On Dumpster Diving - Power and Wealth

In Lars Eighner’s essay "On Dumpster Diving", he described his own homeless experience and the art of garbage. But Eighner prefers to call it a cleaner, not a garbage disposal program. Just like Eighner saids “ I like the frankness of the word scavenging, which I can hardly think of without picturing a big black snail on an aquarium wall. I live from the refuse of others. I am a scavenger. I think it a sound and honorable niche, although if I could I would naturally prefer to live the comfortable consumer life, perhaps -and only perhaps-as a slightly less wasteful consumer, owing to what I have learned as a scavenger.

”(713/4) In this sentence, he compared the scavenger to a full-time job and required a lot of time and effort. Because he believes that if someone follows in certain strategies, it will do so may help people improve their efficiency. Because he found that a strategy to know where can find good food and other items and good time, another strategy is to know how to safely find something that can be eaten from the trash.

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And then Eighner saids “Eating safely form the Dumpsters involves three principles: using the senses and common sense to evaluate the condition of the found materials, knowing the Dumpsters of a given area and checking them regularly, and seeking always to answer the question “ why was this discarded?” ”This sentence responded to dumpster diving. Even though Eighner lived a poor life as being homeless on the streets, he also had a good attitude towards his environment.

As Eighner said, if most people, in this case, they would rather die than trade anything for a comfortable life. His confidence and knowledge show his experience in dumpsters diving, but this phenomenon has been despised by most people. just like Eighner saids “At first the new scavenger is filled with disgust and self-loathing. He is ashamed of being seen and my lurk around trying to duck behind things, or he may try to dive at night. (In fact, this is unnecessary, since most people instinctively look away from scavengers).”(714/9) For his science, Eighner explains when people go scavenging it will be made people feel shameful and upset. But none will care about that, and most people don't pay too much attention to scavengers.

In the previous article by Eighner, his description of dumpsters diving, the competition between hidden wealth and external wealth is obvious. The hidden wealth of freedom and independent satisfaction has been struggling with the external wealth of money that all people desire. Like maybe the other one’s rubbish is likely to be the greatest asset in the eyes of another one. Eighner clearly showed the reader that he is not an external wealth person. In fact, he just only a whole composed of hidden wealth. He is an ethical person. It’s just living in a world where morality is indifferent to life. When he talked to himself, he used scientific methods and technical styles as if he were writing a manual on how to properly conduct junk diving. Eighner was a very smart person.