Any Freegans on board?

Poststructural Pub
1

I read a recent article on this movement. Is anyone here a self-proclaimed Freegan?

The article mentioned dumpster diving for food, using mostly recycled furniture, minimizing use of commercial store bought products, even commercial soaps and toothpaste are discouraged.

Overall it seems sort of creepy to me, and that these folks are more like rats, than doing anything of ethical value.

However, if anyone is currently living this way, or aspires to dumpster dive for their meals, please chime in. If a person has Internet and a computer, hopefully it is a public access solar powered computer, or a recycled computer running off a hand crank generator or some such.

from
http://freegan.info/?page=home

Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.

…We came to realize that the problem isn’t just a few bad corporations but the entire system itself.

Freeganism is a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which we may never even consider. Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able.

2

Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able.

Something like this? :wink:

3

Trouble is, once it becomes a religion to you, you are as inclined to be narrow-minded and judgmental as anyone trying to live out any other rigid ideology.

I like to say, if it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing badly. i.e…maybe you can make a point of cutting down on some of the crap you buy. Nobody has to be a nut.

4

Buy! Buy!
Says the sign in the shop when the
Why? Why?
Says the junk in the yard

djm

5

Wow, the only words in the picture that are legible (for me, at least) are:
“Naked Police Fear CourtTV”

Subversive!

I heard some talk about Freeganism (though they never actually used
that word) on NPR a few months ago. One thing the man being inter-
viewed stressed was the ability to get “perfectly fresh food” from
dumpsters behind grocery stores. Said one store manager: “There’s
usually a reason we throw that stuff out, and that reason isn’t always
readily apparent.”

6

This stuff is hardly new. For as long as I can remember, decades back, even, there has been someone crying out about the wastefulness of our society, and presenting the solution of hitting the garbage dumps and living from the cast-offs of others. “Dumpster-diving” is a clever term in itself, but the sentiment isn’t anything remarkable. If your sensitivities are open to a lifestyle in the alleys then go for it. Personally, I would find it wearing.

djm

7

St Augustine is a mecca for “Freegans”. There is even a store where you can pick up information on how to dumpster-dive and recycle stuff you find! You often find alot of “Rainbow Family” people who come to town looking to scrounge up food and money before going back into the woods.

In my experience, “Freegans” are nothing more than freeloading junkies! Most of them I have encountered are dirty, unscroupulous drug users that cannot cope with “real” society. So they invent this notion of anti-commercialism as an alibi for their antisocial behavior and inability to function on an adult level. Don’t get me wrong…I’m all about getting stuff for free…but come on! I get alot more satisfaction when I work hard to get something I really want than if I were to bum money off people to get it.

8

We used to have a different name for folks like that… let’s see… what was it? Ah yes. “Bums”.

9

I appreciate that the problems they perceive with society are very real ones, and I guess I respect that they’re trying to do something.

But I like people, and societies of people, too much to relegate myself to the fringes for a cause which, ultimately, is not likely to change anything.

Ever since humans began populate areas with even modest density commerce happened. I take it, perhaps incorrectly, to be a natural human behavioral tendency.

It needs improvement, sure, but I don’t think a movement to chuck the whole idea of commerce is going to catch on in a big way.

10

I see it as the basic “Waste not - Want not” rule of life. I’ve been living a lot more of it than most folks find comfortable, and at times it is a bit of a pain, but overall… I am definitely producing less waste, reusing, rethinking (one of the prime talents of true ADD folk), and recycling a lot more stuff than the norm… though we don’t currently ‘recycle’ in the normal sense, because our local recycle folk quit taking most everyting for a long time and I’ve yet to register that they are taking more again (one of the major drawbacks of true ADD folk)
Biggest boon - we live within our means… it costs us a lot less to do most things than most other folks … biggest drawback - hmmm… we really are looked at as ‘strange’ by even those who appreciate us… ah well… ‘normalcy’ is not what it’s cracked up to be. :wink: And no… we don’t go so far to do the dumpster diving, but we know folks who do… nor do we prostheletize, or even make a claim to freegnism… just think that unrestrained consumption is not a healthy frame of mind or way of life.

