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Caveman Rejects Money, Blogs to Tell About it
Interesting Details profile of a 21st century caveman:
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.
His dwelling, hidden high in a canyon lined with waterfalls, is an hour by foot from the desert town of Moab, Utah, where people who know him are of two minds: He's either a latter-day prophet or an irredeemable hobo.
Sounds fun! Except for all the non-fun stuff:
Mice scurry over his body in the cave, and kissing bugs sometimes suck the blood from under his fingernails while he sleeps. He shrugs off these indignities. "After all, it's their cave too," he says. I hunker down near a nest of scorpions, which crawl up the canyon walls, ignoring me. [...]
What about starvation? He's never gone without a meal (friends in Moab sometimes feed him). What about getting deadly ill? It happened once, after eating a cactus he misidentified—he vomited, fell into a delirium, thought he was dying, even wrote a note for those who would find his corpse. But he got better. That it's hard is exactly the point, he says. "Hardship is a good thing. We need the challenge. Our bodies need it. Our immune systems need it. My hardships are simple, right at hand—they're manageable." [..]
Suelo is 48, and he doesn't exactly have a 401(k). "I'll do what creatures have been doing for millions of years for retirement," he says. "Why is it sad that I die in the canyon and not in the geriatric ward well-insured? I have great faith in the power of natural selection. And one day, I will be selected out."
And yes, Suelo has a blog.
The Angry Optimist|7.29.09 @ 4:38PM|#
Paging ChicagoTom!
I will call this man "stupid" too. For largely the same reasons I
bash on organics.
There you go.
|7.29.09 @ 4:41PM|#
""I'll do what creatures have been doing for millions of years
for retirement," he says. "Why is it sad that I die in the canyon
and not in the geriatric ward well-insured? I have great faith in
the power of natural selection. And one day, I will be selected
out.""
A man after my own heart.
Just die, people. It's very inexpensive.
KingShamus|7.29.09 @ 4:42PM|#
I think nature is going to select out Daniel Suelo a lot sooner than he thinks.
|7.29.09 @ 4:44PM|#
I have a soft spot for eccentrics. It doesn't sound like he's sponging off the taxpayers, so I say go for it.
|7.29.09 @ 4:45PM|#
I wonder if the cactus he got sick and delirious from introduced him to Mescalito?
|7.29.09 @ 4:49PM|#
Lonewacko? Lonewacko, is that you?
Quit changing the subject, Fluffy, and tell us what you think about
Gatesgate!
Solanum|7.29.09 @ 4:53PM|#
And yes, Suelo has a blog.
Colonel: Right, you two hermits, stop that sketch. I think it's
silly.
Second Hermit: What?
Colonel: It's silly.
Second Hermit: What do you mean, you can't stop it - it's on
film.
Colonel: That doesn't make any difference to the viewer at home,
does it? Come on, get out.
Alan Vanneman|7.29.09 @ 4:58PM|#
Sorry, Matt, but Katie M-W is going to be all over your ass for that boob shot.
|7.29.09 @ 5:07PM|#
I will call this man "stupid" too. For largely the same
reasons I bash on organics.
Cuz your a douchebag with a superiority complex?
Why is this guy deserving of disdain exactly? Oh I get it, because
he isn't living his life in a way in which you approve. How very
libertarian of you.
Inventing The Wheel|7.29.09 @ 5:09PM|#
Do I draw pictures of animals on walls? Sometimes. When I'm drunk.
Shannon Love|7.29.09 @ 5:12PM|#
When he stands there and watches one of his children die slowly
from some easily cured bacterial infection, I'll be impressed with
his dedication (but not his sanity or morality.) Putting oneself in
a stressful environment is easy. A lot of people head out everyday
to uncomfortable dangerous jobs they wouldn't let their children
anywhere near.
The acid test of people's disdain for the modern world comes when
they are responsible for children. When a child starts coughing
blood all the attributes of the modern industrial life that seem so
deeply, deeply wrong suddenly become just minor annoyances.
KingShamus|7.29.09 @ 5:13PM|#
I was going to mention the totally rad boob shot, but Ringo's massive head and bulbous beak takes up half the picture, so I didn't see the knockers until the fifth or sixth viewing.
|7.29.09 @ 5:15PM|#
As long as he isn't begging or sponging off the dole, good for
him.
Who owns the cave?
John|7.29.09 @ 5:17PM|#
I suspect that he'll rediscover the value of money when he's offered his first book deal or guest spot on Oprah.
|7.29.09 @ 5:32PM|#
As long as he isn't begging or sponging off
the dole, good for him.
