Have you ever stopped and thought about pirates? Seriously. Pirates. You know… those swashbuckling fiends we root for on the silver screen. Don’t you just love Captain Jack Sparrow, Long John Silver, Anne Bonny, Captains Flint and Charles Vane?
Like a lot of people I grew up fascinated with the lore of pirates and their tales of gold, adventure and fighting. Being a nautical minded person I’ve always had an affinity for anything dealing with the oceans - under or on them. But as I age and take stock of more serious issues in life I am forced to give pause and consider the true nature of pirates when I see films and movies about them or even consider the naming of sports teams after them. About the best thing I can think to say about pirates is they weren’t as bad as ISIS and that’s not much of a compliment.
We have for some reason romanticized pirates and piracy. Consider that. As a society we have taken ordinary men with a lust for blood, women, drink and money and given them respect. We get upset when a male celebrity beats on a woman yet we idolize men who beat, brutalized and raped women on a regular basis. We are shocked when an individual plows through a crowd in a vehicle or meanders through a school or business with a gun killing at will but why aren’t we more appalled at the atrocities of pirates through the ages? Why do we idolize those rapists, murderers and thieves? Their defiance of authority and the romantic notion we have of them freely wandering the seas are ideals that are alluring to us. But we can’t justify their brutality so we trivialize it in order to feel good about their carefree lifestyles.
I know, a lot of people will say I’m being ridiculous or nit picking but consider this - we remove confederate flags, change the names of sports teams and generally pout when someone hurts our feelings by something that is said but those same persons will jump at the chance to root for murdering rapists when they can see another Pirates of the Caribbean movie or the next season of Black Sails.
Just something to think about.
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