Sigh.
Stealing is wrong.
If you want to rationalize and say, "stealing is only wrong, if the person you steal from can't afford the loss"
or
So, lets flip it around...I'm not rich per se, but, If someone stole a $300 3 w 445 laser from me, I could afford it....my life would not be severely impacted.
Does that mean that if YOU knew I could afford to lose it, YOU'D steal it from me?
How about if someone stole something of yours, that you could afford to lose?
How small an item would be OK, for YOU, to have stolen from you?
IE: You don't get to pick WHAT, but something of yours will be missing one day, something you can AFFORD to lose.
If there's a rich guy, say Bill Gates, lives a few miles away, and you find out his alarm system is off, and his house is wide open, and there's guys heading over to loot the place...is that OK?
For me, its NOT about if I'd get caught or not...its about right/wrong.
Morally, I would not like myself if I did things that were wrong.
Does everyone have their OWN LINE they will or won't cross? Sure...no one I know of is 100% right all the time. Heck, we take broad spectrum antibiotics that kill millions of innocent bacteria just to get the ones making us sick.
If I were starving and my children were starving, etc, and the only way to keep them alive was to steal food, OK, I do think that I would do that if all other alternatives were exhausted...but, at that point, I'd be doing it REGARDLESS of whether or not I'd be caught, because, NO criminals think they will be caught, at least that's what I see in the prison systems...and, it WOULD BE an act of desperation anyway, do or die so to speak.
Stealing because you rationalize that you want something and think that you can get away with stealing it...to me at least, just seems wrong.
I think that that is morally wrong, yet, I might do it anyway...because I WILL do what I think is wrong under
some circumstances, but NEVER based upon if I might get caught or not, but upon the degree of consequences (Starvation?) for NOT stealing...and that's my line in the sand.
For those of you who wouldn't steal if you thought you'd get caught/would steal if you thought you wouldn't...regardless of the desperation of your circumstances/need for the item:
YOUR line in the sand might be drawn by the stick you think will beat you if you get caught.
:thinking:
Stuff like popping balloons, mischief vs harm, etc...to me at least, are not off limits. I WOULD (Personally) not pop balloons at a party where they were a part of a decoration thing where someone would feel sad about the balloons, IE: The moral equivalent of smashing the table centerpieces, etc, is not nice. If the balloons are random/I perceive the guests would be amused rather than upset, etc...sure, fair game.
I also differentiate between THINKING about something, and DOING it. Anyone with a good imagination might start THINKING about something, the perfect crime, banging that hot babe, etc...but not DO it because they HAVE filters, such as their consciousness and personal morality, etc....or, at least the fear of punishment.
For some, it seems, the filters are broken, so they act more impulsively. Others, they needed to calibrate the parts that judge the odds of success/failure...so that they avoid MORE jailtime, etc.
The problem men face when they age is their minds don't change, that 25 year old girl is just as beautiful and desirable to you when you are older as they were when you were their age.
