Robin Hood

By Benson Ehlert

Ethics & Values

Philosophy 2050
Intro

The tale of Robin Hood has been around for hundreds of years and has been a favorite of

people all around the world. He would steal from the rich and give to the poor. Does this make

Robin Hood a hero, vigilante, or villain? Should he be punished or rewarded? Is it ok to do

something bad if it is for a good cause? These are ethical questions that I will research and

explain. There can be positive and negative consequences. The fantasy of Robin Hood was in

the 13th or 14th century so I will provide hypothetical situations that could happen today

compared to situations in his time.

History of Robin Hood

Despite being a very popular historical story, there is not any concrete evidence that Robin

Hood even existed as a real person. There has been many movies, all with different stories,

about where Robin Hood came from, what he did when he was alive, and how the story ended.

It is most commonly viewed that if there was a ‘Robin Hood’ type person, it would have lived in

the 13th or 14th centuries. This is when there was the most turmoil between the wealthy land

owners and the peasants that lived below them.

Some stories relate Robin Hood hunting down the royalty to get revenge on high taxes and

unfair living conditions. In this period of time the gap between the peasant class and wealthy

land owners was very large. When the peasants struggled to find food to eat, the wealthy held

feasts. The built up resentment of the lower class people possibly could have resulted in a

vigilantly who took revenge into his own hands.

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The most popular story relates the hero Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the

poor. In this time period it was impossible to create wealth if you were in a lower class so

having a figure to take from the rich and give back to the poor was a very appealing story.

Because there was no way to become wealthy and the rich did not have to work for their

wealth the ethical question is: “Was it ethical for Robin Hood to steal from the rich and give

back to the poor.” Because the lower class worked very hard but never had the chance to

better their lives, it is in the grey area on an ethical scale. The wealthy land owners did not do

any work, they just lived in their castles and taxed the poor to gain wealth. Although it was the

standard in that time, it was not ethical to do. On the other hand, Robin Hood would return the

stolen property and wealth from those few wealthy and gave it back to the poor. Although in

most cases it is not ethical to steal, it could be viewed as ethical to give back stolen property

from the few wealthy to the large lower class.

Modern Day Robin Hood vs. Historic Robin Hood

There are many misconceptions with what Robin Hood would look like in our modern day. In

the historical sense he stole from the rich and gave to the poor but today if you steal from the

1% of the population that holds the majority of the wealth and distribute it to the lower classes

is a totally different situation. The ways that it is different is how the wealthy obtained their

wealth, the opportunity that the lower class has to obtain their own wealth, and the role that

the government played.

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In the time period that the character Robin Hood was created, the wealth were born into a

higher class. In a large majority of cases they did not work for the land or money that they had

in their possession. They increased their wealth by taxing the peasants and lower class or by

being friends with royalty and receiving benefits from them. In our current day, there are

innumerable ways to obtain wealth especially in the United States of America. A few ways that

wealth can be obtained is: creating a business can grow to be very profitable, climbing the

corporate ladder in a large company, and becoming great in the arts such as painting, acting,

dancing. None of those opportunities were available in the 13th or 14th century.

The lower class in the age of Robin Hood had no chance of ever accumulating wealth. This is

partly because of the large burden of taxes that were placed on them from the wealthy and

because if they were not born into royalty or any high class it was not acceptable to even

interact with a higher people. Today regardless of being born into a wealthy or less fortunate

family, you can make something of yourself.

There was once a child that grew up in the Brooklyn projects. It was a rough neighborhood and

the family by most standards were considered poor. This child worked hard at his football skills

to receive a scholarship to go to a university and receive an education. With his degree in

communications he began working for a little coffee shop. This man is named Howard Schultz

and the coffee shop that he runs is Starbucks. This is an example of someone that was born into

nothing and is now worth over one billion dollars.

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Ethics of a Modern Day Robin Hood

The point to be made with the difference in time periods is that if someone today robbed the

wealthy and gave to the poor that would not be ethical because in today’s world the wealthy

work for their wealth and the less fortunate have not. The rich are not stealing from the lower

class to gain their wealth as they were in the times of Robin Hood. In the article Robin Hood:

Man of the People or Destructive Thief by Phillip Parrish he explains the difference by saying,

“When you think about the differences in today’s society and Robin Hood’s society, it becomes

clear that Robin Hood didn’t become a hero because he stole from entrepreneurs who were

benefitting society, but because reclaimed what the state had already stolen from the people.”

So if someone took back what thieves stole from less fortunate people and returned the stolen

goods I feel like that is ethical. In fact that is what our justice system is in place to do regardless

of class or amount of money you have.

I do not believe that it is ethical to take from the wealthy and give it to the poor just because

the wealthy have more money than others. This is a form of Socialism that I think is wrong. Why

would it be ok to take money away from someone who has worked very hard and give it to

people who do not want to work? Of course there are situations in which financial aid is needed

and can be paid for through taxes paid by everyone. The wealthiest people in the United States

pay much more taxes than the lowest paid people in the United States. These taxes, along with

other things, pay for programs to help the lower classes such as Free Application of Federal

Student Aid, government welfare programs, and Medicaid.

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Conclusion

In conclusion I believe that it the idea of a modern day Robin Hood who steals from the rich and

gives to the poor is not ethical because of the opportunities to gain one’s own wealth present

today that were not available in the 13th or 14th centuries. That being said I believe that the idea

of a Robin Hood type person in the 13th or 14th century that would steal from the rich and

return the stolen goods to the poor is ethical because in most cases the rich did not earn the

wealth they had, it was all stolen from others.

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 References

Editors, H. (2010, May 05). The Real Robin Hood. Retrieved from

https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/robin-hood

Eisenberg, D. (2011, December 28). 15 Inspirational Rags-To-Riches Stories. Retrieved from

https://www.businessinsider.com/rags-to-riches-stories-2011-11#howard-schultz-grew-

up-in-the-brooklyn-projects-before-discovering-and-now-leading-starbucks-4

Parrish, P. (2017, April 24). Robin Hood: Man of the People or Destructive Thief? | Phillip

Parrish. Retrieved from https://fee.org/articles/robin-hood-man-of-the-people-or-

destructive-thief/

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