Some Ideas On Property (Rev. Cyan and Sgt. Bluebonnet)

Some Ideas On Property

Augustine (5th century CE, North Africa) in Letter 153 wrote that people commit a form of theft when they acquire things and they do not actually how to use the things they have acquired. He argues that just because it was lawfully obtained, does not mean that it is lawfully possessed, for only competency with a thing provided lawful usage.

His theory on property is a bit twisted to say the least, but it is an interesting way of looking at things and applying it to modern technology, where users are often blindingly ignorant of how to properly operate a computer or an iPhone. Thus under the theory of Augustine, these inept computer users should not have computers, as they are stealing them form other, more competent users.

1) In the modern context, there are 1000 students who need laptops, but they have 5000 students who need these laptops. If the book store sells a laptop to a student who is “clueless” on computer things, and merely uses the computer to play video games and watch movies, it could be said that the inept student with the computer is stealing the computer from one of the 4000 student that could not get the computer they needed.

2) This also can be linked to therapeutic drugs, like a flu shot, where people who do not need then, deprives others/steals from those who are actually in need.

3) When Apple produces hardware, and software, in integrates and file tunes the devices, they take steps to make it easy to introduce the device to a novice user. When the novice just jumps in without a reasonable introduction to the gear, they waste others people time, and steal from them.

Consider it to be like the number of seats available in a class such as this, where there are only 24 seats, in the room, but 36 people want to take the course. If 8 of he people who get in (of the 24 seats) do not really intend to apply themselves during the course, they are in a way stealing from 8 people who were in the group who were not able to get into the class. While the 8 "thieves" paid for the seat they are in, they also deprive another, more worthy, and more studious student of the seat they now occupy.