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Nothing compares to the feeling of elation, of burdens being lifted, and constraints escaped...
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...that I feel when I walk out of a store with their products in my pockets.
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In a world where everything already belongs to someone else...
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...where I'm expected to sell away my life at work in order to get the money to pay for the minimum I need to survive.
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Where I am surrounded by forces beyond my control or comprehension...
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...that obviously are not concerned about my needs or welfare.
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It is a way to carve our a little piece of the world for myself...
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...to act back upon a world that acts so much upon me.
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It is an entirely different sensation than the one I feel when I buy something.
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When I pay for something I am making a trade.
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I am offering the money that I bought with my labor, my time, and my creativity...
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...for a product or service that the corporation wouldn't share with me under any other circumstances.
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In a sense, we have a relationship based on violence.
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We negotiate an exchange, not according to our respect or concern for each other...
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...but according to the forces that we can bring to bear on each other.
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Everything changes when I shoplift.
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I am no longer negotiating with faceless, inhuman entities that have no concern for my welfare.
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Instead, I am taking what I need without giving anything up.
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I no longer feel like I am being forced into an exchange...
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...and I no longer feel as if I have no control over how the world around me dictates my life.
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I no longer have to worry about whether the pleasure I received from the book I purchased...
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...was equal to the two hours of labor it cost me to be able to afford it.
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These and a thousand other ways shoplifting makes me feel liberated and empowered.
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"You dropped something."
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"Thanks."
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"Thank you."
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The shoplifter wins her prize by taking risks.
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Not by exchanging a piece of her life for it.
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Life for her is not something that must be sold away for seven or eight dollars an hour...
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...in return for survival.
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It is something that is hers because she takes it for herself...
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...because she lays claim to it.
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Shoplifting is a refusal of the exchange economy.
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It is a denial that a monetary value can be ascribed to everything.
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"Hi."
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"Was she good?"
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"Very good."
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"Hi, sweetheart."
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"And we had a lot of fun. Didn't we?"