Wait what? Begging is bad? So you are against charity?
|7.29.09 @ 5:32PM|#
I don't care if the guy lives in a cave and dies of hantavirus transmitted by mice, if that's his goal, but I can still think he's a dumbass for doing it. 'Cause, well, he is.
Matt Welch|7.29.09 @ 5:34PM|#
Who owns the cave?
Strangely unclear, at least in my reading of the story.
Marc|7.29.09 @ 5:36PM|#
Dude doesn't understand natural selection--he's already selected out. To wit: as a stinky hermit, he has little chance of reproducing now if he hasn't done so already.
|7.29.09 @ 5:37PM|#
In light of his embrace of natural selection let's hope his life soon is acutely nasty, brutish and short(er).
|7.29.09 @ 5:46PM|#
Why is this guy deserving of disdain exactly? Oh I get it,
because he isn't living his life in a way in which you approve. How
very libertarian of you.
Why, actually, it is. Because our disdain, so long as it isn't
translated into a government mandate, is an essential part of civil
society, as is our freedom to express it.
CT apparently can't imagine anyone expressing disapproval without
also wanting their disapproval codified into law.
CaptainSmartass|7.29.09 @ 5:51PM|#
What about starvation? He's never gone without a meal (friends in Moab sometimes feed him).
Then he hasn't completely divorced himself from money, he's just
using his friends as a shield between himself and modern finance.
In other words, he's only gone half the distance. I'd be much more
impressed if, instead of relying on charity, he simply starved to
death to show how great his values are. Like that kid in Alaska, he
had some balls (just not enough food).
ChrisO|7.29.09 @ 5:52PM|#
I wonder what he would do if his friends in Moab didn't
sometimes feed him? He's not exactly living in the most hospitable
part of the world for hunting and gathering.
More power to him, if he's got it all figured out.
|7.29.09 @ 6:06PM|#
Why is this guy deserving of disdain exactly? Oh I get it,
because he isn't living his life in a way in which you approve. How
very libertarian of you.
You do know that disdain and disapproval are basically the same
thing, right? Kind of hard to have one without the other.
|7.29.09 @ 6:09PM|#
It doesn't sound like he's sponging off the taxpayers, so I
say go for it.
Considering we're all going to be paying for his health insurance
in a few days (thx Blue Mutts!), we'd better hope he's right about
his immune system.
no one caught this already?|7.29.09 @ 6:12PM|#
Well at least he won't be disturbed by those GEICO commercials and billboards anymore.
EoT|7.29.09 @ 6:50PM|#
Why is it sad that I die in the canyon and not in the
geriatric ward well-insured?
It isn't sad. It's actually kind of funny.
BTW, some eastern countries (like thailand, India) are plagued with
these hobo-ascetics. The bastards wander around, with their
holier-than-thou, I'm too good to work, I "transcend" money"
attitude. Their poor neighbors, who actually work very hard for
their money are guilted into supporting the "holy men".
They aren't holy men, they aren't onto some higher truth. They're
people who can't deal with modernity. Standard libertarian
disclaimer applies, of course.
Fluffy|7.29.09 @ 7:00PM|#
CT apparently can't imagine anyone expressing disapproval
without also wanting their disapproval codified into
law.
You mean like Ron Bailey can't imagine that anyone might choose to
avoid pesticides or tasteless crap food bred for transportability
and shipped across two continents without also wanting their
preferences codified into law?
I am so happy to have a new horse to beat into the ground.
|7.29.09 @ 8:05PM|#
CT apparently can't imagine anyone expressing disapproval
without also wanting their disapproval codified into
law.
Because my mocking you judgmental pricks on this site have been
accompanied by calls for codification into law the outlawing of
mockers.
RC Apparently can't imagine characterize people based on their
actions rather than on his ignorant misconceptions.
Tostitos|7.29.09 @ 8:17PM|#
"Dude doesn't understand natural selection--he's already
selected out. To wit: as a stinky hermit, he has little chance of
reproducing now if he hasn't done so already."
Sorry to burst your bubble but he's gay, he probably wasn't going
to do much reproducing anyway. His lifestyle doesn't bother me, why
would it?
qwerty|7.29.09 @ 8:53PM|#
Thanks to Daniel Suelo, the world is a bit of a more interesting place than it would be without him. I say let him be.
|7.29.09 @ 9:34PM|#
Sorry to burst your bubble but he's gay, he probably wasn't
going to do much reproducing anyway
It rather reinforces my point. He says "I have great faith in the
power of natural selection. And one day, I will be selected
out."
