Street Crime - Violence you can Trust

Throughout the history of human civilization, the vast majority of interaction has been based upon benefit to the individual undertaking such actions. This trend manifested itself in a number of sordid ways until reaching the modern era – the day of capitalism. In the capitalist world, benefit, success, and survival are predicated upon one individual profiting at the loss of another; this loss is compensated by something else of value, but that which is gained is based upon who has the upper hand. Workers gain money for their labor, but ultimately it is the employer who profits at the expense of those below. This system of dealing – both parties want something, with one party ultimately gaining the better advantage – is a form of legalized, moralized, and valued interaction, setting up the very foundation of capitalism.


However, it is also a very basic form of coercion, bordering on financial blackmail; if you want money to buy food, you will do what I say, when I say it. Food is a necessity for living, so at its core the statement is 'if you want to live, you will do what I say.' You gain the benefit of continued existence, while I gain the benefit of a better existence – a fair trade, right? While there is nothing to say that this is inherently wrong, it is still a principle founded upon deceit, as seen by the legal systems of these capitalist nations. Within the United States there exists a number of laws defining the types and manner of these transactions, using blasé terms such as 'fair' and 'equal', ignoring the basic founding principle that there is a set amount of money; for one to gain, another must lose.


Within this same society, however, lies a group outside of the civilized boundaries. The criminal, as he is known, has the same drive and ambition for money, for power, for stature and wealth and all the accoutrements associated to such a life, exactly the same as the businessman. Despite the romanticism of honor amongst thieves, it is a well known fact to those who do not revel in self-deception that criminality is selfish in nature, not altruistic; Robin Hood did not steal from the rich to give to the poor, and the man mugging a liquor store is not attempting to put his son through college. The criminal class is one who, as often as not, recognizes that their goal is the acquisition of money by the means available to them. They know that they are breaking the laws of society, but such laws are merely the arbitrary opinions of those who would feed the poor with one hand while skimming the cream off corporate taxes with the other.


From this perspective, the honest businessman is one who denies that they are profiting off the losses of another; they blackmail life into someone's hands to feed their desires, yet hide behind false morality and civilization, denying their own desires for survival at the top of the chain. The criminal – one who is seen as false, deceptive, evil – is in fact honest with his desires to profit off the losses of another. The businessman might not be holding a gun to a little old lady's head, yet he would force three generations of that woman's family into effectual slavery through honest, legitimate business practices. Altruism is the lie, and those who would cling to it as a justification for actions they would do regardless simply perpetuate the arbitrary stigmatization that resulted in the sort of environment where 'crime' flourishes. The criminal is there by choice; sometimes his, sometimes the choice of those above, pulling the corporate strings.


This is not a glamorization of criminality, of course; despite the lack of an objective form of morality, there is at least a standing argument that some laws benefit large amounts of people. Criminals lie as often as not, yet they are apart from the honest citizens by virtue of the fact that they have not divorced themselves from the realities of the very nature that drives them. They are human, in the truest sense of the word, and the vilification of such beings reinforces the status quo that necessitated their 'anti-social' behaviors, beginning the cycle anew.