Un-disciplined thieves

Ever notice how much we tolerate thieves while seeming to hold such disregard for them at the same time?

A buddy of mine has the opinion that basically, you can't expect better from people as a whole.
I notice there are a lot of people who figure that other people will steal from them and that justifies their own five fingered discounts as they go through life.

However, nobody likes a thief, at least publicly. Most times in private as well. Even thieves hate having things stolen from them.

Some people claim that it's inherent in people to follow a "might makes right" way of thinking. if someone has the might (say robbing you at gunpoint) then it's "oh well for you".

What about the thieves that don't use force, they steal behind your back?

Personally, I think it's a matter of people who are willing to do whatever to fulfill instant gratification.

For them it's a matter of "I want it and I want it now but I don't have the money to buy it or I don't want to spend my money."

There are people who steal using poverty as an excuse. There are poor people who wouldn't steal even if they were starving.

Again, personally, I believe there is a certain lack of personal pride in people who steal. They don't care about themselves or the way they see themselves enough to find the idea of stealing as beneath them.

Others have to make justifications in order to feel "ok" with stealing.

There has always been a mixed message since this country began about this. From the beginning, we have been told of the virtues of "making" our own way. We take pride in being rugged individualists. Able to make our own way and not needing to hand on anyone's coattails to survive.

At the same time, "taking" has been ever present at every point. The government took land and resources it wanted from other people. whether at gunpoint or by broken treaty. The government has no problem taking in the form of taxes. If you can't pay those taxes, it will take what you own and sell it.

Some could say that government is the biggest thief of all time.

I follow the notion that if it isn't mine, I leave it alone. I may want whatever it is, but, wanting isn't the same as getting. I have my pride.

If I want something, I will get my own. Either by buying it or by making it myself.

No, I don't think people are inherently bad. i think people are inherently greedy. I think people are inherently un-disciplined. I think people are inherently self-centered.

People want things all the time. There are a lot of promises this country makes, but there are very few actual guarantees.

Getting everything you want is not a guarantee. Being rich is not guaranteed, it's not a "right". "Getting" things is not a guarantee.

The Constitution of this country says that might is not right. It says that discussion, planning, debating, thinking, is right.

It says that we as a people agree to let laws bind everyone equally. Force is something that is reserved for a time when words fail and a few (or many) would try to use might to get their way instead.

What is truly incredible about the Constitution is that it is better than the people who wrote it. It is ideals and things to live up to. It is a set of standards we should hold ourselves to. It insists that we raise ourselves to the point of meting those standards.

It says nothing about taking something because you want it is ok or acceptable.

One thing I think most people lack now and is a leading cause of theft and other problems is that people have gone through their lives not knowing what the Constitution is. They don't teach it anymore.

People don't take pride in the rights they do have because they don't really know or understand them.

We have the right to pursue happiness, not just take it from someone else.