Again, the dude is already selected out, or rather the copies of
the genes he's carrying are selected out, and the fact that he
phrased it that way shows that he doesn't really have a good
understanding of what he's talking about. The copies of the genes
riding in his body ended up in a dead-end. Copies may continue down
the germ line through other individuals, but given that he hasn't
reproduced now and won't in the future (for whatever reason,
whether stinky or gay, and by the way I'm sure that most gay people
who aren't hermits smell delightful, ra-ra for gay people, not that
I'm gay myself, NTTAWWT), and as a hermit he's not really
in a position to aid the copies of his genes in other individuals,
his death isn't going to have any (further) significance
for the gene pool. The damage is already done.
I'm pretty sure, anyway. A little knowledge is a dangerous
thing.
Art-P.O.G.|7.30.09 @ 12:50AM|#
BTW, this guy's gonna get rich when they pay him for the rights to Gay Caveman 2000.
Tostitos|7.30.09 @ 1:21AM|#
@Marc - My primary reason for the point being invalid is that Darwinism is almost completely irrelevant in modern society. I won't judge him for not being genetically successful and I do get the point he is trying to convey. I mean in a literal sense he is probably already selected out, but he means that nature will weed him out when he is not capable of surviving in the wild anymore. It's a decent analogy.
Sean Healy|7.30.09 @ 6:26AM|#
nature will weed him out when he is not capable of surviving
in the wild anymore. It's a decent analogy
Darwinism says nothing about the survivability of individuals.
That's the point Marc is making, and that Suelo doesn't understand.
It's a common misapprehension.
Art-P.O.G.|7.30.09 @ 8:52AM|#
I'll admit shamefacedly that I haven't yet seen Eegah
is it "better" or worse than Manos: The Hands of
Fate?
Also, did anyone recently waste even a moment watching
Dragonball: Evolution? That movie's so bad it's almost
worth watching.
ConhugeCo|7.30.09 @ 9:30AM|#
Eegah is better than Manos. Manos is so painful a movie that even Joel and the bots have a tough time making it fun. But Eegah has a little more interest and easy to make fun of characters. And "Watch out for snakes" is a great line.
Art-P.O.G.|7.30.09 @ 9:37AM|#
OK, I suspected so. It's amazing to me that Manos is so bad not only in concept but also in all phases of execution. Truly a marvel, like a 50-car pileup.
|7.30.09 @ 10:37AM|#
CT, missing the point again:
Because my mocking you judgmental pricks on this site have been
accompanied by calls for codification into law the outlawing of
mockers.
There is nothing unlibertarian about being a judgmental prick, as
long as you aren't calling for your judgments to be codified into
law.
Thinking reflexively that anyone who is a judgmental prick can't be
a libertarian is a sign that you can't imagine anyone who doesn't
want their judgments codified into law.
Being unable to imagine that somebody doesn't want their judgments
codified into law is a pretty good indication that you, yourself,
can't resist wanting your judgments codified into law.
Someone who wants their judgments codified into law is a
statist.
Ergo, CT appears to be a statist.
Is that clear enough for you?
ConHugeCo|7.30.09 @ 11:09AM|#
Art, in my opinion the best MST3K episodes are: Mitchel, Werewolf, Secret Agent Super Dragon, Legend of Boggy Creek II, and Pumaman. Just some suggestions if you haven't seen those.
|7.30.09 @ 11:38AM|#
It happened once, after eating a cactus he misidentified-he vomited, fell into a delirium, thought he was dying,...
Fuck, i know people who pay good money for shit like that and this
guy gets it for free.
I can't RFTA since the link is blocked at work. The thread'll
probably be dead by the time I get home so my $.02:
Given that he's in SE Utah, I'd conjecture that he's living on BLM
land.
More than likely as long as he does nothing spectacular to attract
the attention of the authorities (stealing artifacts, some kind of
environmental damage or commits an assault or theft) he'll most
likely be left alone. His biggest danger is from well-meaning
busybodies concerned with his well-being.
If he's on National Park or Forest Service land on the other hand
it's possible the authoritahs might eventually take an
interest.
Thelonious_Nick|7.30.09 @ 12:21PM|#
"Mice scurry over his body in the cave"
I believe real cavemen solved this problem using cats.
Art-P.O.G.|7.30.09 @ 2:42PM|#
I'll take those into consideration, ConHugeCo. The last few just sound fun.
Bed and bath|8.2.09 @ 6:59PM|#
Definitely Hobo. From the article,
"Grinning, he presents the booty from one of his weekly rituals,
scavenging on the streets of Moab: a wool hat and gloves, a winter
jacket, and a white nylon belt, still wrapped in plastic, along
with Carhartt pants and sandals, which he's wearing. He's also
scrounged cans of tuna and turkey Spam and a honeycomb candle. All
in all, a nice haul from the waste product of America. "You made
it," he says. I hand him a bag of apples and a block of cheese I
bought at the supermarket, but the gift suddenly seems meager."
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