The Moneyless Man: Broke by Choice and Loving It

 The Moneyless Man: Broke by Choice and Loving It

Mark Boyle is a hard guy to get in touch with. Living out of a yellowed trailer permanently¹ cinder-blocked on a patch of farmland somewhere between Bath and Bristol, the thirty-one-year-old Brit rarely turns on his mobile phone. He doesn’t frequently answer email, either. His communication devices—which he sees as lifestyle compromises that serve the greater good of his mission—are powered by an old solar cell and the shy English sun that only occasionally shines upon it.

If Boyle’s off-the-grid lifestyle isn’t totally unique among today’s Burning Man fanatics² and Freecyclers, his background and level of commitment are one in a million. The author of a popular book and founder³ of the Freeconomy, an online social network with nearly twenty-five thousand members, Boyle hasn’t spent a dime⁴ for more than a year and a half.

He doesn’t hate money, he says, but he definitely doesn’t like it. “I’m completely neutral,” Boyle says when asked if the sight of money makes his insides churn.

If someone left ?10,000 ($15,440) at his feet? “I’d probably recognize it for what it is, which is a big lump of paper.”

The seed for his aversion to cash was planted during the six years he spent studying economics, followed by a brief career managing organic food companies—a half measure toward a better world, Boyle says. “Freeconomics” sprouted⁵ into a passion one day at the local pub in 2007. It was then, chatting with a friend, that Boyle made a commitment to abandon currency.

“Money keeps us separated from the consequences of what we consume,” he says. Because of cash, “we don’t see factory farms, we don’t see the sweatshops where clothes are made, we don’t see the pesticides⁶ that we spray all over our food,” Boyle says over the phone, as a faint beeping indicates the device is about to die. “All money does is disconnect us.”

Going totally moneyless and spreading the word came in fits and starts for Boyle. His cause first gained widespread attention in early 2008 during a failed attempt to trek⁷ without money from Britain to India. Intended as a nine-thousand-mile journey that would take two-and-a-half years, the trek ended after less than a month when misunderstanding and natural human distrust scuttled⁸ Boyle’s dream in northern France.

“Not only did no one not [sic] speak the language,” Boyle wrote in a Feb. 24, 2008, blog entry about the residents of Calais, “they also seen [sic] us as just a bunch of freeloading backpackers, which is the opposite of what the pilgrimage is really about.”

Freezing, starving, and emotionally downtrodden, Boyle decided⁹ to return home. Boyle announced his decision online to the “Freeconomists” following his journey. “I have touched money to get back [to the UK] and I want you all to know that,” he wrote. “But that has happened and I can’t change that now. All I can do is make a resolution to not be so weak in the future.”

The resolution became real in November 2008, as Boyle embarked¹⁰ upon a “Buy Nothing Year” just two days after a Walmart employee was killed in a stampede of customers on the first day of the Christmas shopping season. That “Buy Nothing Year” is now just a few months away from becoming a “Buy Nothing Two Years.” Boyle suggests it will go on even longer.

“I’ve never been happier. Never been fitter. Never been healthier,” he says. A vegan for six years, Boyle scavenges for and grows his own food, and volunteers several days a week at the organic farm where his trailer is parked. He brushes his teeth using a mixture of washed-ashore cuttlefish¹¹ bone and fennel seeds, and he rarely, if ever enters a major cosmopolitan¹² area.

In previous interviews, he’s suggested a pint¹³ at the pub is what he misses most about his old life. “I don’t miss beer that much,” he says, clearing the record. “Women are always the biggest temptation.” Not that mates are off-limits, provided, of course, that they don’t ask for a dime.

“This is something I want to do for the rest of my life,” Boyle says, suggesting money-free family life may be in his future. “I’d be very happy to have a partner, given the right time and right place.”

That time and place may soon materialize. Boyle is currently laying the groundwork for a moneyless village, built upon the proceeds earned through sales of his book and kept locked away in a charitable trust. His blog and the Freeconomy do not host ads or generate revenue otherwise.

There’s plenty of interest in what Boyle preaches. “I’ve been inundated¹⁴ by people who want to live without money and be a part of this project,” Boyle says. “I can’t even stop the demand for it.

“When you lose your addictions¹⁵ to all the crap, all the bullshit that we’re sold, then you’re on the road to true liberation, true freedom.”

Boyle often cites a quote by Epicurus to convey the timelessness and credibility of his message: “If you want to make a man rich, do not add to his wealth but subtract from his desires.”

“I’ve made small sacrifices,” Boyle says of his lifestyle. “But I’ve gained so much more.”

1 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

2 fanatics   

狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The heathen temple was torn down by a crowd of religions fanatics. 异教徒的神殿被一群宗教狂热分子拆除了。
• Placing nukes in the hands of baby-faced fanatics? 把核弹交给一些宗教狂热者手里？

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 dime   

n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角

参考例句：

• A dime is a tenth of a dollar.一角银币是十分之一美元。
• The liberty torch is on the back of the dime.自由火炬在一角硬币的反面。

5 sprouted   

v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• We can't use these potatoes; they've all sprouted. 这些土豆儿不能吃了，都出芽了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rice seeds have sprouted. 稻种已经出芽了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

8 scuttled   

v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 )；快跑，急走

参考例句：

• She scuttled off when she heard the sound of his voice. 听到他的说话声，她赶紧跑开了。
• The thief scuttled off when he saw the policeman. 小偷看见警察来了便急忙跑掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 embarked   

乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事

参考例句：

• We stood on the pier and watched as they embarked. 我们站在突码头上目送他们登船。
• She embarked on a discourse about the town's origins. 她开始讲本市的起源。

11 cuttlefish   

n.乌贼，墨鱼

参考例句：

• I have no idea about how to prepare those cuttlefish and lobsters.我对如何烹调那些乌贼和龙虾毫无概念。
• The cuttlefish spurts out dark ink when it is in danger.乌鲗遇到危险的时候会喷出黑色液体。

12 cosmopolitan   

adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的

参考例句：

• New York is a highly cosmopolitan city.纽约是一个高度世界性的城市。
• She has a very cosmopolitan outlook on life.她有四海一家的人生观。

13 pint   

n.品脱

参考例句：

• I'll have a pint of beer and a packet of crisps, please.我要一品脱啤酒和一袋炸马铃薯片。
• In the old days you could get a pint of beer for a shilling.从前，花一先令就可以买到一品脱啤酒。

14 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 addictions   

瘾( addiction的名词复数 )； 吸毒成瘾； 沉溺； 癖好

参考例句：

• He has removed the stigma of drug addictions. 他已经洗去吸毒的污点了。
• Intelligent people are good at using reason to control excessive addictions. 智慧的人善于用理性来控制过度的嗜欲。