When I was in the sixth grade, I did the worst thing I've ever been caught doing.

And I'm going to tell you all about it, but first, I feel like there are some things that need to be said tonight. Yeah, I already said some of it in this post here, but there's more.

I'm aware that what I'm about to say may not be popular. It may piss some people off and that's not my intent, but I don't care either. Because, if you're engaging in the behavior I'm talking about, then I'm pissed at you. So, there.
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We come here to do something different than is being done in "state run" societies, to experiment with anarchy and self rule. Right?

But, it's hard to get the brainwashing out. So, we come here, and mostly, we act a lot like we do out there. We look for heroes, other people to lift us up, give us meaning and give us security. It's human nature.

When this platform started, it wasn't quite like this.

Early on, I was a lurker. I signed up, but didn't do much, and still haven't really. But, I've been watching. I'm a student of people and I've noticed somethings.

It seems that some of the initial altruism has worn off and profit taking is now applauded. It seems we're not as interested in quality content and building something as we are in stacking coins.

We have such a huge opportunity here, to engage in cultures from around the world, but instead, we come here and we play. We look for the easy way, just like we do out there in the state run world. But, here's the problem.

There is no room for lazy anarchists.

If we want a world that is more free than the one we have now, we can't keep running it the same way. In a world without a huge central power, each man will need to be able to hold his own as equal. It should be that way here.

But, instead, we're content to take small winnings, and give the big prizes to those who deal in volume.

*Where it really bothers me though is in one statistic. I find that on my posts, and the posts of others, there are often many times more views than votes, while other posts have votes, but no views."

This indicates to me that people are reading what they find valuable, but voting for what will give them a return, and that's where my story comes in.

It was a Saturday in May

I'd gone to my buddy Jason's house to play on his dad's TI-99. We wrote choice adventure games in basic, recording them to a cassette deck. Then, we'd take our new episodes to school, where we had a commodore 64 in the math lab, where kids would play the games we created.

Yep, kids, I'm so OLD if we wanted to play computer games, we had to write them for ourselves, and we LIKED it!

On this particular day, we were interrupted. His dad needed the computer to complete work for his teaching in the Veterinary school at Kansas State University, so he handed us $5 and sent us to the Sak n' Pak for slushes and beef jerkey.

It was a warm day, so we stood inside the store, soaking up the AC before heading back.

"Hey lets look at magazines," Jason said.

I agreed and we headed to the back, where the magazine rack was, by the men's room. I grabbed a Mad Magazine, he grabbed Sports Illustrated. After about five minutes reading, he had another suggestion.

"Hey, you ever look at those?" he asked, eying the men's mags on the top shelf.

Now, back in the day, they didn't put them in plastic wrappers, so, you could read any magazine without paying, provided the owner didn't get mad.

I said, no that sounded like a bad idea. I was a preacher's kid. It wasn't like I'd never seen one, but in public?

He grabbed a copy of Penthouse letters, a smaller gazette, mostly writing. (dirty stories, we weren't reading for the articles) and tucked it in the pages of his SI. So, I did the same with another smaller magazine and we sat on two milk crates,finishing our slushes and enjoying illicit entertainment.

"Hey! I see what you're doing!"

She looked like somebody's mom, but not the store manager. We weren't too worried.

"Reading Mad magazine?" I suggested.

She raised her chin to where a round security mirror dangled directly over our heads and said, "Disgusting. Someone should tell your parents."

The dirty magazines we'd hidden so neatly, were clearly visible.

We stood up and put the magazines back on the shelf and turning beet red, made our way out of the store as quickly as possible.

"You gonna pay for that?" the owner of the store asked? He always reminded me of a slightly taller Danny Devito. He had on a white wifebeater T and a gold medallion around his neck. The ash on his cigarette seemed to defy gravity it was so long.

"Uh, we paid before," Jason said, holding up his receipt.

"For the magazines you was mauling, back there," the man said. He pointed to a sign on the counter.

No one reads magazines or comics for free! Mgmt

Jason sighed and dropped the rest of the money on the counter, a full $3.

"Keep your money kid, but I see you do that again, and next time you're in here with your mom, I'll make her buy 'em, and I'll be sure to tell her which ones, capiche?"

It was the one and only time anyone ever seriously said that word to me. But it sunk in. Then he turned to me.

"You're that preacher's kid. Don't think I don't know. You too get out a my store, gettin' caught like that could get me in trouble," he said.

I swallowed hard. We ran the seven blocks to his house without stopping, sure the woman had already called the cops and our parents would know.

We never spoke about it again.

But, the lesson stuck with me. If you're going to take advantage of things, or people in life, be prepared to pay the price. We clearly weren't.

So what does that have to do with steemit?

I'm glad you asked.

If you're commenting and reading content you enjoy, upvote it!

Conversely, if your upvoting content you don't read, stop it!

If you just sell your votes, you've got no idea what you're supporting. And it's not fair to give supportive comments, and even empty 1% votes to an author whose content genuinely helps you, while saving your vote power for a post that will earn you more curation rewards. It's not right. No one reads for free.