Daniel Suelo, Hippie Caveman

23 Jul, 2009 by Van Helsing

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Who’s the bigger moonbat: a middle-aged hippie who lives in a cave, or the poodles who glorify his mental illness in a glossy magazine? You decide:

Daniel Suelo lives in a cave. Unlike the average American — wallowing in credit-card debt, clinging to a mortgage, terrified of the next downsizing at the office — he isn’t worried about the economic crisis. That’s because he figured out that the best way to stay solvent is to never be solvent in the first place. Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit.

Suelo lives by Dumpster diving in nearby Moab, Utah and eating bugs and roadkill. He does not use soap. Among the hardships he endures in the name of moonbattery are mice crawling all over him at night. But he doesn’t mind, because “It’s their cave too.” He has a degree in anthropology from Ward Churchill’s University of Colorado.

He tried being a useless bum in Asia; but he came to realize it would be more meaningful to be a useless bum here:

By 1999, he was living in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand — he had saved just enough money for the flight. From there, he made his way to India, where he found himself in good company among the sadhus, the revered ascetics who go penniless for their gods. Numbering as many as 5 million, the sadhus can be found wandering roads and forests across the subcontinent, seeking enlightenment in self-abnegation. “I wanted to be a sadhu,” Suelo says. “But what good would it do for me to be a sadhu in India? A true test of faith would be to return to one of the most materialistic, money-worshipping nations on earth and be a sadhu there. To be a vagabond in America, a bum, and make an art of it — the idea enchanted me.”

After another 3 1/2 years of Obamanomics, Suelo’s lifestyle is likely to catch on.