On Shoplifting as Radical Praxis
by request from many readers
For about a week, readers have emailed to ask for my take on the recent endorsement of shoplifting as an act of radical anti-capitalism from Hasan Piker and Jia Tolentino. They ask, what do I think about it?
When I read about those statements in that interview, I immediately thought of Gandhi’s famous advice: “Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest person that you have ever seen, and ask yourself if the next step you contemplate will be of any use to them.”
WE ARE LIVING IN A TIME OF ABUNDANCE.
I find it really weird how much I need to stress this but we are not living in a time where Jean Valjean must steal a loaf of bread to feed his family. I am a public schoolteacher in Maryland and I live better than any King 200 years ago. I have a home, I have anti-biotics when my children get infections, I can take a big trip or two every year to a foreign land, I can eat exotic foods from around the world every day at low cost. I have infinite entertainment, summonable with the push of a button.
Now I am not arguing that we are *spiritually* better off than in any time in human history because I think a lot of people are lonely, have mental health issues, etc. That's not my point. My point is that I am in a profession that is famously underpaid and yet I live a life which would be unimaginable to the majority of human history. And yet we need to, uh, I dunno, take down the capitalist pigs or something? Have some perspective, people.
Exactly as long as it needs to be.