All of these people had inherent worth and dignity, as did the people they abused. In my opinion, all of them squandered this dignity. Luckily, God, a much more broad-minded entity than myself, saves pirate and victim, slaveowner and slave, racist and target alike. Should I find myself confronted with my pirate ancestors in a blissful future place, I will probably NOT say “Ahoy, matey!” and slap them happily on the back. But in my present life, thankfully devoid of actual pirates, slaveowners, and Klanmembers, I can enjoy ahistorical pirate clowning and a good (or even a bad) Captain Jack Sparrow flik.

from a comment on fuuse.com relating to talk like a pirate day:
“the pirate stereotype that we playfully embrace (”yaar”, eyepatches, hooks, parrots, peglegs, and puffy shirts) can be almost entirely attributed to Actor Robert Newton, who portrayed Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island, other actors like Errol Flynn, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Treasure Island. This stereotype has almost nothing to do with the reality of the nature of pirates, which none of us are actually celebrating.”

and that comment was actually in response to a re-post which made it clear that there are still pirates in the world today, and they are still despicable in their actions. just because the US doesn’t have too much of a problem with pirates doesn’t mean that there aren’t boats getting hijacked in other parts of the world.

the original post can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/mgvph, and it’s good stuff.

I’d say it’s difficult to remove pretend killing and pretend killers from human playtime.
We do seem able (or willing?) to mostly remove certain classes of killers from playtime, but I’m not sure what the distinction is.

Hmm, Now I’m imaginging peter pan and wendy going up against gangsters.

In a *much* different context, gentrification has turned the image of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into a multiculti, socially acceptable, unAmerican-not-to-like-him fuzzy bunny. I deeply respect Dr. King’s work, and I deeply resent the sugarcoating of some of his beliefs in order to make them palatable to the majority. The media has not only gentrified him but emasculated his message in the process by generally removing all traces of non-we-are-the-world-ness. If you read some of his speeches, there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye, and the parts that could make some white people uncomfortable (oh, god forbid) are never discussed. Instead, he’s trotted out once a year for Black History Month, TV stations will do 15-second “Honoring the Dream” spots, and That’s.All. He — and the Civil Rights movement — deserved better.

Although I don’t think it will be taken as such, just to be safe, let me say unequivocally that I AM NOT EQUATING PIRATES WITH THE REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING (I can’t believe I just typed that) — I’m making a point about gentrification and its various aspects. In my personal opinion, when you lose the direct connection, when you pick-and-choose the “funny” or “good” stuff, you lose the original whole-in-its-entirety, and it becomes a soft, toothless object.

I guess I’m no fun, either.

(PB — I hope I haven’t overstepped my bounds as a new reader.)

The archetypal pirate makes his own rules and has a swashbuckling, exciting, adventurous life. That’s what Depp is playing — not an actual real-life pirate.

The fact that pirates are bad is part of the appeal. Society wants me to be good, so I’ll show them — I’ll be a pirate!

When I read this, I made a loud, snorty laugh that made one of my coworkers turn around.

CC

But … how about the inherent worth and dignity of … Hitler?

(Oh gosh no, Paul, please don’t start that discussion all over again…)

(Paul grins slightly to himself but not publicly in case it might offend anyone …)

Wikipedian Scripture tells us that “According to the Pastafarian belief system, pirates are ‘absolute divine beings’ and the original Pastafarians. Their image as ‘thieves and outcasts’ is all misinformation spread by Christian theologians of the Middle Ages. In reality, Pastafarianism says that they were ‘peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will’ who would distribute candy to children.”

Now that the FSM is no longer here among us, and pireates are threatened with extinction, it falls upon us to be his Noodly Appendages here on earth and be good stewards of all of his precious creation, even (or especially) pirates.

Arrh, by Davy Jones’ boots, some lan’lubbers be dumber than a whole barrel o’headless kippers.