Step 9: Did I Steal that Cart?
Speaking of stealing, young philosophers tend to get excited about the idea that projects built from shopping carts are unethical because they entail stealing. Don't worry. There are lots of ways to get shopping carts without stealing them. The ones you want are discarded by stores. You can ask and they'll gladly give them to you.
But if you'd rather do it the Cheney American way, you can game the Law. Find them as lost, mislaid, or abandoned property. Look that up to see which best applies. Or you can honestly intend to someday return the cart to the store, or you can believe that the store owes you this much value.
Under our laws, theft is only the
1: knowing
2: taking of the property of another
3: with the intent
4: of permanently depriving them of it.
So there you have it, act without those elements and you've got four solid defenses against a charge of theft.
I really wish Dick Cheney and our other Great Men had made a massive hobby out of stealing shopping carts instead of what they actually did.
I'd like the young philosophers to get upset about the "big game" of moral guilt. Our collective participation in state sponsored kidnapping, torture, aggressive war, genocidal land and resource theft, a series of undeclared wars, imperialist trade policy, overthrowing democratic regimes and installing police-state dictatorships, etc. etc.
There are reasons why we 5% of the world's population get to consume 30% of the world's stuff. It's by playing hard and not playing fair for a very long time.
But if you'd rather do it the Cheney American way, you can game the Law. Find them as lost, mislaid, or abandoned property. Look that up to see which best applies. Or you can honestly intend to someday return the cart to the store, or you can believe that the store owes you this much value.
Under our laws, theft is only the
1: knowing
2: taking of the property of another
3: with the intent
4: of permanently depriving them of it.
So there you have it, act without those elements and you've got four solid defenses against a charge of theft.
I really wish Dick Cheney and our other Great Men had made a massive hobby out of stealing shopping carts instead of what they actually did.
I'd like the young philosophers to get upset about the "big game" of moral guilt. Our collective participation in state sponsored kidnapping, torture, aggressive war, genocidal land and resource theft, a series of undeclared wars, imperialist trade policy, overthrowing democratic regimes and installing police-state dictatorships, etc. etc.
There are reasons why we 5% of the world's population get to consume 30% of the world's stuff. It's by playing hard and not playing fair for a very long time.
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You know someone else stole that shopping cart.
2: taking of the property of another
You know that it doesn't belong to you.
3: with the intent of permanently depriving them of it.
You know you're never giving it back, no matter how much you "honestly" intend to.
Let's apply some Kantian principles: if it is ethical for you to do this, then it is
ethical for everyone to do this. Imagine that world. Is that too much philosophy for you?
And your justification that the store "owes" you this shopping cart: do you think that profit is theft?
You are not excused for your petty crime just because Georgey and Dickey
were enormous criminals that happened to lead this country, of for the behavior
of this country via its foreign policy.
The fact that you have made an entirely separate step to defend the theft of a shopping cart indicates that you are in a gray enough area, ethically, that you feel exposed to criticism.
I will grant you that the cart was damaged beyond repair before you took it from a railroad right-of-way, and that no store was going to want it back after that. You could have left it at that, and allowed other people the option of their own ethical choices. I don't know why you went on to condone theft.
You call your detractors "young philosophers". What have you got against young people? Do you think that you are excused for your petty crime just because you are old? What is it?
You could, of course, *test* this theory by taking the cart back to the store whence it came, ask them if they want it back, and if they say "no" it's all yours. You clearly just got permission from its rightful owner to keep it.
But you don't seem overly concerned with that.
You do seem concerned that the rightful owner isn't interested in rewarding your honest behaviour. Which is strange, because if you think about it, would *you* reward people for bringing things back, when you have no idea who stole it in the first place, and it happens on a weekly basis? You may as well pay people to steal things from you.
An audio recording of a bar review course is where I learned it.
This particular cart belongs to me under "abandoned property" law. Which I learned about the same way. The store does not want it back.
Re: foreign policy, theft of Indian land, and the kitchen sink, we live in a moral environment full of hypocrisy (doing one thing and saying another) so huge we can barely see it. But little stuff like a shopping cart seems to jump right out at people.
Thanks for caring! and I really mean that. There are a lot of sleepwalkers among us.
Your philosophy on playing fair is plainly evident, and I find it offensive that some of these guys attempt to slam you without admitting that you very plainly told the reader not to steal a cart, but to ask for a damaged one from a place of business.
And I couldn't agree with you more on the disgusting behavior of the government during the disastrous (in EVERY way possible) tenure of the Bush/Cheney administration. Thank God for our children's sake and the future of the planet that they are gone.
And thank God you're still here as a testament to real American ingenuity. A long life and much happiness to you.