173. Theft
Listen to Ellie and David discuss theft in episode 173 of overthink!
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Thou shalt not miss this episode! In episode 173 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about theft. They discuss our moral intuitions around theft, how feudalism and capitalism may be founded upon an original (and large scale) act that of theft, and the gendered association between kleptomania and women. They also critique the lack of legal repercussions for tech companies that steal information to train new AI models. Finally, they look at representations of theft and capital in film and television. What does the move from heist films to grift docudramas say about 21st century capitalism? And why do we love to take the side of thieves? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss the ethics of stealing from large corporations.
Works Discussed:
Elaine Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store
Anna Kornbluh “Falling Heists, Rising Grift: Filming Capital in the Already Long Twenty-First Century”
Robert Nichols, Theft Is Property! Dispossession and Critical Theory
Highlight: Expropriation
Expropriation essentially refers to the fact that the sovereign has the right to appropriate property for the common good
All the land in a kingdom belongs to the king, so they can do whatever they want with it
There were still some limits to expropriation, even within the feudal system
Expropriation had to:
Be for the common good
Lead to fair compensation of the impacted parties
If those two conditions aren’t met, then the expropriation is not justified
Nowadays, we usually use the term eminent domain for this concept
There is a legal process laid out for what the state should pay in exchange for private land
Thank you for listening to another episode of Overthink! Leave your thoughts in the comments!