Theft in Plain Sight

When everyone is theoretical, it’s difficult when you encounter the real

THE KID WAS FAST. As I stood in line in a Starbucks, waiting for a black coffee and noticing how packed the place was at around 2:30p, a young dude, maybe sixteen years old, shoved quickly next to me and grabbed a bag of chocolate covered expresso beans from the display less than a foot from my right. He spun and bolted out of the joint. As far as I could tell, no one even noticed.

In the suspended moment as he grabbed and ran, I was conflicted. First, it was only a small bag of candy. In the long view, it was nothing. No one behind the counter seemed to either see or care much if this little fucker ran off with it without paying—it wasn’t their loss but a mega-corporation with insurance for this sort of slippage. Second, a sudden rush of indignation at the arrogance and careless nature of ripping something off in broad daylight in a crowded establishment. Third, wondering what I would’ve done if I had seen him before he did it or barked at him as I saw him do it and finally, why did I care?

I suppose that I can’t entirely blame this kid from seeing an opportunity to steal and then taking that opportunity. For society to function there has to be a social contract that most of the society must agree upon. The social contract stipulates that we shouldn’t steal from others yet those at the top of the chain grift all the time. If someone with money and power is somehow exempt from the contract, why should this kid on the bottom of the ladder honor it?

I believe, contrary to the more accepted position, that organizational culture does not trickle down from leadership but trickles up from the ethics and treatment of those on the economic bottom rung. If a company’s employees are treated as automatons paid to grind away with meaningless tasks for sub-par wages, no amount of top-down cheerleading or team building will change the inherent dehumanization. The culture trickles up and infects the whole. This kid, stealing a bag of candy, is the result of a lack of compassion but, more importantly, the absence of a recognition of that trickle up effect. Treat those on the bottom with derision and thoughtlessness and they are educated to behave in violation of any social contract.

On the other hand, if I own the coffee shop, that personal sense of violation obscures all of that high-minded perspective. He stole from me. I want him caught and punished and permanently banned from my cafe. When I read about thieves stealing catalytic converters from hybrid cars in record numbers I recognize it’s a problem and I’m allowed the ability to philosophize a bit about it. When some fucker steals the catalytic converter off my Prius it is no longer a theoretical moment. This is not theoretical, as it just happened to my little hybrid roller skate last week…

The difference between the theoretical people and the actual people in the world is defined by proximity. Call Texas Governor Abbott what you will but his bussing immigrants to Sanctuary Cities stunt was to force the theoretical into the realm of the personal—it’s easy to stand on a soapbox and declare a desire for open borders but when they show up on your doorstep and need housing and food, it becomes real in a way that the distance masks.

Theoretical people—the folks out in the world we know are there but have no personal impact on us in our day to day reality—all seem to fit into a nice, grimy coffin labeled OTHER and populate that grease-stained cardboard box with tiny, limited versions of actual human beings that bear only a passing resemblance to authentic humanity.

The kid was theoretical to me—in videos of people just walking into stores wearing masks and taking armfuls of stuff then leaving in SUVs, people trashing the counter at a convenience store because they were not convenienced, and the ever-present fear of feral children roaming the streets looking to cause mayhem—but was suddenly a personal reality. I think the less theoretical, the more pragmatic and, by default, the less ideological. None of us in person fits an ideological avatar or stereotype so perhaps releasing the theoretical and expecting the real is the more difficult yet more productive way to proceed. I know this was a kid who stole a bag of candy. What I don’t know is why he felt he needed to steal, if he felt even a tiny bit of shame, or if he was exactly that feral creature taking whatever he wanted from whomever he encountered.

The fact that the cup of coffee was marked up by 300% of brewing cost did provide perspective.