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In praise of shoplifting

nickleberry | 01.12.2006 22:33 | Analysis | Culture | Cambridge

I recently came across the following piece and liked it. It makes use of ideas from "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" which is never a bad thing. See what you think...

The first object I ever stole from a Tesco’s supermarket was a head of garlic. That garlic gave me more of a thrill than any vegetable I’ve enjoyed, in any way, before or since. Stealing it was a largely spontaneous act initiated, unsurprisingly, in the veg section. Before I’d even fully realised what I’d done I’d picked that garlic up and put it in my pocket. I then, somehow, held my nerve to finish my shopping, get to the check-out, smile at the nice lady and walk out the door. Tesco’s still made a profit on me that day but not quite as much as usual.

In the aftermath of this momentous event my first question was…. Why so momentous? How was it that this simple act had caused me so much nervousness in the execution and such a thrill in the accomplishment...?

My thoughts turned to that marvellous book of Paulo Freire, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. Freire’s preoccupation is “humanization”. His concern is to enable humanity to fulfil its vocation of humanization in the face of a social system which is firmly predicated on mass dehumanization. In the book he analyses the (dehumanizing) system as it stands while propounding theories of how we can undermine this system through a critical pedagogy; that is through a “teaching approach which attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate” (Wikipedia entry on “critical pedagogy”).

One of the key concepts of Freire’s analysis of the current system is the idea that the oppressed internalize the oppressor. Living in a system which continually oppresses and dehumanizes her, a woman will idealize her oppressors. For her, to be fully human is to oppress and to this she aspires. This phenomenon plays itself out in many different ways: In a South American village a man is picked out by the landowner to be his representative and enforce his demands; rather than resisting, the man carries out his orders with relish, zealous in his attempts to crush opposition to his master’s will. Or, again, a woman of the ‘50s complains bitterly that the new feminism is denying a woman her femininity – forcing her out of the home and into the work place.*

At the heart of this internalizing of the oppressor is a distrust of freedom. Freire explains it this way:

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion. (p. 23, 24)

I am reminded of the words of another great chronicler of oppression, James Baldwin. In his book “The Fire Next Time”, an account of Baldwin’s experience of racism as a black man in America, he writes:

Furthermore, I have met only a very few people… who had any real desire to be free. Freedom is hard to bear… We are controlled here by our confusion, far more than we know,… Privately, we cannot stand our lives and dare not examine them… (p. 77)

It seems somewhat disrespectful at this point to return to that head of garlic – Baldwin and Freire were concerned with oppression far worse than anything I have ever experienced – however my contention is that the nerves I felt as I approached that checkout were the result of the violent resistance of my internalized oppressor. Despite my self-conception as a person of liberated thinking and non-conformist ideas I realised after that day that I have a very real monkey on my back – a veritable King Kong.

The thesis runs like this: I have lived for twenty-nine years in a social system for which the concept of private property is sacred above all else. If someone is said to “own” something, in the legal-economic sense that our social system recognizes, then their rights over that thing are inalienable and incontrovertible. The concept of ownership trumps all other considerations, bar none.

Hence we live in an ever-warmer world in which the rights of the SUV-owner prevent any infringement on the structural integrity of their vehicle (i.e. we’re not supposed to slash their tyres). We live in a world where a mining company’s legal ownership of a mineral lode in Northern Australia allows them to lay waste land which may have traditional owners but which legally belongs to a very compliant state. We live in a world where a vast portion of the land in Africa is devoted to cash crops despite the fact that the locals are starving; this because the country is in debt and, effectively, the banks own the land. This is the system that I have internalized; above all other things the oppressor inside me wants me to honour and validate the concept of ownership.

And that explains my slightly unhinged response to the nabbing of a head of garlic. I was striking at the heart of a system on which my world is based. Who’d have thunk it?! But before I get too carried away – I am not suggesting for a moment that we can shoplift our way to a better world – let me clarify. It is important to understand that the momentousness of this event is entirely internal, entirely within me. Tesco’s don’t give a monkey’s about missing garlics and they never will. This is not about bringing down corporate behemoths.

However it is something that is worth pursuing. I learned a great deal about myself, and the system in which I live, that day and in the subsequent days when I have gone so far as the occasional gourmet packet of nuts. The liberation of one’s soul from the gorilla embrace of a dehumanizing social system is perhaps any person’s first vocation. I need to understand the extent to which I am affected and controlled by the system in which I have been raised, before I can set out about bringing down that system.

