Submitted:
Sunday 1 February, 2009.
More thoughts on shoplifting...
I was recently encouraged to read an article on the subject of shoplifting in the hope that I would see things differently. This article is: http://crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/shoplifting.php
However, after reading this article I feel even more committed to an anti-shoplifting position. The bottom line of the above article is that it encourages people to feel good by taking what you want just because you can, regardless of whether you should.
I understand how it feels to be enslaved in a life we do not feel fully in control of. However, the question is whether true freedom can ever be obtained by taking something we want from someone else rather than through a radical commitment to giving.
In the crimethinc article several arguments are used to justify shoplifting. It would be good to look at a few of these in more detail.
The article says:
“Nothing compares to the feeling of elation, of burdens being lifted and constraints escaped, that I feel when I walk out of a store with their products in my pockets.”
It may be true that we experience an emotional rush whenever we get away with something risky or dangerous. However, the knowledge that we may get caught, of needing to justify why we have stolen, or of living day-by-day not knowing whether we could survive without needing to steal, does not sound like real freedom to me.
One justification that has been given for why people shoplift is to 'hurt' the corporations. However, these same people argue that the corporations apparently factor into their budgets the expected losses of people shoplifting. There is a circular reasoning here. The corporations only started budgeting for expected losses because people started shoplifting. Now the shoplifters are arguing that it is not so bad to shoplift because the corporations have planned for it anyway. How convenient. It is like saying that just because a car is insured it becomes perfectly fine to steal it!
Despite the supposed good intentions used to promote shoplifting, the corporations still win if we cannot let go of our attachment to the things they are selling... even if we are at first glance getting them for 'free'. Shoplifting still does not deal with the exploitation of people and of resources. At the same time shoplifters like to give this reason for wanting to hurt the corporations while usually ending up in some way promoting the brand of the items they take.
In the pro shoplifting article the author lists several very important issues about exploitation of people, animals and the environment. One is led to believe that the author is about to make a case for boycotting the corporations because of these injustices, but that is not the case. Here is the bottom line from the article itself, just after an explanation about these injustices...
"If we are not able to find or afford any products other than these, that were made a thousand miles from us and about which we can know nothing," it asserts, "then we refuse to pay for these."
The author is not saying that we should boycott products, but that we should just steal what we want. The issue of exploitation is being used as a smokescreen to justify theft.
A recent argument for why someone shoplifted was that they lived in a city that did not have as much urban foraging potential as somewhere like London. This person questioned 'how can I survive if I do not shoplift?' Reasoning that we need to shoplift from corporations in order to survive is the same as saying that we need corporations in order to live. I know many people who have had no visible means of income for years and who have not stolen during that time in order to maintain their 'freedom'. I am one such person.
I am open to the fact that there may be exceptions where shoplifting is justifiable – perhaps in a life and death scenario involving an urgent need for medicine or food. Shoplifting should only ever be a last resort. The problem comes when people try to make the exception the rule. What is currently used as a justification for survival may really only be a mask for our addiction to wanting certain things.
Needs vs Wants
A lot of confusion exists over this issue. Just because we want something we feel the corporations are over-charging the consumer for does not justify us stealing it from them. This reasoning for shoplifting from corporations can just as easily be used by the corporations for the way they act (land grabbing, exploitation etc.). This reasoning is, ultimately, 'I don't like your price so I'm just going to take it from you'.
For example, from the pro shoplifting article...
''Supermarkets know they can charge me a dollar for bread because I will starve if I do not buy it from them; they know they can't charge me four dollars, because I will go somewhere else. So our interaction revolves around unspoken threats, rather than love, and I am forced to give up something of my own to get anything from them.''
I would encourage people who use this kind of reasoning to really question whether they have exhausted every possibility/alternative to shoplifting before they start restricting their life by saying that they cannot live without it. Are there more positive, ethical means for supplementing our lifestyle than through shoplifting? What are we trying to 'supplement' anyway? Do we really need the items we steal?
