landpirate
campervan untilising nomadic traveller
there's already a little bit about this guy on the forum, but this is some updated info about what he's currently up to.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/sep/04/moneyless-man-gave-up-cash-embraced-foraging-farming
The Moneyless Man who gave up on cash and embraced foraging and farming
Miles Brignall
Friday 4 September 2015 07.00 BSTLast modified on Friday 4 September 201507.03 BST
Mark Boyle chose to go without money for three years. Now he has begun a community smallholding that is as cash-free as possible – and is opening the world’s first free pub
Mark Boyle on the permaculture smallholding in west Ireland.
Mark Boyle proved how, in a world dominated by money, he could live in Britain surviving entirely without cash – by bartering, swapping and connecting with local communities. And after three years, what was his first cash purchase? A £4 pair of trainers from a charity shop.
“It was such a weird moment. Living without money had eventually become completely normal for me, and there I was standing in a charity shop handing over a piece of paper and walking out with this really useful pair of runners. It felt as strange as giving it up in the first place had,” he says.
Boyle is the unlikely hero among those who feel consumerism in the west is running out of control. His 2010 book, The Moneyless Man, which sold more than 75,000 copies in 17 countries, not only showed that it was entirely possible to survive in Britain without ever touching cash, but also offered an alternative way to lead a more sustainable life.
He restored and lived in an abandoned caravan, and cycled everywhere. By using a combination of bartering, swapping or gifting his time, and foraging for food – both in hedgerows and supermarket bins – he demonstrated that one could thrive, while at the same time reconnecting with local communities.
Arguably, the highlight of the book was when he and friends produced a banquet for more than 1,000 people at the end of the year using only freecycled food. A bicycle-powered cinema and sound system provided entertainment. People gave what they could – time, skills, etc – and not a single penny changed hands.
Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi, published this week, is a fierce attack not just on unsustainable economic and political systems, but on what Boyle says is the failure of many activists and campaign groups to seriously challenge the status quo.
“The politicians, big business and even many of the campaign groups have a vested interest in the business-as-usual model. Look at the environmental movement – to my eyes it is fatigued. Is there a single person here who believes that any of the main political parties have any intention of building genuinely sustainable, healthy communities that live in balance with the rest of the great web of life? If so, why do we continue to put our faith in these structures,” he asks.
A central theme of the book is what he calls the “casual violence” that is now central to western economies. “Take a short trip to your nearest factory farm, where the vast majority of your meat, eggs and dairy come from, and ponder whether industrialism speaks well of us, or is the apex of our humanity,” Boyle says.
“Such run-of-the-mill violence, masquerading as progress isn’t only targeted at the non-human realm; what we are doing to the world we do unto ourselves, in more ways than one. We live in a culture where inexplicably punching someone on the street would provoke outrage, and rightly so; yet where the extirpation of a couple of hundred species every single week due to human activity alone barely raises an eyebrow. It’s time to resist, revolt and rewild.”
• Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi is published by Permanent Publications and is available now. Boyle is asking readers not to use Amazon, but instead to buy it from Green Shopping for £8.20.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/sep/04/moneyless-man-gave-up-cash-embraced-foraging-farming
The Moneyless Man who gave up on cash and embraced foraging and farming
Miles Brignall
Friday 4 September 2015 07.00 BSTLast modified on Friday 4 September 201507.03 BST
Mark Boyle chose to go without money for three years. Now he has begun a community smallholding that is as cash-free as possible – and is opening the world’s first free pub
Mark Boyle on the permaculture smallholding in west Ireland.
Mark Boyle proved how, in a world dominated by money, he could live in Britain surviving entirely without cash – by bartering, swapping and connecting with local communities. And after three years, what was his first cash purchase? A £4 pair of trainers from a charity shop.
“It was such a weird moment. Living without money had eventually become completely normal for me, and there I was standing in a charity shop handing over a piece of paper and walking out with this really useful pair of runners. It felt as strange as giving it up in the first place had,” he says.
Boyle is the unlikely hero among those who feel consumerism in the west is running out of control. His 2010 book, The Moneyless Man, which sold more than 75,000 copies in 17 countries, not only showed that it was entirely possible to survive in Britain without ever touching cash, but also offered an alternative way to lead a more sustainable life.
He restored and lived in an abandoned caravan, and cycled everywhere. By using a combination of bartering, swapping or gifting his time, and foraging for food – both in hedgerows and supermarket bins – he demonstrated that one could thrive, while at the same time reconnecting with local communities.
Arguably, the highlight of the book was when he and friends produced a banquet for more than 1,000 people at the end of the year using only freecycled food. A bicycle-powered cinema and sound system provided entertainment. People gave what they could – time, skills, etc – and not a single penny changed hands.
Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi, published this week, is a fierce attack not just on unsustainable economic and political systems, but on what Boyle says is the failure of many activists and campaign groups to seriously challenge the status quo.
“The politicians, big business and even many of the campaign groups have a vested interest in the business-as-usual model. Look at the environmental movement – to my eyes it is fatigued. Is there a single person here who believes that any of the main political parties have any intention of building genuinely sustainable, healthy communities that live in balance with the rest of the great web of life? If so, why do we continue to put our faith in these structures,” he asks.
A central theme of the book is what he calls the “casual violence” that is now central to western economies. “Take a short trip to your nearest factory farm, where the vast majority of your meat, eggs and dairy come from, and ponder whether industrialism speaks well of us, or is the apex of our humanity,” Boyle says.
“Such run-of-the-mill violence, masquerading as progress isn’t only targeted at the non-human realm; what we are doing to the world we do unto ourselves, in more ways than one. We live in a culture where inexplicably punching someone on the street would provoke outrage, and rightly so; yet where the extirpation of a couple of hundred species every single week due to human activity alone barely raises an eyebrow. It’s time to resist, revolt and rewild.”
• Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi is published by Permanent Publications and is available now. Boyle is asking readers not to use Amazon, but instead to buy it from Green Shopping for £8.20.
