Why Diogenes of Sinope?

Diogenes is everything I am not. He is quick witted, brash, shameless, mentally and physically tough and above all… he is free. He was born around 410BCE give or take 5 or so years and supposedly made it to a ripe old age of 90 despite living rough on the streets of Athens and Corinth and subsisting on a diet of lentils and wearing nothing much more than a tattered old cloak. He is a long dead, eccentric, ancient Greek Philosopher who spawned a following which we can loosely call a school, a school that for me rivals the Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics or Plato's Academy. Cynicism in the context of a school of philosophy from Ancient Greece is a wholly positive undertaking. One undertook the Cynic lifestyle because of the promise of happiness, a far cry from how we use the word cynicism today.

Diogenes was famously a philosopher who practised what he preached, he was a man of actions, actions that spoke louder than words. For him, Plato’s grand ideas of forms and other such stuff were just nonsense, academic and theoretical fluff, smoke, these things just clouded the mind and distracted one from living well in the present moment, in the here and now. He famously asked Alexander the Great to step out of his sun when the young emperor paid him a visit. This in response to Diogenes being offered anything from within Alexander’s empire. But Diogenes wants for nothing and this is exactly what makes him free, he is solely responsible for his own happiness. He does not want anything from Alexander, not wealth, power, fame or any materialistic goods or pleasures. Diogenes understood he was responsible for his happiness and nothing external from his mind or body could make him happy, he was self sufficient in being able to achieve happiness and had total control and responsibility for making this happen. Diogenes knew that those very things that Alexander could offer, would also make him a slave.

This contrast between a man who wanted nothing more than to live well in the present moment and avoided theoretical and theological quagmires and the man who was self sufficient could not contrast more with how most of us live today. Why Diogenes of Sinope? Because he is everything I am not, he provides a model for living well, he provides an example for how one ought to live, he shows us the fruits of philosophy. He is who I would choose as an alter ego and I am in good company because Alexander the Great famously said that if he were not Alexander, he would wish to be Diogenes.

Also, Diogenes and many of the other Cynics walked a lot. There are accounts of Cynics walking to the outskirts of the Roman Empire, other stories of Cynics walking from Palestine to Athens. Diogenes was exiled from Sinope and walked to Athens where he took up philosophy. He also regularly walked from Athens to Corinth and followed the crowds to the Pan Hellenic games right into old age. If I were not me, I would wish to be Diogenes, but in light of the fact that is not possible, then I can have a blog called the Wandering Cynic in tribute, as a mark of respect and as a way of keeping Diogenes lamp lit in this present moment.