According to Freire, this system operates through a ‘banking’ model of indoctrination in which “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing” (p. 46). Thus I have been all my life a passive recipient of the notion of ownership; I have understood ownership to be the first and greatest principle of human organization. I did not arrive at this understanding through my own activity (as a subject) but I was told what to think (as an object).

On the other hand this process of “understanding through shoplifting” is an example of the liberating pedagogy of which Freire writes:

Authentic liberation – the process of humanization – is not another ‘deposit’ to be made in [wo]men. Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of [wo]men upon their world in order to transform it. (p.52)

In this process I am a subject. I have played an active part in understanding the world around me and, in the company of my fellows, I have reflected on the implications of that action. I now understand for myself that this system of ownership is not necessarily an inviolable tenet of any human society. Rather it is insidious and, at times, clearly oppressive and so I can choose not to participate in it.

Of course this is not the end of the story. As I said before we can’t shoplift our way to a just world. However in understanding a little better how our system operates I can hopefully take more decisive and consequential action in the name of liberation. And it is this possibility which is the truly momentous one; and the one of which the oppressor is truly afraid. Tesco’s doesn’t give a monkey’s about missing garlic but it does care a lot that it be allowed to continue to profit under the full protection of the law and with the compliance of society. Freire again:

In their unrestrained eagerness to possess, the oppressors develop the conviction that it is possible for them to transform everything into objects of their purchasing power; thence their strictly materialistic concept of existence. Money is the measure of all things, and profit the primary goal. For the opporessors, what is worthwhile is to have more – always more – even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them, to be is to have and to be of the ‘having’ class. (pp. 34, 35)

Shoplifting has become a discipline for me now. I have a friend who used to live in the Australian desert and who, in his various starlit travels, would encounter the odd highly venomous snake. As a young man he would happily grab them by the tail and watch their serpentine writhing before removing the offending reptile far from his evening campfire. But as time went by, he said, he lost his nerve. He could no longer quite bring himself to get that close to a curious snake and so he would have to move his camp or drive it away with fire rather than pick it up as he used to.

And that’s a little how it is with me. If I allow myself I can feel overwhelmed by the little trauma of defying the system in which we live. Even though I am quite aware of the system’s hideous consequences, aware of the logical extremes which ownership reaches in the weeping of a starving child, I find myself inevitably being sucked back into compliance with the system. The internal oppressor is so strong!

But, in defiance, just as I try and meditate regularly and free myself to be, I also try and shoplift regularly so that I can land an occasional blow to that fearsome internal oppressor. So that I can be free to think for myself and with my fellows, and pursue a vocation that humanizes.

nickleberry
- Homepage: http://nickleberry-huxtable.blogspot.com/

Comments

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better buzz

01.12.2006 23:16

try bank robbery

blagger


Moral complexities of shoplifting in an oppressive plutocracy

02.12.2006 02:12

Hey, the trouble, as i see it, with shoplifting is that it involves an act of deception which is equally likely to create mistrustfulness in others as it is to free you of the inner oppression.

I did it for years - sometimes a friend and I would nick 50 quids worth of stuff a day each, pretty much at random, then sit on the sofa at home and play with our new sports equipment, whilst eating mussels marinaded in white wine sauce. Eventually I got caught with some ready meals down my trousers, and pinching a glass of beer through the mesh of cafe uno at gatwick, which is a good way to spend time there if you are ever stuck for the night.

Errr, no, back on message. When you nick from tescos it isn't only them that get screwed over. The farmers who they exploit end up footing the social cost, and because the big supermarkets are in too much of a position of power to go bust until the revolution, bringing down their profits can only hurt their producers and the people who work for them.

I know that isn't the reason you're doing it, to confront tescos, but the impact on the producers and the people working in the supermarket (who i know can be susceptible to managements gibberings about the bastard evil shoplifters, not to mention that it compels the management to be mistrustful themselves) is genuine. When I worked at tescos if there were any particularly prolific shoplifters it got around and caused a lot of girsly condemnation, which i'm sure entrenched the values of the property system.

You can be much more actively free refraining from shoplifting and fostering humanity by buying organic food at farmers markets, or at least thats what i convince myself. it doesn't feel as much Fun, but i think i was in hock to my own childhood fantasies of transgression before, and maybe i can have more fun at farmers markets if i just get a little more liberated.

also, nicking stuff plants seeds of deception in your own mind - you might very well find yourself lying about something to someone you care about sooner than you think.

