Yar. There's been a lot of pirate talk lately. Maybe its cause there are more high profile incidents or maybe there's finally been enough media coverage, but I think it may be because we're finally getting pissed off about it. In fact there's been some (online) debate about changing the term for digital "piracy" because comparing copying "American Pie 6, The Pie's Revenge" to shooting rpgs at food aid freighters and ransoming hostages isn't exactly fair. Of course there's a split in commercial digital pirates who're making money from their excercises and the regular digital pirates who object to some machination of the industry they're standing against.
The Internet has had a virtual love-affair with two kinds of piracy, starting out with copying software that was prohibitively expensive. It was the lone web navigator sticking it to the crown and playing by his own rules. Then came the old school pirate meme whereby we romanticized historical piracy. These swarthily dressed rapscallions of our imagination were free spirits who refused to conform. They were symbols of independence and defiance that made for kick-ass theme parties. They magically diverged from the most fundamental doctrines like rape, pillage, murder, plunder and rape. So when we think of an old school pirate our minds conjure this Renaissance fair character, Jack Sparrow or Westley. I guess that's the difference between an old school pirate and a historical pirate; throat slashing.
And then of course there are these modern pirates who are more like amphibian South American guerrillas. They swoop in, take some hostages, get the pay off and swoop away for the next score. Private energy companies have been dealing with this for years, just not on the ocean. They're no pirates in that they don't want the things they capture. Bank robbers want the money in the vault. Pirates want the cargo on the ship. Modern pirates are kidnappers who hold a ship hostage and flee in dinghies. There are all kinds of justifications for what they do, but its getting harder and harder to believe there is some kind of honor in their trade. And I gotta say, I'm surprisingly okay with shooting them in the head. I mean, this is exactly the opposite of my view on 'insurgents'. We create more hostility and more combatants for every military action. Maybe the insurgents and the kidnappers are more similar than I think but it doesn't seem like there's much ideology behind "first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women".
So there you go, my take on piracy.
The Internet has had a virtual love-affair with two kinds of piracy, starting out with copying software that was prohibitively expensive. It was the lone web navigator sticking it to the crown and playing by his own rules. Then came the old school pirate meme whereby we romanticized historical piracy. These swarthily dressed rapscallions of our imagination were free spirits who refused to conform. They were symbols of independence and defiance that made for kick-ass theme parties. They magically diverged from the most fundamental doctrines like rape, pillage, murder, plunder and rape. So when we think of an old school pirate our minds conjure this Renaissance fair character, Jack Sparrow or Westley. I guess that's the difference between an old school pirate and a historical pirate; throat slashing.
And then of course there are these modern pirates who are more like amphibian South American guerrillas. They swoop in, take some hostages, get the pay off and swoop away for the next score. Private energy companies have been dealing with this for years, just not on the ocean. They're no pirates in that they don't want the things they capture. Bank robbers want the money in the vault. Pirates want the cargo on the ship. Modern pirates are kidnappers who hold a ship hostage and flee in dinghies. There are all kinds of justifications for what they do, but its getting harder and harder to believe there is some kind of honor in their trade. And I gotta say, I'm surprisingly okay with shooting them in the head. I mean, this is exactly the opposite of my view on 'insurgents'. We create more hostility and more combatants for every military action. Maybe the insurgents and the kidnappers are more similar than I think but it doesn't seem like there's much ideology behind "first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women".
So there you go, my take on piracy.
- Digital (chinese and regular)
- Old School (fantasy and historical)
- Modern (kidnappers)
- What Kind Of Pirate Are You?: Pics, Videos, Links, News
- First Barbary War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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