

In Defense of Pirates (The Old Time Ones) - clofresh
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102961315

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DLWormwood
And the romanticization continues...

Just like the Wild West outlaw or the medieval highwayman (like Robin Hood),
there seems to be this weird sense of elevating thuggery to heroic status when
the metaphorical statute of limitations runs out. It scares me a bit to think
the people like Timothy McVeigh, the Columbine killers or these Somali pirates
are going to be fondly remembered as I approach my retirement years...

~~~
imgabe
Human beings are rarely simple, one dimensional creatures. What's wrong with
acknowledging some positive aspects of otherwise reprehensible people?

We don't have to admire or revere someone to be able to learn from them. It's
not their thuggery that's being elevated here, but their institution of
democracy among the crew members.

------
Create
The Emperor says to the Pirate: "How dare you think you can molest the seas!"

The pirate replies: "I am but a man with a small boat, so you call me a
pirate. Yet you have a vast navy, and they call you an Emperor? How dare you
think you can molest the world!"

\-- Noam Chomsky: Pirates & Emperors

<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=676452061991429040>

~~~
whughes
The quote is from Augustine's City of God, originally, and it referred to
Alexander the Great as the emperor.

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mindslight
> _At a time when the legitimate world's favored system of government was
> unconstrained monarchy, early 18th-century pirates were practicing
> constitutional democracy._

... and at a time when the legitimate world's favored system of government is
unconstrained "democracy", modern pirates are practicing refreshing market
anarchism.

