Small Scale Sin
August 27, 2009
Episode 2: Small Scale Sin
Funny how TAL always manages to be in perfect step with my life. My roommates and I had the same conversation last week. A lot of religions say that every sin is equal, but is it really the same thing to tell a white lie or kill someone? I think not. Intention is where the difference lies here for me (that or the harm of others).
Each of these “small scale sinners” Ira interviewed, stressed that they weren’t bad people. There was one boy pseudo-named “Fred” who was a 15 year old computer hacker, who tried to steal credit card numbers to buy computer supplies etc. He went to one of the most expensive prep schools in the country, and he said he stole because he had to. He also made it a point to say that these crimes were victimless. That he would steal the number, they’d call visa or whomever and visa allots a certain amount of insurance in their budget for things like this. Is it really victimless? Does it make a difference that he goes to a rich prep school?
This is the part where I feel shallow, he had a poet on the show. I just found myself tuning him out. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate poetry, I just don’t like it. Shortly after I tuned out the poet, Ira talked to another hacker whose handle was acidphreak. He was imprisoned and then put under house arrest for how much he hacked (NASA, the government, credit card companies etc). He was hacking into computer systems to get the numbers of celebrities, and prank calling them. He got the number of the Queen of England even. Here’s the quote of the episode that stuck with me: “What do you do once you’ve got the queen on the phone? There is an emptiness there”. It’s true though. The fun was in the chase for them, what were they going to do once they got her on the phone? Ask her what kind of breakfast she had?
Acidphreak expressed that he was done hacking. He was under house arrest, and could have easily hacked the computer that tracked him, but he didn’t. He said hacking was a teenage thing to do. And that sometimes, people quit being bad (or doing bad things) just because they’re bored of it.
