I sympathize, but disagree. Because I have lived a long time, done many wrong things, and regret all of them. I oppose stealing in almost any circumstance, but in this particular circumstance I am also trying to make a point that it is unnnecessary and even counterproductive (as it always is ultimately).
I.e. these people are stealing books not because those books are the ones they would learn more from, as Galois might do, but because those are the books that are "required" for their degrees, which is a stupid immoral and unwise thing to do.
really, the best books are not always the most costly ones. i am confident I am not wrong here, and I am trying to teach something to young people. I have lived a long time and gone to many schools and paid huge tuition to ripoff places like harvard, etc,...
then at last I met an interesting man, who taught me more than i had learned anywhere else, and among other things he said something very simple: "attention will get you teachers".
i.e. the real price of tuition is merely to listen to the wisdom of a teacher. students with the intelligence to actually pay attention to the wisdom being offered for free are so rare that those teachers will in turn teach them for free.
since that day (35 years ago) i have never paid one cent of tuition and i have been a postdoc at harvard, been welcomed by some of the worlds finest mathematicians, a paid participant at IAS sponsored summer meetings, an invitee and beneficiary of international meetings, etc, etc. I have received hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant money to pursue my work.
this is hard to believe for someone raised in our society of "ripoff before you get ripped off", but it is true.
he who has ears,... you know the rest.
I realize extremely few people will learn this lesson so easily. wisdom is not really expensive, that is not why it is rare, rather there are so few people willing to listen to it. read proverbs: wisdom is crying in the street and no one answers.
there was a scene in a stupid buffoonery filled movie called "bedazzled" where the devil tries to tell dudley moore some advice and dudley ignores him. the devil remarks, oh yes, you are poor, frustrated in your ambition, besieged by tigers, and your girl friend loves another man, why should you pay attention to the advice of the ancients?
pay heed: if you are successful in your academic careeer you will become a teacher, and the frustration of the teacher is that the teacher offers so much, but the stduents accept so little from it.
peace
