pretty impressive IMHO

http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=43806

Only single people could live like that.

[vision-master]

Wrong wifey?

[hardtootell-2]

Wrong wifey?

Women think their men will change and they dont. Men think their women won't change and they do...

[Blacksmith]

Wrong wifey?

Women think their men will change and they dont. Men think their women won't change and they do...

Your an alien, right?