Legal Theft

In Gilgamesh, the ox king constructs a wall around the city of Uruk to shield it from the dangers of nature. When Enkidu gave in to the Harlot’s temptation, it was like Adam eating from Eve’s apple of knowledge. As Enkidu took the apple, he stopped being a Leaver and started being a Taker. When both Enkidu and Gilgamesh were Takers, Gilgamesh had an irresistible urge to prove his superiority over nature and thus secure fame to his children. They killed Huwawa, the guardian of Cedar forest. If Enkidu would have still been a Leaver, he would never have accepted such a mission. Also, I believe that by killing the Bull of Heaven, the destruction of Enkidu’s Leaver side was complete. Furthermore, when Enkidu built the raft with the tallest cedar tree to escape from the forest, he adopted mankind’s technology along with its belief of “taking anything that you want”. 5

I think this is the problem with today’s society... that we simply take from nature anything we want to use for ourselves. We steal from nature without giving anything in return. This is dreadful, but something even more shocking is the fact that we think we have the right to simply take from nature, and we have lost a sense of morality by thinking we’re not even stealing, thinking we’re not doing anything wrong.