Banditry can be another form of theft. The abuse of someone, by stealing their personal effects, to gain what you need. You can argue that for people on the same social economic level it is wrong for them to steal from each other, but is it alright for the poor to steal from the abundantly rich? Morally it is wrong. Even if the poor are starving and steal a piece of bread to eat, or some money to feed themselves with. Stealing is ethically wrong. However it appears that it is not frowned upon for the poor to steal from the rich. Throughout history there have been famous outlaws that have been hailed as heroes for this very deed. Robin Hood being one such character. The story of Robin Hood emerged in the 9th century in which the poor were the property of the rich. They had no freedom or rights and longed for justice and liberty. Robin Hood stole from the oppressive, controlling land owners and masters to provide food for the poor. In today’s society we probably view this as acceptable behaviour as history tells us that rich land owners starved and controlled their workers very harshly. If you were not rich in this time, you were dirt poor. There was no in-between class. If you did not have money, you were owned by somebody that did. Or you were a rebel that had to steal to survive. As people of the 21st century, being owned by someone is not something that we can fathom as we were born with freedom of choice. So if the only way to escape the cruel, strict bonds of oppression for these people was to steal from their oppressors. We can understand that, not as right but perhaps as a necessary evil.
Today’s society is a world apart from the days of Robin Hood. The rich are not the working classes tormentors anymore and classes have changed drastically. The word poor itself has taken on a whole new meaning. The “poor” of today are helped by the government, given housing, money, freedom and help to better their situations. Not everybody is handed out money or their own shelter. There is a sad reality that there are an estimated 100 million people in the world that are homeless. But these people are not homeless due to the act of a cruel persecutor, but unfortunate circumstances and a lack of housing.
However the rich are not obligated to look after anyone but their family anymore. It’s a dog eat dog world and it’s everyone for themselves. Therefore if the poor stole from the rich in today’s world, I do not think it would be acceptable.
Bandits are often seen as lovable rouges rather than dangerous villains due to the depiction of people like Robin Hood. If we met a liberator of people like Robin Hood in a dark alley we would not recoil in fear. Whereas if we met a hardened criminal we would turn and run. People perhaps see people like Bonnie and Clyde as bandits too. Its fun to watch people rebel against society’s rules and steal from profitable businesses that aren’t going to miss a few pieces of stock. Its interesting and comical to follow the news and see if they’ve been caught yet. This is due to ignorance. If you were caught in their line of fire. Shot or hurt because you refused to hand over your prided possessions. You would not see them as fun loving criminals then but abusive, intrusive creatures of immorality.
Interestingly Guy Fawkes is one of Britain’s lovable rogues in today’s society. He’s famous for plotting to blow up the monarchy and Parliament. Why do we have a fascination with turning past criminals into hailed individuals? Is it time that makes us forgive and forget?
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