Clown Artist Philosopher

Shoplifting

I was a struggling student in Melbourne in 1996. I was having a great time and growing as a person; but I was having my first experience of poverty. Up until now I had enjoyed the decedent life of a wage earner. I was trying to make my welfare money last, like you do when you earn a wage. I was living on $5 a day after I paid rent for the spot in a six bed dorm in a backpacker hostel in St Kilda. It was pointed out to me I didn’t have to pay for food from the supermarket. Walk in, pick up food and eat it, grab some small item and pay for it on the way out; there is nothing they can do to stop you. As hungry as I was, and I was hungry, I’ve got the photos to prove it, I was malnourished, I could not bring my self to steel from the supermarket.
This was the start of a life of poverty and I have often been made aware of the fact you don’t have to pay for the stuff from the shops, you can just walk out with it. I hadn’t done it my self – but I have enjoyed the booty of other peoples efforts. The only thing they can do about it is ban you from coming back to the shop. Which is a big deal if it is the shop you count on for food down the road. But if you are in a strange suburb just passing through, so what if they ban you? I couldn’t do this in Darwin, too small a town; I would be banned from everywhere that serves food before too long. But out here in the suburbs of Brisbane where no one knows me, I have nothing to loose really.
But then there is the issue of having taken something from some one. But who looses anything because of what I took. Who comes out out of pocket, no one gets their pay docked for this and everyone is getting a wage. The theft is paid for, every time you buy some thing a certain amount of the price is the cost is to cover stuff stolen, it’s all accounted for, no-one is to of pocket.
You can’t say this for the little family owned shops like you get out in the country. When you steel from them you are taking out of the bottom line of hard working people who don’t have such a lot.
But hay – don’t you love the corporate system, the things they can provide us with. A supply of basic food needs that allows for the fact that some people cant afford to pay for the food and have to walk out with out paying.
They don’t want this getting out of control. Out among the Aboriginal communities the food providers really struggle. The Aborigines steal a lot of food, the shops have to put the pice up to compensate for this, so customers have to steal and there a lots of hungry Aborigines, because it is such a challenging environment to run a shop. I am really glad I live in a place where this isn’t a problem, the vast majority of the population just pay – just like I always have done in the past.
I have just dealt with the reality of having to sleep in parks, now I am dealing with the reality of shoplifting. Crazy guy, his parents die, he end up a homeless bum, yes that happens – what am I becoming? It is better to give than receive. Steeling in not good for the ego, but on the other hand it’s got a kick like a drug! I listen the Been Caught Steeling by Janes Addiction on my headphones while I do it and my heart rushes as I flee the scene of the crime. And the things that suddenly “affordable” like that expensive coffee and celery. I have eaten and I have eaten well and I tell you the cupboards were bare, I would have gone hungry if I didn’t do this. But what is this this new sin, this sin I have done such a good job of avoiding up until now? What challenges is this sin going to send my way. I don’t want this sin getting out of control, but shoplifting is in my survival kit now, I can’t make the reality of that go away with an ancient commandment written in stone thousands of years ago.
I contact my Christian mentors. I have a long talk with my Uncle who maintains it is stealing, it comes out of the mouths of hungry families and I will get me in legal trouble if I do it. Another friend simply replies there is no question, it is a sin, don’t do it.
But I’ve taken ethics a long way and I say it isn’t as simple as that. The Trolly Problem: There is a trolly (a tram) running along it’s tracks and it is going to kill three people on the track. You can pull a leaver and divert the trolly to another track where it will only kill one person. If you pull the lever; you will kill that person who otherwise wouldn’t have died. If you fail to pull the lever; your lack of action will kill three people. In the sin of me stealing from the shops there are two evils: I have stolen something from the shop on the other hand I am so desperate for food I need to steel or go hungry. Which is the greater evil: the supermarket account for my theft in a massive corporate system that will register it as a prop in the ocean. Or I, still a person of great potential, a lot to offer the wolrd, go without food? Is it a greater sin to steal or is it a greater sin not to make use of the opportunity The Holy Spirit has given me?
I don’t find it hard to justify myself at this point. It is a matter of opinion, maybe you maintain there is an objective good and stealing is wrong, regardless of the consequences? Plato maintained there was a Good like this. But no one has managed to find it so far and those that have claimed to have made a complete mess of things. I maintain as a Christian there is an objective Good and that Good came to Earth in the form of a man – ect. What do you think Jesus would have to say to someone caught shoplifting today? In his time it would have been a big deal, they weren’t nearly so wealthy as we are now – shopkeepers couldn’t afford to be stolen from.
I maintain there is an objective eternal Good, however we don’t have direct access to it most of the time. We rely on laws inspired by this eternal Good. But these laws are not the eternal Good and are open to corruption. While the Good is eternal and unchanging, our circumstances here on Earth are constantly changing and laws that worked well a long time ago, don’t work so well now. The laws need to be constantly checked and updated. To do this we ask; is this law having a good outcome – are we getting good results from this law? What dose the law have to say about shoplifting today – it is a nuisance that is not to be taken seriously as a crime.
So I have been presented with a new sin, a sin that has been available to me for a long time, a sin I have avoided until now. But now I have tasted that sin, I know the taste of that sin and I can’t unknow that taste. It is a very rewarding sin, with a kick like a drug and the promise of the most outrageous freedom. It is a sin that could easily get to of control: I could get banned from my food sources, I could get into fights, if I push it too far I could get in legal trouble and there is the ethics of it, what kind of person steals, it is better to give than receive. I have given, I have received, and I know giving feels better.
But I was put on the pension at age 32, I don’t have the luxury of being able to claim I paid my way. To add two this a lot of people say how I pay my way doesn’t count – no – what you do is for free, what you do you do after you have earned your way.
I have found a right and that right comes with responsibility. If I abuse this right it could go very badly with me in all sorts of ways. But if I use this right wisely it helps me do what I have to do within God’s Kingdom. I have a job to do in the big scheme of things that makes a bag of groceries or a bottle of beer look like a small, necessary indulgence, nothing. I am living by the Grace of The Holy Spirit and it’s a kick! I will do what I think I need to do to make the things happen that need to happen.

I am a little frightened. This is a new sin that hasn’t been a problem for me before. It is very rewarding and has a kick like a drug. At the moment I don’t think it is going to become a big problem for me. I’ve put so many rules on it to make it safe and justifiable; that it will rarely be much of a temptation. I am praying about this and seeking other Christian support. But that law written in stone so long ago doesn’t make my knowledge of this sin go away.