I know I'm a honest person, but like sexuality, morality has a sliding scale. Yesterday I bought a pair of readers at Duane Reade. I'd left the ones I like in a taxi last week, and the old pair I had at home -- a plus 1 -- weren't strong enough anymore. I found a pair I liked at the drugstore and used the little eye exam to figure out plus 1.5 was what I needed. The following morning I reached for them and tried to read my email messages on my iPhone. I was still struggling to see them early in the morning, so I quickly realized my lost readers must have been a plus 1.75 or 2. Last night I went back to Duane Reade to see if they had the same pair with the stronger prescription -- and they did. I had already thrown the receipt away, so I knew exchanging them would be an unpleasant, if not entirely futile, effort -- it's hard enough PAYING for something at Duane Reade -- so I asked the friend I was with if he was comfortable with me "exchanging" them myself, aka swapping out my 1.5 pair for the the 1.75s. (It would have been seamless, and they would have easily been able to be sold again.) He freaked out and said he most certainly would not, and that was the end of it. But getting back to the sliding scale of morality: I really don't it's hurting anyone -- much less stealing -- to do what I proposed, and I don't really have any qualms about doing something like that. Yet I'm "moral" enough to know it's wrong on some level, so I wouldn't do it if I thought it would make someone with me uncomfortable. (This Laverne surely needs her friend's support!) Curious what others think about this scenario, or other so-called victimless crimes.
Of course, ever since I read an article in high school about a girl who murdered her bitchy tormentor, I've also kind of thought I could kill someone who truly deserved it without thinking twice about it, so maybe my morality is a little more off than I realize!
