Today's hypothetical question of the day:
Suppose, hypothetically, you're at the beach. You have a bunch of stuff -- a radio, some clothing, and a tin of mozzarella sticks.
You get careless and walk away from your stuff. When you come back, you find it's been stolen. All of it. Well, not quite all of it. They took your clothing and radio. And they seem to have eaten your mozzarella sticks. But they left thd empty tin. Yep. All that's left is your garbage.
Are you ethically obligated to pick up the empty tin and dispose of it properly?
Yes. It won't clean itself. Sucks that the thieves don't care about the beach, but you should.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't, who will? You brought it, didn't you? And it's ONLY one tin, after all!
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that you can't leave possessions lying around - and sadder still if it happened to you (Did it?)- but the environment didn't steal your goods, some scumbag did, so don't hurt the environment.
Though, be my guest in hurting the scumbag.
No. It didn't happen to me. This was, as I said, a hypothetical.
DeleteGlad it didn’t happen to you. Since I *knew* you were going to the beach about the time you published that post, it seemed logical that you might have been writing from some experience.
ReplyDeleteNow, go pick up that hypothetical tin!
Going to the beach, and my fears about what can go wrong were a big part of what made me think of the question. But, no. I wrote the post on my way to the beach.
DeleteIt depends whether you decide to reclaim the tin. If you don't, then it's the thief's tin, not yours; the thief acquired it when he stole it.
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with Brian and Joe's care for the environment, but why punish the victim by making him responsible to clean up after the thief?
In truth, Leon, ANYONE who comes across the tin *should* pick it up. Be it Brian, me, or you!
ReplyDeleteBut, the owner has a “special obligation” to it, because he or she BROUGHT IT THERE in the first place. If there were no tin, the radio, etc. would still have been stolen… but no pollution would be left behind.
Mark also said he “wrote the post **on my way to** the beach.”
I hope you weren’t driving and Blogging at the same time! Gosh, I’m not used to being so caring! The environment, Marc… Pretty soon I’ll want Medicare for all!
"I hope you weren’t driving and Blogging at the same time!"
DeleteYeah, that would work. I took the Long Island Railroad.
Joe, it's irrelevant that Marc brought the item there. For example, if he had sold mozzarella at the beach, he would have no special obligation to clean up after his customers. Then how can he have a special obligation only because the cheese was stolen from him?
Delete