Exploding The Phone db605 www.explodingthephone.com Bibliographic Cover Sheet Title Ripping Off, The New Life Style Publication The New York Times Date 1971-08-08 Author(s) Drosnin, Michael Abstract Article about the "rip off" lifestyle. "The best things in life are free, if you steal them from the bourgeoisie." Keywords Rip-off set; rip-off lifestyle Notes We only have the first two pages in hard copy, but full text in electronic format. The following pages may contain copyrighted material. We believe that our use of this material for non-commercial educational and research purposes constitutes "fair use" under Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this material for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, if any. While it will make us slightly sad to do so, we will nonetheless comply with requests from copyright owners who want their material removed from our web site. Ripping Off, The New Life Style By MICHAEL DROSNIN New York Times (1857-Current file); Aug 8, 1971; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) pg. SM12 ASSING a joint from one hand to the other, Brad peels off his Ripping Off, P clerical garb. "I never imagined my religious training would pay off so well," says the 24-year-old Har­ vard Divinity School dropout, slump­ The Ne1N' Life Style ing into an American·flag-slipcovel'ed armchair at the ''Orphanage." His words are half drowned out by a By MICHAEL DROSHIII Jefferson Airplane record: We are all outlaws in the eyes of Amer-i-ca MICHAEL DROSNIN, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, is now a freelance. "All your priYate property is Tarset lor your en-em-y AncJ your enemy is We-e-e." ,_..,......·. 12 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In order to survive we stealcheatlie­ pockets in supemtall"kets, shoplifting forge • .... hideanddeal in department stores or collecting We are obscenelawlesshideousdanger- relief benefits from assorted public ousdirtyviolent and young agencies (often defrauding several All your private property is states at the same time). College Target for your en-em-y graduates who once might have And your enemy is dreamed of, say, a law ·partnership, We-e-e.* now fantasize knocking over a Despite his background, Brad is Brink's ·truck. not spiritual leader of the Orphanage. 1\here's even a handbook for rip­ nl'm only the steward here," he off artists. Written by Abbie Hoff. laughs. And despite its name, the man and appropriately entitled, Orphanage houses no children. It is "Steal This Book," it contains in­ in reality an East Village commune structions on how to cop everything which for almost two years now has from bowling shoes to buffaloes. "I been getting its food free ~rom whole· tried to write a book nobody would salers under the guise of being a publ,ish," says Hoffman, who suc­ Protestant home for the homeless. ceeded. Although his two previous Every other weekt Brad dons his col­ efforts have sales totaling three­ laT and drives a VW bus to Hunt's quarters of a million copies, 30 out­ Point Market in the Bronx for fruits raged publishers turned down usteal" and vegetables, or to tihe meat-pack· before Hoffman finally decided to ing district on the lower West Side. print it himself. uwe haven't had so or down to the Fulton Fish Market. much trouble with a book since Hanging on the wall over.the dinner 'Tropic of Cancer,'" says a spokes­ table is a framed ,sampler: .. The Best man for Grove Press, the distributor. Things in Life Alre Free-If You Steal Many big jobbers and the majority of bookshops to handle the 11hem Firom the Bourgeoisie." refuse new paperback-one Cleveland store, Nobody at the Orphanage works, which does, packages each <:opy in but Jamie, a fonner newspaperman, a band imprinted with Ohio's shop­ gets an unemployment check every lifting law. Five thousand copies week he <:an .remember to report in were seized at the Canadian border, at the local office, and another com­ and several other countries have mune member has been on welfare banned it. No radio station will play for seven months. They receive food a commercial for the book, and es­ stamps as well, but prefer to steal tablishment newspapers have refused from the neighborhood A. &: P. what­ to run its ads. (A recent advertise­ ever items Brad can't hustle. The ment appearing in the radical maga­ stamps they sell when money is zine Ramparts gives the names of scarce, and give away otherwise. stores· in nine cities which tarry the Everything in the apartment-ex~ept