re: #36 Dark_Falcon

I’d go with “shithead”, but “punk” also works. So does “poser”, “fraud”, and “wannabe”. Feel free to add your own suggestions.

neo-radical…. is suppose….but that would be calling him what he dreams himself to be.

Sorry for the long comment…but this was one of O’Keefes facebook notes:
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Living on a Sailboat
by James O’Keefe on Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 11:50am
Freedom is, and should be, high on every human being’s list. When living aboard, one usually develops an increasingly greater appreciation of freedom, a desire for more of it, and a certain incredulity at the average person’s ability to give it up for bad reasons. It is easy to understand how mobility and independence from shore side entanglements are benefited by living aboard. However, it is often assumed to be an expensive lifestyle available only to the rich. In fact it offers a higher standard of living on lower incomes than just about any other way of life. Typically one can live a life that is similarly prosperous to that which you lead ashore, on about one-quarter of the income. The implications of that are obvious enough to require no more discussion here, except to point out that on a sailboat, traveling is even less expensive than staying in one place. This is because the traveler is less subject to the temptations and entanglements of the shore.

In fact if there is any one misconception that leads people astray most often, it is the idea that living aboard can be anything other than a minimalist lifestyle, for the most part. The live aboard lives on a frontier of society. Sometimes live aboards are on the frontier of civilization. The natural environment they live in is probably more destructive of structures, systems, and hardware than any other There is often nobody around who is skilled or knowledgeable enough to be of much outside assistance in problem solving. Self-sufficiency is called for to a greater degree than in most contemporary lifestyles, and the usual trappings of middle American life are very difficult to sustain and indeed become a nuisance. Big, complicated boats and plenty of money can obscure this truth, but complexity is fundamentally incompatible with the lifestyle. Even if one can solve any problem with one’s money, the problems still occur. They also still cause anxiety and inconvenience . The more complicated one’s situation and vessel, the more problems and the less fun you have.

The subject of living aboard demands the question, “Why do it?” Often the answer to this question involves adventure, romance, and freedom. These are certainly part of the lifestyle. The “adventure” part eventually turns into a kind of “in” joke. Most experienced cruisers and live aboards would agree that “adventure” is what happens when you make a mistake or are over-taken by events beyond your control. In some ways minimizing adventure is part of the art of living aboard!

Our feeling is that an appreciation of Nature and one’s place in it should be the primary reason to adopt the live aboard lifestyle. Closely allied to this is the live aboard’s primary learned wisdom. This is the art of adapting to Nature, accepting one’s part in it, and to a degree submitting to it. This works. The other way around does not. Certainly the worst way of looking at life aboard would be to consider it conquering Nature or the Sea. No concept could be more dangerous.

All too often recreational activity on the water seems to consist of frantic athletic behavior or high speed transport, combined with a complete disregard for the Natural world. While these types of “water sports” are not all bad, they really offer a shallow and impoverished view of life on the water, and are not in harmony with it. Perhaps it is best to see living aboard as completely unrelated to this type of activity—in many ways it is not “recreation” at all.