The Bad Guys: Why They Win, and What They Lose

Someone who passes off another person’s work as their own can win, live happily, and feel no remorse. Through two scenes—a stolen project and a father who imposes the future he has prepared on his son—this essay examines capture: maintaining a contribution, a presence, or an agreement while neutralizing the responses that could change its attribution, use, or conditions. It distinguishes the uncertain, where one bets on outcomes already conceivable, from the unknown that can take shape as two people respond to one another and discover grounds for changing their plans. The loss concerns access to possibilities that would require that hold to be open to challenge. It may never be felt, takes nothing away from the gains obtained, and repairs nothing for the person subjected to capture.