Oli
mail e-mail: oppenheim_cb@hushmail.com


GB Shaw

02.12.2006 16:07

Oli, yours was the most interesting rebuttal of shoplifting I've yet seen but your arguments aren't strong enough for you to discourage it. Saying that shoplifting hurts anyone but the store is obviously nonsense though - the supermarkets would be screwing the farmers regardless of shoplifting, it is their corporate duty to do so. The interesting and novel part of your argument seems to be that by commiting one underhand act you will be compromising your own sense of your own morality, and I don't believe that should or need be true. Apart from 'politically-aware' shoplifters, you are also condemning those who shoplift from necessity, there are higher morals. I would condemn any person who refused on moral grounds to steal to feed themselves or their own family and I hope you would too. I'd encourage everyone who can afford to feed themselves to still help those of us who can't, by acting as suspiciously as possible in stores and thereby drawing the increasing surveillance away from the needy. If you don't want to shoplift yourself at least pick things up and put them down elsewhere, but draw the surveillance away from the genuinely desperate and refuse to participate in or condone their arrests.

William


“nabbing” of a head of garlic…

02.12.2006 22:13


Q: How was it that this simple act had caused me so much nervousness in the execution and such a thrill in the accomplishment...?

A: Because you're an immature middle-class twat!


When we cross our individual moral line we create a conflict within ourselves which in turn requires us to employ psychological defense mechanisms to deal with the anxiety created by the conflict. In short we temporarily delude ourselves. However, the fact that we use these defense mechanisms eventually requires us to use more and more - ultimately to our detriment.

Clearly, it is much easier to choose to live within our individual moral line than it is to be forced to live beyond it – as so many are.

Also, for some, the adrenalin created can become addictive, requiring a bigger buzz as we become more tolerant to the effect.

More importantly, life beyond that individual moral line can sometimes seem very different with all sorts of new temptations. After all, you may as well hang for stealing a sheep as hang for stealing a lamb.

Without doubt, the label we give ourselves is just as important in making us who we are as the labels other may give us.

Hence, “nabbing” or the “liberation of one’s soul” as you prefer to think of it, is in fact a deluded denial of the ID, or the “internal oppressor” common to us all, and thus who we really are.

Consequently, I think your article is a load of bollocks. Besides, if it was about undermining the profits of businesses you could have just quietly damage the goods and walk away scott free. But that cunning plan would not allow you to consume things free of charge, or indeed acquire for resale, would it?

Son of a working-class manageress beaten up by working-class shoplifters


Shoplifters crucified my granny

03.12.2006 10:40

Since you are obviously the same person posting under a different name, and since you never mentioned your mothers trauma to begin with, you are just embellishing your poor argument with lurid and false details. Here is a clue, shoplifting is non-violent.

Back to your +basic+ argument though, that shoplifting damages us morally. It simply does not, many of us obviously take great pride in it and don't suffer any sleepless nights from it. Good on you Nickleberry.

William


Some news for William et al

03.12.2006 16:24


A: I am definitely not the same person posting under a different name.

B: I am unsure why you think it’s obvious that I am.

C: If you really believe shoplifting is non-violent ask a magistrate.

D: You are morally damaged, but too deluded to realise!


See:

“As the number of shoplifting incidents increases so too does the threat of violence against staff. Sixty per cent of violent incidents that happen in stores occur when staff attempt to detain criminals or protect property from theft.”

 http://www.securitypark.co.uk/article.asp?articleid=25948



"Retail crime has significant demoralising effects on shop owners and their staff, especially as theft is increasingly accompanied by violence, threats and verbal abuse. Shop theft is frequently a 'gateway' to more serious offences."

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4477596.stm

Son...


moral actions

03.12.2006 17:17

I understand the point you are making, but feel that unless your stealing out of necessity, it’s a bad road to go down. This is because of the benefit to you that you get from stealing (product at no cost) seeming to cancel out any moral ideal, just leaving it as a negative action.

I don’t hold the same views regarding actions that are simply to benefit others, that the target of the action is directly, extremely harming. E.g. If someone “reclaimed” property from Nestle and gave it to mothers in the third world that had been tricked into buying baby milk by Nestle, I would support it.

