Hate Rant

You know who I hate at the moment...? Who is particulary irking me at this very moment in time? I'll tell you who; thieves. Chav. Scum. Thieves.

I hate them because we have had a spate of thefts recently and it's beginning to weigh on my mind. Myself and several friends have all been stolen from recently - from the Big Chill to a spate of burglaries in Sheffield, we've all lost money and belongings. It's not so much the loss of the things, or their monotary value, but their importance to us. Good friends of mine had all their laptops stolen from their house - the computers themselves are worth nothing, but the files and work on them are. Our video camera was taken from the same house, it'd be worth almost nothing second hand but the tape in it had footage we really needed. One friend lost 10,000 words of his writing...

It bothers me immensely because the value of the items to anyone else is directly proportional to their worth to us. They have some old and useless equipment, and we're set-back financially - so no gain for anybody there. We're not the sort of people who have nice things, we have ramshackle collections of technology that we bind together to serve our purposes, not expensive toys that can be replaced.

Most likely we are in the same financial situation as the burglars, and by their actions all they've done is continued the cycle of poor that exists where we live. Instead of us standing together against the huge corporate thieves who steal from our society everyday, or the government who taxes every aspect of life so they can make profits on arms sales, we are instead stealing from ourselves and making our own lives more difficult.

They have also made me stop leaving the back door open so the cats can come and go, and to prick up my ears everytime I hear a strange noise. Maybe these are good things, but I really resent the actions of others having an effect on the way I behave in my own home. It's also a largely illogical concern - where I live is secure and hard to get into, and I would certainly hear any intruder, but my heartbeat still increases when there's a strange bump.

It has made me appreciate the value of backing things up, though. Any combination of computer could be lost now and I'll still have the data. That's the most important thing.

Tonight I'm going to wait in the shed with a shotgun and shoot the first thing I see. That'll help matters.

---

currently listening to: Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind

---