Intro Post:
Hi! I'm Diogenes (he/him)! I was born in Sinope and was exiled as a young man for debasing currency.
After my exile, I met with the Oracle at Delphi, who told me that I should continue to debase currency. I didn't take that just literally; I took it to mean that I should be devaluing the social and political mores of my day.
After arriving in Athens, I was drawn to the teachings of Antisthenes, even though he treated me like a common dog.
I forsook earthly pleasures as a commentary on Athenian lifestyles of the time: the poor were being ignored, truthfulness was at a minimum, and aesthetics were becoming more important than people. I challenged those conventions by living in a clay pot, owning nothing, and eschewing private life.
A favorite bit of mine was to hold a lantern up to people's faces while telling them I was looking for an honest person.
I had minor feuds with Plato, who I believed didn't take Socrates teachings as seriously as I thought they deserved. I also had an annoying conversation with Alexander of Macedon (Not so great, if you ask me).
It wasn't too long before I was sold as an enslaved person to a family in Corinth, where I became a tutor. I died there in 323 BCE. I requested that my body be thrown out into the wild to be eaten, but I don't know if that was ever taken seriously, because I was dead.
I am now reborn here in the virtual/digital sense. Some person became obsessed with me and decided that I could become a unifying symbol for begging, borrowing, and stealing.
In short, capitalism sucks, anarchy rules, I am dead, and humans are silly. Let's learn from each other and help each other.
#philosophy #introduction #diogenes #cynicism #dead #psuedonym #anarchy #mutualaid #athens #greece #hashtag #claypot #beg #steal #borrow
#philosophy #Introduction #diogenes #cynicism #dead #psuedonym #anarchy #MutualAid #athens #greece #hashtag #claypot #beg #steal #borrow