
The Masterless People: Pirates, Maroons, and the Struggle to Live Free - kawera
https://longreads.com/2018/10/30/the-masterless-people-pirates-maroons-and-the-struggle-to-live-free/
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leppr
For anyone interested in that strange phenomenon, this book is a classic:
[https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300169171/art-not-
being-...](https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300169171/art-not-being-
governed)

~~~
frabbit
And his talks on the origins of the state (vulgarly summarized as "cities were
not to keep barbarians OUT, they were to keep the slave classes IN":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ukte-
je8k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ukte-je8k)

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
thanks for this link. amazing talk.

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agumonkey
1) Gets you curious about the name of the band Maroon 5.

2) Caribean islands are a cataclysm for your mind. Volcanic tropical islands
with colonial remains everywhere. Between the wild gigantism of nature, the
palette of colors, the mountains bathing in dark silk sand beaches. The
intensity of the sun... I'd suggest everyone to try to visit (if you're not
scared by humidity and insects of course)

~~~
bch
Maroon 5 is apparently a riff on yellow5[0][1].

[0] [https://www.yellow5.com/pokey/](https://www.yellow5.com/pokey/)

[1] ref: the author is a friend of mine. I don’t know how they determined the
relationship, but I’ve no reason to doubt the author.

Update: corroborated(?) [https://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Li-
Ou/Maroon-5.html](https://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Li-Ou/Maroon-5.html)

~~~
agumonkey
Thanks I couldnt fond any answer.

~~~
bch
More importantly, pokey the penguin.

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empath75
What a great article. I only wish there was more to it.

~~~
iicc
There is - it's an excerpt from a book "Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a
New History of America’s Origins" ISBN:9781632867797

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crimsonalucard
Civilization and society is built by people working together under the
coercion of masters. Often, to be masterless, is to live on the fringes of
civilization. That is, unless you, yourself are a master.

~~~
rebuilder
I think it would be more accurate to say it _has been_ built by people working
under the coercion of masters. Just like civilization has been built by people
subjected to rain, snow, drought and pestilence. These conditions may be
necessary for civilization to work, but I don't think we can say for sure they
are. It's just how we got here.

~~~
crimsonalucard
All of modern society is this way. Masters coerce with salaries. Societies can
not be built or maintained through the power of inspirational charisma from
leaders or good will from the people. Money talks. You need to pay me a
salary.

------
frabbit
Marcus Rediker has some interesting scholarship on pirates, and expanding it
out a little into the result of mercantile capitalism creating a new
proletariat Linebaugh and Rediker's "Many Headed Hydra" is a good read:
[http://www.beacon.org/The-Many-Headed-
Hydra-P1017.aspx](http://www.beacon.org/The-Many-Headed-Hydra-P1017.aspx)

------
wimbledon
True freedom cannot exist in the modern world. You are almost always indebted
to a loan or a company or your tax man or your government. If you are telling
yourself anything else, you are lying to yourself.

~~~
grecy
...well....

I've been living in a vehicle driving around Africa for 2.5 years now[1]. I'm
technically a resident of no country (I have not spent more than 3 months in a
single country in the last 2.5 years, and in all of those I only had a tourist
visa where work was strictly prohibited)

So I have no loans, and technically don't have to pay tax anywhere. I am not a
citizen of the country I was previously residing in, so I have been unable to
vote for 15 years, so I would say the government doesn't have much control
over me. I would have to renew my passport in another 7 years, but I can do
that online and just get it mailed anywhere in the world.

I suppose I do pay some bank fees, though those are more than cancelled out by
interest.

I personally will run out of money and won't be able to do this forever, but I
have bumped into hundreds of Germans who have more money than they could spend
in 10 lifetimes, and have been driving and roaming around Africa/the entire
world for 10+ years, utterly free. It's not uncommon.

[1] I'm
[http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme/](http://instagram.com/theroadchoseme/)

~~~
dragonwriter
> but I have bumped into hundreds of Germans who have more money than they
> could spend in 10 lifetimes

Yes, those people are part of the class of ”masters”, and the money is the
means by which they direct others to serve them. (Foregoing members of the
“master” class have set up the mechanisms by which control can be applied, and
other current members of the class spend some time supervising and directing
maintenance of those mechanisms, but there are masters who just use the
mechanisms without worrying about them.)

Being in the class of masters isn't the same as living in a masterless
society.

~~~
drb91
Only by reducing “master” to nearly meaningless as a distinct term. I’m not
sure what the conversation gains from that.

Anyway, there was never a claim to a masterless society, only a free
individual.

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yters
Unless you don't exist you'll always have a dependence on something other than
yourself. Utter independence is a logical impossibility. Although, you could
convince yourself of solipism, which is the closest you can get, subjectively
speaking. And we have a special place for these kinds of 'free' people.

~~~
forkandwait
Thanks for a perfect example of a strawman fallacy. Nobody is arguing
completely independent, just free of masters