P.S. - do a google for “freecycle”.

P.P.S. - and though I don’t dumpster dive, I do see why people do - grocery stores and restaurants thow out so much food that is still very much usable, it is a shame! At least they could prop up a soup kitchen or something. Wastefulness is really a bad thing… (says she from the soapbox in front of her fridge that just got emptied of a few packages of mushrooms tha she failed to cook in time… arrgghh!!)

11

YAY!! I love freecycle. It’s one of the coolest things ever invented :slight_smile:

As for the other thing (freegans). No, I’m not one, but a lot of what they seem to stand for is very legitimate. We ALL could stand to reduce and reuse much of what we toss out on a regular basis. Even with this crowd here at Casa Izz, I try really hard to only cook as much as we are going to eat that night (although we do go through leftovers), and we reuse tons of stuff rather than just toss it out, and we also try to live only within our means (with the sheer size of this family, though, that’s not always too hard). People think we’re weird too, but then who on earth really and truly WANTS to be normal anyway?? :wink:

12

i don’t think it is so much chucking ‘commerce’ all together as it is identifying and avoiding mass produced, ‘impulse item’ marketing, types of commerce. Barter and direct trade are forms of commerce, and quite good to use. They keep the labor and exchange close to home and more on an even keel. Mass production, bottom line (financial, that is) thinking -a in the “make-it-for-as-little-as-possible-then-sell-it-for-as-much-as-possible” way of commerce sucks resources, personal dollars, …heck… it just sucks.

13

I agree. I gathered from the Freegan website though, that they are pretty firm about not buying anything ever if at all possible.
Farmers markets, and fair trade are wonderful things.
There’s a difference between trying to do commerce better versus opting out altogether.

14

Yeah… again, I’m thinking along those lines as these folks, but not worshipping the same version of the vision. :laughing:

15

“Mmmmm… free goo.”

– Homer Simpson

16

If they want to boycott commercialism and big corporations they could
do what my grandparents did- they lived off the farm- no car, no tractor, etc.The only things they bought were salt,some sugar(they had cane and sugar maples), coffee and cloth. Heck, I have my grandfathers shoe forms and stand he used for making them. They worked hard and had what they needed to raise a family of 5 kids during the great depression and were happy. The difference being they worked. I see these folks as feeding off the labor of others and still using the products of the society they disdain. The difference being that they did not pay for them.

17

I disagree. Pretty much everything they take would have ended up in a landfill if they didn’t take it. Who does this harm? I sincerely doubt there are enough freegans out there to make a serious dent in the corporate world. It’s more like having a plecostomus in the fish tank.

18

You’re right…the interesting thing is that if all the products of the trade and enterprise culture which they so decry suddenly disappeared…what could they scavenge? What would they wear, or eat?

Still, I’m not totally opposed to the concept at all. My oldest daughter generally avoids buying new products whenever possible. She enjoys “finds” from thrift shops and (inexpensive) vintage stores. A couple boutiques around here resell for the benefit of the local hospice and whatnot. Several of her shoes are pairs I’ve acquired within the past several years before accepting the fact that Tevas and Easy Spirit sneakers are the only things comfortable on my skeletal feet.

19

Oh I’m not against using old stuff- a look in my closet would convince anyone(I’ve got some stuff I swear is 20yrs old or older that I wear regularly). And a look in my house which has very,very few new things, or my house itself-ca.1930s would convince anyone that I prefer old/used to new.

And I’m not against folks using stuff discarded by others. We should share the wealth, as the saying goes-very leftist tendencies here.
I work hard and do not think it is good for humans to not work-whether they are rich or poor by economic standards.

I am against people who’s entire existence is reaped from the labors of others.

Uh oh, I think this may need to go to the other rubber room, so I’ll stop. :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Tsk tsk tsk…look at you, getting all riled up. Next thing you know, Nano’ll be tellin’ y’all to take it elsewhere. :wink:

But, I agree with you, 100%. Maybe I should be getting myself to the other rubber room too? :wink: