Poverty: When a barrel becomes a palace and the sun the most precious treasure

Source: When the emperor met the philosopher in the barrel

Alexander of Macedon asked Diogenes if he wanted anything.

'Yes,' said Diogenes, 'move a little, you are hiding the sun from me.'

It is told that Alexander was so impressed... and while his men laughed and mocked the philosopher, he said to them: 'But truly, if I were not Alexander, I would want to be Diogenes.'

(Plutarch, "Parallel Lives: Alexander", Chapter 14, 1st century CE)

Explanation: The sun that no money can buy

This is the most famous encounter in history between ultimate political power (Alexander of Macedon, ruler of the world) and ultimate poverty (Diogenes, the Cynic living in a barrel clad in rags). Diogenes is neither impressed nor afraid, nor does he ask for handouts. His cheeky answer expresses the Cynic view: the rich person is the one who needs things; the truly poor person is the one who needs nothing. The sun belongs to Diogenes just as much as it does to Alexander, and no amount of money in the world can buy a better ray of sunlight.

Perspective: Who is truly poor? Diogenes versus the Buddha

We feel sorry for the poor, but Diogenes would have felt sorry for us. He would look at us—enslaved to our mortgages, leased cars, public opinion, and financial anxiety—and see utterly docile slaves. It is worth remembering that there is an enormous difference between someone who sleeps in a barrel out of ideology and someone thrown into the street because the collection agency knocked on the door. Diogenes teaches us that part of our suffering is all in our heads. Voluntary poverty is a challenge thrown at consumer society. Poverty is the price of freedom, and for Diogenes—that is wealth.

Some believe the Buddha preached this as well, but that is not the case. The Buddha, like the Jewish sages, actually held that poverty is debilitating, breeds crime, and leaves people unable to think. In a discourse titled the Anangana Sutta, the Buddha said that people can only be happy given four conditions: ownership of property, access to resources, economic independence, and provided that all of these are attained honestly.

Going Deeper: From the Sermon on the Mount to Hasidic palaces

In Christianity, Jesus embraced this idea and made it an ideal in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (New Testament, Matthew 5:3). The idea is that material possessions take up volume in the soul—a cup full of water cannot be filled with wine. Likewise, a person filled with possessions and worries cannot be filled with spirituality. Poverty is understood as an emptying that allows one to receive abundance of a different kind. Unlike Jesus, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov maintained that while "the primary source of melancholy (depression) comes from the lust for money," to escape poverty one must not sink into melancholy, but rather rejoice and pray, so that wealth is attained not through greed, not through dishonesty, but specifically through contentment with one's lot, and through prayer.

Culture: Fight Club: The modern rebellion against IKEA

The film Fight Club (based on the 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk) is the modern manifesto of Diogenes. Tyler Durden lives in a dilapidated house, wears clothes fished from the trash, and preaches against IKEA and consumer culture. His immortal line: "It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything," is an exact translation of Cynic philosophy. The film was not well received at first, largely due to its violence, but for most viewers it mostly caused discomfort, holding up a mirror that reflected bourgeois complacency, a lack of values, and boredom.