In the absence of money, resources must be acquired regardless of the means. You find yourself doing things that all decent people untested by true misfortune would never do: steal, hustle and/or beg. Over time I comfortably learned to do all three, but the one discipline that burdens a person with ambivalence is theft. After months and months of arduous turmoil that ranged from living on the streets to hospitalizations, I find myself wild and hardened, but living “in doors” like other people in conventional society.
In these more leisurely (non-criminal) days, I took the time to scour the internet for various views on theft, and that is when I discovered The Art of Shoplifting. It is an interesting document because it provides a clearly partisan, yet passionately honest consideration regarding the act of shoplifting. It claimed that shoplifting is a simple act of self empowerment for the ordinarily powerless individual struggling through capitalist society.
I was shocked to discover that the authors of this publication had been prosecuted under Australian Law for its very publication! I was even more shocked to discover that not only was the online document censorable and subject to Beijing-style oversight, because its content was said to be subversive and dangerous for the society, but even accessing the document and consuming its information was a serious offence in some parts of Western Australia. The case itself was thrown out under the jurisdiction of Sydneys laws.
As a formerly homeless man in body, and still one in spirit, I can say that the information reminded me of the darker things one’s circumstances necessitate. After all, threatening a man with arrest and jail (where its warm and meals, healthcare, and a bed are available) is not punishment to the truly wretched. It’s a holiday promise.
Discussing internet censorship and its possible implications across the globe is an important undertaking. Through my art, design and fashion studio, The Dopamine Clinic, I have endeavored to raise the question to light in our own special way.
We have created a signature style, handmade photomontage “artbook” to celebrate this clever and brilliantly written manifesto in style. It invites anyone who is civic minded and curious about a very obvious aspect of moral philosophy to question the ethics of theft (not the methodology) espoused upon in the Art of Shoplifting. The book is also a gesture of solidarity with the persons prosecuted for posting their opinions, as well as those prosecuted for reading them.