Diogenes of Sinope

He is the father of Sarcasm and Cynicism and a former student of Socrates. He chose a life of poverty living off of scraps from other people and living in a tub. He settled in Corinth to pursue the Cynic ideal of self-sufficiency: a life which was natural and not dependent upon the luxuries of civilization. He used to walk the streets at daytime with a lantern looking for an honest man.

Here is the way I view him and what he did. No matter how self sufficient we think we are; unless we live a life of solitary and grow our own food without needing anything from the outside world, we are never as self sufficient as we think we are. This in turn goes along with his search for an honest man, we all lie to ourselves about life, no matter how honest a person you might be. He also could have cared less about status and titles, Alexander the Great was no more to him than the beggar down the street, because we are all just people.

For the most part, my views are the same, I have met several famous people and treated them no differently than I would any other person I have just met. I also believe in self sufficiency, however, in this day and age you must rely on the luxuries of society. Such as a job, money, stores, utilities. Unless you are native American or live in Antarctica, you must pay taxes, that in turn provides certain luxuries of society. Even Diogenes was never fully self sufficient as his food came from other peoples tables, which is a luxury of society.