Hello IJesusChrist, and all!
“The reason I can casually say I steal things is somewhat hard to relate to...”
Yes, I am having considerable difficulty understanding the concept.
“When I had a car I did not lock my doors, and had my entire $500 sound system stolen. When I found out, I laughed. I put up a note on my window from there on out "Doors unlocked".
Understood, and that is probably the healthiest response to such an event, as opposed to getting all worked up over, what to you, is an irritating but insignificant offence. If that mind set works for you, wonderful! However, it does not seem logical or realistic to me that you would attempt to project, or impose, that line of reasoning onto those around you who may not feel the same way, generally, and use it as a means to justify the repeated commission of inherently malicious acts. I am curious though, how you would have reacted if you had arrived on the scene while the theft was in progress? Would you, recognizing someone of like mind, a “kindred spirit” so to speak, have just laughed and told them to hurry up because you have somewhere to go? Maybe get their number so you can get together later and blow the froth off a cold one? If that is the case, your screen name is indeed apt, but I do not think that is really a plausible scenario. I think, rather, that person would have woken up later in the hospital, wondering what happened and recovering from serious injuries!
“If I buy 500$ worth of stuff from the internet that I didn't make and I didn't design, the only thing they stole was my ability to connect the wires in my car - I DID kind of get mad at that. But 500$? heh.”
Again, if that line of reasoning works for you, wonderful! There are some things, invisible things, that you are not taking into consideration, though, which bear mentioning. When you steal something, you are not only stealing the visible object itself, you are stealing all the time and energy it took for that person (or the person who made a gift of it to them) to save the money to buy it, you are stealing their trust and intentionally causing them discomfort to one degree or another, and you are stealing a dream that someone may have had of using that object (like a car stereo) to brighten what may be an otherwise dreary and depressing life. You are also entering, and deliberately remaining in (what I consider to be), an unhealthy, aggressive and diseased state of mind which, if you persist, some say can even result in a physical disease, or other chronic malady manifesting itself, not to mention the risk of incarceration, and being branded with the modern equivalent of the scarlet letter, "felon".
“I went an entire year without locking up my bike and it was never stolen, but if it were - I would just take the bus. I lock it up now, but I second guess it. When someone is willing to steal something from me, I assume they are worse off than me, with the occasional cleptomaniac that may not be.”
An irrelevant assumption, even if true, and of questionable value (in my opinion, no offence intended) with regard to the topic, but I am very happy that no one stole your bike!
“I had stolen a bottle of alcohol earlier this year after I had entered a party and said "Who do you know?" I said the name of a person who lived in the house, and he immediately directed me to the door. I was offended. The person I knew quickly came down stairs and said he knew me and my group. The guy began to argue, but then let go and walked away. I attempted to talk to him later that night to encounter a high amount of hostility and anger, which I had no logic conclusion as to why - except, that he may be wanting to get rid of males at the party for a better chance of himself getting with a female. I decided at that point he had reached a level of his own karma, and I took a bottle of his alcohol.”
I would be fascinated to read your take on karma and the mechanism of its operation.
“This may seem childish, ignorant, and foolish - and perhaps it is even hypocritical, but it is how I deal with things.”
You, then, are in for a rough ride!
“I do not run by ownership, and I do not like the idea of it. The only thing you can "own" is your creativity and your passion - aka, you can only own what you create, inspire, or design. As far as I'm concerned, you are renting everything you buy until you die -unless you made it yourself, and put more of your own time than those absent laborers with whom you will never meet that made your products.”
That is just fine, I agree with you (to a point) in not liking the idea of ownership, as it almost invariably leads to the unequal distribution of wealth, over consumption and destruction of the environment. But when it comes to possessions, whether people think they own it, or are renting it, or are just using it, they more than likely need the things they have, and anyway, that is a subjective evaluation that every individual must conduct on their own behalf. It is not up to you or I to decide how other people see any aspect of life, even if you think it is the essence of evil, and any attempted “enforcement”, or projection, of your values or ideology onto another person against there will, or without their knowledge, is nothing more than a brutish form of spiritual assault (in my opinion).
“I have stolen solar panels from the rail ways and city construction zones because I blatantly disagree with how they operate.”
I asked in an earlier post if you were a gambler, and, clearly you are! Do you know what system was affected by your intentional disabling of that solar array? I hope it was not the emergency collision alert system, because you could end up being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, while at the same time making yourself a target of our dreaded Department of Homeland Security. Even if it was only for lighting, you have made an unsafe area (presumably the reason it was installed) less safe, and are increasing the already high misery index of the taxpayer by having to fork over more money to repair it!
“I can never steal anything with the thought of selling, profiting, or directly hurting (revenge) on an individual. In many cases I am wrong, but in some I have more ground than who I have stolen from. Its a touchy subject.”
The only problem with all of that is....
Not selling something you have stolen in no way diminishes, or mitigates, the harm you have done to another person.
You are profiting, at least indirectly, by the use and enjoyment of that which you have stolen.
You are hurting someone, and just because it is not motivated by revenge, it is no less reprehensible in its effect.
In closing, I, again, am not saying that you are a bad person, and your opinions are actually very close, almost identical, to those of my youngest son, an extreme minimalist since the age of sixteen, but the difference is that he has found other ways to express his discontent with the current state of affairs, ways that have a positive, rather than negative, impact on the community. Just remember.... we are all in this together.
Wishing you well! Guenn
- you see. If I buy 500$ worth of stuff from the internet that I didn't make and I didn't design, the only thing they stole was my ability to connect the wires in my car - I DID kind of get mad at that. But 500$? heh.
