When one thinks of a troll they either think of a large mythical beast or a teenage boy with no moral compass, what is seldom thought of is the Ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes.
Diogenes was a Cynic, which doesn't mean he dyed his hair green and threw a bike at a police horse like we may think of now, it meant he just wanted to live a simple life.
To kick things off in his home town of Sinope he started defacing the currency there. This wasn't because he was overly greedy, it was because Sinope was having serious discussions about whether they were Greek or Eastern, and Diogenes clearly wished to send a political message that he was a Greek.
After being exiled from Sinope Diogenes travelled to Delphi to consult the oracle of Apollo, who told him to continue defacing the coinage of life. To most of the population this cryptic image means absolutely nothing but Diogenes took this message as him being commanded to live simply and show the luxurious the error in their ways.
Diogenes started his crusade in Athens. First things first, Diogenes started renting a nice house with a view of the Acropolis; only joking he lived in a large barrel by the side of the road, making him homeless and at the mercy of the elements. At this point his slave, Manes, escaped, and Diogenes said "If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes.", and this is a very good representation of his entire philosophy.
Diogenes approached Antisthenes, another philosopher, and requested to be tutored by him. Antisthenes did what any self respecting intellectual would do, and started beating Diogenes with his cane. After enduring a severe beating Diogenes was accepted and eventually surpassed his mentor in knowledge, branching off on his own to develop Cynicism.
It was around this time Diogenes started to act like a regular member of society, oh wait no he didn't, he began masturbating and eating in the public forum (unsurprisingly both social faux pas). His reasoning for doing this was that he A) felt like doing it and just happened to be in the forum, and B) whilst Diogenes did what he wished to do in public, everyone else did it in private and scoffed at him, which he saw as glorified lying.
At the time in Athens, the big philosophical question was how to define man, and since nobody knew about kangaroos, Plato decided upon "featherless biped", which means something with no feathers and walking upon two legs. Diogenes exploited this and walked straight into Plato's lecture, and dropped a plucked chicken at his feet; as technically a plucked chicken is a featherless biped, but by no means a human. Plato probably was beside himself with rage but we don't know, what we do know is that Plato changed his description.
Upon meeting one's monarch, it likely is not smart to simply insult them, but Diogenes chose to do so. When Alexander the Great approached Diogenes and asked if he may pay him a favour, Diogenes replied, "Yes. Move out of my sunlight.". When Alexander told his retinue "If I was not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes." Diogenes said "If I was not Diogenes, I would also wish to be Diogenes.". This demonstrates another key pillar of Cynicism, that social class is a convention made to elevate certain people above others when in reality we all have the same basic needs.
On another instance, a group of noblemen called Diogenes a dog, to which the logical response was to defecate all over them.
Diogenes was taken slave by pirates on a journey to visit friends. He refused his friends requests to send the ransom, and accepted his new fate. At his auction, he chastised his new master and said that he would in fact be the master in the new relationship, if not the legal master, then the intellectual master.
Diogenes died, either of a dog bite, or of eating raw octopus, either way his death was as strange as his life.
What is key to remember is that whilst Diogenes may have been a homeless man, his brain was more than a match for Plato, and the simplicity of his life rivals men we now consider to be peerless, like Gandhi.
If you have any questions do leave a comment. Although quite what you may have to question here is beyond me.
Best post on the website, hands down.