Or if guns where been ship to a government that would use them to kill political opposition and someone put the guns “out of action”, I would support it.

Or if someone rescued an animal from a testing lab and destroyed associated property, I would support it.

www


two arguments

03.12.2006 18:32

Okay, perhaps there are two of you, there are certainly two quite diffferent argument on display.

First, the argument that shoplifters are violent. This is arrant nonsense. If someone uses violence or the threat of violence in any robbery then they are in effect armed robbers or thugs, not shoplifters. The courts would treat them differently and so should we. To deliberately portray every shoplifter as violent seems incredibly and willfully dense to me at least, as I know many shoplifter and none of them are violent.

Second, you can list certain moral reasons to break the law. For me a primary moral reason to break the law is to feed your own family. I think you'd agree with that, I I think you'd agree there is no shame in this.

The unspoken argument is whether it is right to steal from faceless corporations whenever we can. This is a political argument so we can disagree, but I would say it is often morally justifiable. Read 'The Corporation' and then come back to me on that.

William


Three points

04.12.2006 16:46

Good comments on the article. I have three points to make about what people have said:

1. Shop lifting is unlikely to increase the burden on the farmers who supply Tesco's and the like. The reason being that Tesco's thirst for profits is ABSOLUTE not RELATIVE. Their reasoning is not "we're having stuff nicked so we should try and get more out of the farmers". Instead their reasoning is always "we must get as much as possible out of the farmers in all circumstances". They would ALREADY have paid the farmers less if they could - shop lifting aint gonna change that.

2. If shop lifting turns violent all the philosophizing goes out the window. Assaulting already exploited workers is unacceptable. End of story.

3. Finally Oli's comment that "nicking stuff plants seeds of deception in your own mind..." is initially quite convincing I think - if shoplifting were morally corrupting it would not be worth it. However the point of the article is that NOT SHOPLIFTING can be morally corrupting! Just adopting the values of society/ the system is an oppressive act. Shoplifting may be one small way of rejecting those values; it can be an exercise in adopting a more humanizing, loving morality.

But on that final note, I agree that if shoplifting just degenerates into getting loads of free stuff without paying for it, then it is as materialistic and vacuous as the system itself. The article isn't suggesting that shoplifting leads to sainthood; rather that it can be an interesting moral experiment if we choose to use it that way.

nickleberry
- Homepage: http://nickleberry-huxtable.blogspot.com


Two way traffic

12.12.2006 15:57

I wonder if nickleberry would feel the same way if someone broke into their house and stole their Sex Pistols records.

C.


Some thoughts...

15.12.2006 13:37

C. appears to have missed the difference between burglary and shoplifting, which is a vast moral and logistical gulf.

And "Son of a working-class manageress beaten up by working-class shoplifters", I found your attempts to use psychology to justify your argument very interesting, and I'm not saying they don't support your view, but to say that they are conclusive requires quite a bit of imagination. As someone with an obvious interest in science and statistics, you will no doubt be aware of the fact that multiple conclusions can be drawn from the same results. You pointed in the direction of results of studies, but these could have different interpretations.

For example, the sentence "60% of violent incidents that happen in stores occur when staff attempt to detain criminals or protect property from theft” is fairly ambiguous. Detaining criminals does not necessarily mean detaining shoplifters, and this statistic doesn't tell us, for instance, who initiated the violence. Also, correct as this may be, it does not lead us to the inevitable conclusion that therefore all shoplifters are violent, nor that shoplifters get more violent over time due to their practice. And so on and so forth.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I think your evidence is far from proof.

rogue


I done thunk about it

17.12.2006 19:11

I understand the difference; however the point is stealing is stealing. I love how the moral definition always changes when its something of yours...

It's like these "Violence against property isn't violence" people. How would they feel if I took a baseball bat to their car or burn their collection of must-have radical books...will they stand passively by and shrug "OH well...its just 'property'"

It's always 'different' if it's you...so seems to me, you don't understand the difference, Tex.

C


Time to grow up

14.01.2007 18:46

I've read your article and you do seem very anti, anti everything and pro virtually nothing. I feel sorry for you, you are clearly going through a massive identity crisis. It is time you got in touch with your soul and worked out who you were . Your life would then be so much easier. In the mean time I suggest you work through these issues in a more private forum to save yourself future embarrassments.

Coak
mail e-mail: coakhouse@aol.com


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