Thou Shalt Not Steal

Thou shalt not steal.  What is it, about those four simple words, that is so difficult to understand?  Stealing, is immoral, plain and simple, and yet all manner of justifications and obfuscations are daily presented so as to instill in “the people” a confusion in regards to the fact that stealing is immoral, such that the admonition “Thou shalt not steal” is become “Thou shalt not steal, except…”

Wendy McElroy posts an excerpt of a F.A. Harper essay on the subject of stealing, which provides an “intutitive morality” test on stealing.  The post is titled To Steal or Not To Steal.  Can you pass the test?

From Harper’s essay, posted at Wendy’ site.

Herein lies the principal moral and economic danger facing us in these critical times: Many of us, albeit with good intentions but in a hurry to do good because of the urgency of the occasion, have become victims of moral schizophrenia. While we are good and righteous persons in our individual conduct in our home community and in our basic moral code, we have become thieves and coveters in the collective activities of the Welfare State in which we participate and which many of us extol.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/07 at 08:14 AM

  1. Somehow the great majority of people have convinced themselves that when enough people gather together they somehow gain rights that smaller groups and individuals lack. And that when certain members of these larger groups write some nonsense down, and sign it very solemnly, it magically transsubstantiates into a valid moral code.

    It’s a very odd religion.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  07/07  at  09:56 AM

  2. Can you pass the test?
    ++++++++++++++++++++++

    Yes, so far. And I mean that in a way most people cannot seem to understand. Now, I am embarking on the most dangerous thing I have ever tried and it holds unimaginable perils, of which I hope to avoid, but I’m not in total control of all the parameters.

    Each employed person makes a choice upon accepting his employment, and with each paying pay period. You see, the thief lives amongst you in plain site and you even consider him a friend, but he steals you blind and you weakly, submissively, even gratefully, let him do his job. Who is this thief? Why, he’s the person that handles the payroll at your current place of employment. Under threat of law he steals some of the efforts of your toil each pay period and surrenders it to the rulers that hold the noose around your neck. The IRS doesn’t steal your money. Your fellow employee, the payroll master, does.

    You can change this, by several means, if you have the balls to stand up on 2 feet and *act* like a human being, rather than bending over instantly and taking it straight up the ass, like you’ve always been taught to do.

    First, you have to imagine another way of dealing with theft than the unsuccessful way you’ve been doing so all of your life. Yes, it is terrifying, but the reality of the life you now live IS terrifying and pretending it is not so makes it even more terrifying.

    It starts by realizing that the numbers you have contracted with your employer belong to the 2 of you alone and no matter what no one, not even the payroll thief, gets to change that after the fact. YOU deserve what you have contracted for and YOU must live up to that contract. Or not.

    Are you a coward? Or a man?
    The former allows the payroll thief to succeed while you fail. The latter disregards the thief and succeeds in his own right, no matter what. Both positions are terrifying in their own right but the latter causes the individual to stand upright like a full grown human being with all the rights and freedoms inherent in that fact.

    It starts with you.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  07/09  at  05:43 AM

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