book-along with advice on bow to the dope and a second-band freezer steal it from each of them.) -has been "ripped off." "Steal," which already has sold more than I 00,000 copies despite RIPPING OFF-stealing, to the un­ boycotts and blackouts, gives sur­ iniUated-·is rapidly becoming as vival instructions while preaching much a part of the counten:ulture as ~revolution and put- on. "I enjoy drugs and rock music. Bradt Jamie blowing people',s minds," admits CHARGE l'r-False credit cards are a weapon for attacking a society in and the five other youths in their Hoffman,· who has been known to which, according to the counterculture, the most respected business lead­ commune are far from unique. Like walk up to complete strangers and ers are those who "have most successfully held up the most people." them, hundreds of young people live ask, "Would you hold this dollar for solely off goods they are able to me while I go in that store and lift li'berate from private enterprise and something?'t times greater than the rest of the w:rites Hoffman. "Our moral diction­ funds they manage to extract from As youths increasingly adopt lar­ industry. •'The thing that gets me is ary says no heisting from each other. the Gove.""nment. Thousands .more ceny as an acceptable life style, angry that t!hey [young shoplifters] don't To steal from a brother or sister is supplement conventional income with businessmen absorb increasingly un~ seem to care when they',re caught/' evil. To not steal from the institu­ ~requoot forays, as often .for the aoceptable losses. Major retailers re­ says Joann McGreevy, director of tions that are the , pillars of the Pig sheer joy of bilking hated institutions port that "inventory shrinkage" more New York University's bookstore. Empire is equally immoral." as for the plunder itself. tlban doubled in the last five years. 'They don't think they're doing any­ General Motors, U.S. Steel and Middle-class youngsters who 5 or 'Jihe telephone company says "tol1 thing wrong!' most other major corporations are, 10 year-s ago would have been work­ fraud" jumped 800 per cent in the however, beyond the reach of the ing th.eir way up the corpomte ladder same period. Record and book clubs BEHIND the new moralicy of theft­ average ripper. A. T. & T., on the can now be found stuffing their witih a youthful clientele find that at without-guilt is a radical ideology­ other hand, is as close and vulnerable least one out of 10 subsoribers never some would call it a rationalization­ as the ·nearest ·telephone. Free calls *From ~'We Can Be Together," words pays at all. And college bookstores worth almost $22-million were placed and music by Paul Kantner. ® 1969 by which sees America as a society Icebag Corp. All rights reserved. often have ..shortages" two and three based on the rip-off, its most respect­ last year alone; as recently as 1965 ed citizens businessmen who have the Bell System was able to coHect most successfully 'held up the most on all but $2.7... million. uwe seem people. Stealing from these robber to be everybody's favorite victim," laments an A. T. & T. spokesman. barons, runs the argument, is cer­ 16 tainly more moral than WO!I'king for But the young definitely do appear them. It may be called a crime, but to be involved in more than their Social protest or jusl plain share of the toH fraud." il it's only a justified redistribution of stealing. 1111.eans iDcreasingly the wealth. "The dictiooory of .Jaw A year ago, the phone company heavy losses to business. is written by the bosses of order," (Continued on Page 47) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ri.ppi.. g oiltf erty," complains Howard writes Pearl Paperhanger. not Haimowitz, general manager in a testimonial for Master­ of the National RetaU Mer­ Charge, but in "More Rip Off. chants Association. "They Rip More Off," a Rat sequel take over college campuses­ to the Liftwell piece. "If we (Continued from Page 13) which don't ·belong to them­ are really serious about de· get awa'Y witJh it. So they the Man, why con· threatened to disconnect the and straying 'If I can rifle the files to his survival by San Francisco Mime troupe, figure, tribute· why not ''When a guerrilla-theater group in the dean's office, paying?" asks Pearl. whose skit "Ripping Off steal from Macy's?'" you get a credit card, use it store alone lost Ma Bell" plays to throngs Macy's main a lot. Buy stuff for friends. of enthusiastlc street people. $8-miiUon to people sUpping Buy stuff you don't need.