When a Thief and an Upright Person Resemble
- Category: Peering Eye
- Date 20-08-2006
- 347 views
How many of us would come across a roadside parcel, evidently filled with enormous notes of money and walk away, leaving it untouched? You have no doubt the cash has dropped from a stranger’s pocket who might not come back and recover it, whereas it is also clear that reporting it to the police is no way to get it to the bona fide owner.
Do you act immorally and carry the money home? Most of us are taught from a very early age that greed is bad; whereas scripture says, “the love of money is the source of all evil”. This idea is well intentioned and sounds moral and thus, to take the money is to risk becoming a thief – a despicable trait.
Thieves are a deeply despised category of people, so extremely reviled that if a thief came across a group of people talking ill of robbers, he cannot defend his clique. It is generally accepted that a thief is a wicked person who does not deserve any word of praise, not even from himself.
A dismal story of theft was told in The Citizen recently, conjecturing a grand sense of doubt in the wisdom of thieving. (See: “Sh1.7bn Geita theft ‘architect’ arrested” 3rd August 2006, page 1). A man believed to be a prime suspect in the theft of sh.1.7bn gold at Geita was reportedly arrested, having been on the run for nine months during which he changed his facial appearance by using cosmetics, and created stories that he had died.
Light-fingered people (thieves) are habitually gripped by prime greed and feral selfishness that make them thoughtless of other people’s interests and needs. They choose to satisfy their selfish desires by appropriating whatever they come across to themselves, in search of personal happiness and presumed psychic bliss.
On the other hand, honest people are generally considered unselfish and mindful of other people’s interests, thus they cannot grab what does not belong to them. Such is an ideal but unrealistic perception, scholars say. There is one puzzling question that persists: is there is anything in human nature like an unselfish act?
For all intents and purposes, most of what we regard as human values are selfish desires, which a person values in life and will do everything necessary to take care of them emotionally, financially and physiologically. It is said that capitalism is an economic theory based on human nature, especially selfishness.
Every individual loves his or her own children, relatives, companions, and friends, whom they prioritise for care before they can think about strangers. Even under Mwalimu Nyerere’s socialism, it was Tanzanians’ interests first, then any others last.
Nonetheless, it is asserted that selfishness can be practiced virtuously without satisfying one's own desires by violating the rights of others. One must not be a brute, a con man, or a beggar. Where selfish behaviour becomes destructive, it brings similar consequences to both the victim and the perpetrator. As in the case of the two billion Geita gold thefts, a robber does not live happily thereafter; his search for happiness through fraud automatically comes to naught. Selfishness must be practiced in moderation and humanely.
This means that self-sacrifice is also unhelpful in life; it is immoral no matter who its beneficiary is. Whether you sacrifice yourself to others or sacrifice others to yourself, the principles and consequences are comparable. You may not be a thief, but to sacrifice yourself entirely for others is similar to sacrificing others for your benefit.
A person who sacrifices himself for others lives by the same principle as one who sacrifices others. They are merely two camps that share the same principle (human sacrifice), and are both haggling over their victims. Their behaviour underlies a constant belief that human existence requires martyrs; that some men are mere means to the ends of others; that somebody's throat must be cut for the other to survive!
A thief might be in search of what everyone else is looking for i.e. unrealised happiness, which motivates our day-to-day activities, amidst the hustle and bustle of our environs as well as the enduring town crowds, and traffic jams.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citizen