Many shoplifters justify their theft by saying 'I'm doing an honorable thing by hurting the corporations'. A much stronger argument for shoplifting would be the 'Robin Hood' idea, where people steal from the rich (corporations) in order to donate what they steal to those who really need it – people poorer than themselves. However, I hardly ever hear this argument used by the shoplifters. And, the question is, for those who do cite this reason to justify shoplifting, how much giving to the real poor (people living in developing countries) from what is stolen is being done?
There are many problems in the current system. However, if we justify playing by the same rules of the system we hope to see destroyed, then we are just creating our own mini-version of the same system. It may be different on the surface but the same spirit is still running through it.
Where is it all leading to?
To me the essence of freeganism is not about endless fighting with corporations. Rather, it is about educating people about a better way than what the corporations currently offer, which, over time, will naturally lead to the downfall of corporations. If we do not get our priorities straight, and if shoplifting is accepted as normal freegan practice, it is likely that freegans will increasingly be labeled as 'freeloaders', 'parasites', 'trouble-makers' etc. Is this really what we want?
I also think some people may be tempted to justify doing worse and worse things and feeling less and less bad about it. The more we demonise the corporations, the greater justification for using whatever means necessary to bring these down, even if it ends in violence etc. Corporations can simply become the boogie men to justify our own selfish and immoral actions 'in the name of emancipation'. The corporations get their immense wealth by throwing out their ethics which leads to exploitation of people and resources. However, we cannot afford to throw out our own ethics just because the corporations have, and yet that is one such argument being put forward by the pro shoplifters.
From the pro shoplifting article...
''To shoplift is to affirm immediate, bodily desires (such as hunger) over abstract "ethics" and other such ethereal constructs, most of which are left over from a deceased Christianity anyway.''
Shoplifting is a slippery slope because, from what I have seen, while pro shoplifters like to justify it on the basis of survival ultimately it is based more on greed. It is not too hard to imagine that justifications for shoplifting from the corporations would soon be replaced with justifications for stealing from anyone who has more than us. What criteria should we use to determine who it is justifiable to steal from anyway? How rich or 'evil' do they need to be in order to qualify?
The solution
Corporations may be faceless institutions, but their existence is dependent on the consumers who buy their products and on the workers who keep the cogs turning. The way to make a long-lasting change is to 'steal' the workers by inspiring them with a real alternative. The way to hurt the corporations is not to steal their products: as other shoplifters have already mentioned, they have factored in those losses already. The way to hurt the corporations is to steal the people who, in some way, prop them up. We do not do this by acting in a similar way to the corporations we are trying to inspire people to leave. We do this by helping to change people's motivation by demonstrating a better, more ethical way.
So many movements end up failing because they say things like, 'It's okay to use unethical means in order to justify the end - to bring down an unethical system/organisation... and once this has been done, then we'll no longer need to use unethical means.' However, by then its usually too late and we have taken on the spirit of the very thing we hate. History has always shown that ousting predecessors through violence, force, theft, etc. will usually lead to the people doing the ousting becoming worse than those they overthrew.
Most people argue that the real solution is too difficult. The fact is, what is truly revolutionary requires personal integrity and sacrifice. If the greed of the corporations really is our concern, then rather than fighting greed with more greed, we should look for ways to combat our own greed.
What are some ethically freegan ways in which we can do this?
(1)Live off the land and partake in rural/urban foraging wherever possible. Look for self-sustainable communities near to where we live.
(2)Downsize: consider joining a community with no private ownership – where sharing of possessions is actively practiced as an alternative to working for money or shoplifting.
(3)Do free work for people and/or volunteer in a developing country. Our basic needs, like food and clothing, will always be met if our motivation is to sincerely help out.
(4)Face our fear of poverty at its worst (homelessness, joblessness, death etc.). Start doing as many good things as we can.... it is likely we will be surprised at how long it takes to starve and how much good we are able to do before doing so!
I strongly believe the more sincere we are in living out these solutions, the more people will see that an alternative really is possible. A migration from corporations and the ideals of capitalism will naturally occur, freeing up more people in terms of time/possessions to be shared with the wider community. We may need to start small but if we remain united and uncompromising in our efforts to help others we cannot fail.