I don't just want to talk about theft here, but all of the 'big' crimes - the classics.
Murder, rape, theft, assault. The things in society (or variations of, I'm kinda counting child abuse under rape - all sex without consent) that we traditionally find most abhorrent.
As any who have (and i pity you) read my blog all the way through, although never my only criteria, harming other people is the main one i use to definitively claim something is bad - if not, then it's open for discussion.
So this should be easy. I hope. What i want to discuss is whether any of these crimes can ever be excused in any circumstance.
Let's start with an easy one - and I'm only bringing this up because i included it in my list above. Rape. Or any kind of un-consensual sex. I cannot see any time when there would be the slightest reason to even try and understand (as opposed to absolve) why someone has committed this kind of act. I'm not going to state an opinion on whether these people are mentally ill or just bastards, because I'm not sure you can actually blanket when it happens so much, but independently it has to be a 'bad' act.
The three we are left with i think may offer more complication. Let's take stealing. I think it depends on you political outlook (sadly enough), but as what would probably be described as liberal (with a small l) and definitely a humanitarian, i can foresee instances where people may be stealing simply so survive. Is that a failure of society? In my opinion yes, it certainly can be, and I'm not prepared to write off people for their choices - people can change, and that to me is important. You have to say though, that for the most part, theft is a pretty bad thing, and i think we can all agree (even those who don't believe in private property - that may be goal for some, but until we're there, then that tenner was gonna buy me lunch).
Murder, assault? Well... any kind of rational pre-meditation makes this act 'bad', full stop. But it's that word rational that's important. Absolution is difficult for these kind of offences, but understanding can be there in a minority of cases. Revenge for a family member killed, wading in to protect someone in the street and ending up seriously hurting the attacker - all crime, and maybe bad, but i think each case probably deserves independent analysis, even if we cannot give absolution.
What i hope we can learn from this kind of thought is that we have to continue to analyse our own morality (and this goes for all aspects of 'being bad') so that we never become brittle in our views. It matter less what you think, than how you've got there, because if you've really thought it through, i hope the similarity of opinion with others (who do the same thing) will surprise you, at least on some things. And for those that refuse, those who continue to be narrow minded - well you can feel superior, and that's always nice :)
Here, for any who are interested, is something a touch lighter - unusual laws all 'round the world (don't know how many are actually true).
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