Word of the day? "Freegan"

I had no idea about the word "freegan" until I read this piece in the NY Times Magazine:

Freeganism is a bubbling stew of various ideologies, drawing on elements of communism, radical environmentalism, a zealous do-it-yourself work ethic and an old-fashioned frugality of the sock-darning sort. Freegans are not revolutionaries. Rather, they aim to challenge the status quo by their lifestyle choices. Above all, freegans are dedicated to salvaging what others waste and — when possible — living without the use of currency.

Hmmm ....

Eventually, Kit and I arrived at the house that he’d picked out for himself. It was a tall, narrow structure, with boarded-up windows and a front lawn in desperate need of mowing. There was no “for sale” sign, but that hardly mattered, because Kit simply planned to move in. Buffalo is fertile ground for squatting. Kit’s house was one of 10,000 such abandoned structures in the city. As far as Kit was concerned, this rust-belt city, hit hard by foreclosures, was a veritable Eden for freegans.
“People throw away houses,” he told me. “It’s ridiculous.”
As it turns out, a group of Kit’s friends have enjoyed great success as squatters in this same neighborhood. In 2005, they took over a palatial old home, and this was where Kit was temporarily living when we met. The property is a sprawling turn-of-the-century mansion with six fireplaces, a cavernous dining room, a library, several enormous bedrooms, servants’ quarters and an in-ground swimming pool. The place, it must be said, is in serious disrepair.

Wait a sec; using somebody else's property without .... And there is a probation system (what? no tenure system?!!!)

Most visitors are welcome to stay at the mansion for a day or two, but to stay longer, they have to help fix the place up. There is a “probationary period,” one longtime resident explained, in which newcomers must “bottom line” a project — that is, they must see it to completion. During my visit, the veterans were considering the candidacy of a young woman who’d bottom-lined a few projects. Her chances looked good. “She showed me a bunch of tricks on filling and masonry and how to best use Spackle so that you don’t waste it,” one veteran told me.

Like many, this too is a re-telling of history:

Freeganism is often described as a recent phenomenon, but its premises date back at least to Gerrard Winstanley, a 17th-century English cloth seller. In the 1640s, Winstanley’s business failed, and he resettled in the Surrey countryside, where he herded cattle. These were tough times in England, marked by violence, famine and low wages. Winstanley decided that the solution was to form a community without money. The poor would till the soil and fill communal warehouses with their crops, which would be distributed to all. Winstanley, who abhorred waste, eventually took over some uncultivated public lands along with his followers and founded what was known as a Digger colony.

There is always something crazy going on :) ht
BTW, I am reminded of this piece that I wrote sometime ago ...