Stealing
“According to my mother, and the Catholic church, this is stealing.”
I am a throwback to the early days of action and adventure movies. No, not that early, but early enough. I am talking about the famed icon, and archaeologist, Indiana Jones. Dr. Indiana Jones is presented as a brave, risk-taking professor in search of the rare (i.e., elusive) items from our ancient past. And these would not be just any items. These pieces would include the infamous Biblical artifacts such as the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail.
In the first movie, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the opening scene focused on Indiana’s attempt to ‘retrieve’ (Wikipedia, 2021) the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol. To movie goers, this was better known as the Golden Idol. I specifically used the word ‘retrieve’ in the above sentence. However, Dr. Jones was not trying to give the idol back to its original owner. The idol was in its proper place, heavily guarded by traps. Why did Hollywood use the word ‘retrieve’, when ‘steal’ would have been more appropriate? Literally, he was taking something that did not belong to him to give it to someone else who was not the original owner. According to my mother, and the Catholic church, this is stealing.