i had a couple things stolen from my workplace a few weeks ago, and I’m still mad about it! WHY do people DO that?! what makes them think that what’s in front of them is theirs for the taking?
I remember from a loooong time ago, when i was a kid, I stole a pack of gum from the grocery store checkout line. I made it all the way out to the car, where i showed it to one of my sisters and whispered: “look what I got.” My sister tattled on me in a nanosecond, and i got marched back into the store and made to give it back and apologize. the final scene was me sobbing for…what? stealing? getting caught? feeling embarrassed? did the getting caught get stored in my memory as part of the bad feeling of actually stealing?
more recently, i read in a book about the idea of the panopticon–the prison design where the warden can see all the prisoners at any time and take corrective action if they’re misbehaving. Maybe that’s what makes people not steal, not that it’s unfair to the person/store/organization being stolen from. or at least not at first.
so, people behave for the most part because they never know who’s watching, or when, even if they’re sure (but not completely) that no one can see them, there’s always that sensation of being watched. and then, maybe at some point, that feeling gets muddled up with the concept that it’s not a positive quality to have and perhaps, eventually, they realize that it is for the greater good to not steal. but, I don’t think many people get that far in a lifetime.
I know somebody who steals from EVERYBODY. They shoplift, they take from strangers, their friends, AND their family. why? maybe the universe is firmly fixed around what they want that nobody else counts.
i think at one time, i might have understood what it felt like to just want something and take it, no matter who it belonged to. but no longer. how does someone change that way of seeing the world, so that other people begin to populate their mental universe?
any thoughts?
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