The Good Criminal

 I've always said that if I was ever held-up that I would ask the person "Why are you doing this? What's wrong?"  Turns out that I was too much of a pussy to do that.  I just cowered and let the person get away with belongings.

But I digress.  I didn't write this article to complain, I wrote it to empathize.

Because Criminals are people too.  And perhaps I was too hard on myself.  Why did the man steal my phone and backpack?  He needed the money and he had a message for me too: "People steal."  Whoops. I guess that one was partly my fault.

Damn. I just disagressed again. Let me pull up.

Last night, I started re-watching Hijack on Apple TV with Idris Elbda.  There was a scene when one of the hijackers held a stewardess at gunpoint while she spoke with the Co-Pilot who was also female.  The Co-Pilot refused entry to the cockpit.

Stewardess: "She saying no."

Hijacker: "She?"

Stewardess: "[The] First Officer."

Hijacker: "Talk to the Pilot."

Lots to unpack here, but let's focus on the implied sexism here.  Immediately I thought to myself "Of course a hijacker is sexist." but then I thought "what are his motivations here?"

Let's consider the below 4x4 matrix of individuals who are either/both a Hijacker or Sexist.  The gentleman in the show is clearly the top left box.  

Conventional wisdom might say that the bottom right box is the "preferred human." But let's study boxes one and two for a second.  A hijacker has a motivation - you might not understand it, but at the end of the day the hijacker was (likely) raised with the same morales and values structure that we all were.  Be Honest. Be Kind. Don't Hurt People.

But the Hijacker made a decision to eshew those three precepts that most agree we should live (and love) by.  Why?  Understanding those motivations are the essence of understanding and empathizing with an act as horrifying on the surface as hijacking a plane is.  Here are a couple considerations that might make you say "I would have done the same thing in their shoes."

- The Captain had a nuclear bomb and was going to detonate it over a large city

- The butterfly effect with decades long consequences (the classical would you have gone back and killed Hitler problem)

In both of these, the Hijacker would be a hero - but in the second one he would be a villian for a very long time or perhaps never.

And in both of these, who the hell cares in he's sexist or not.  Whoops. I was sexist right there in assuming the Hijacker was a he.

P.S. Hijack very good and I highly recommend it.