Make no
mistake: I detest and reject the romanticizing of pirates by novelists and
Hollywood. The truth is that they were the terrorists of their age.
Yep, the
Jolly Roger was no sign of sexy hijinks but that one’s life was about to be cut
short.
Pirates had
a deadly purpose in what they did: rob ships and their passengers of their ‘portable
property’ (as Dickens would say in Great Expectations) to finance their illicit
lifestyle.
They would
fly false colors to lure a ship into complacency as they appeared upon the
horizon until they drew close when they would run up the Skull and Crossbones,
a human skull that hovered over an X of armbones upon a black field.
Their
purpose was clear: ships that surrendered without a fight were plundered but
the passengers’ lives were spared. Ships that tried to run or fight—crew and
passengers were murdered without a twinge of conscience.
Striking
terror into their targets was a deliberate policy that made their job easier
and, without a fight, less likely that any pirate would die.
Nevertheless,
a pirate’s life was brutal and short. Apart from the golden age when the crowns
of Europe authorized their deprivations to advance their wars (privateer vs.
pirate), pirates were hunted by the authorities and, whenever captured, hung.
What then
attracted men to piracy?
In the 1600s
and 1700s, as Europe moved from feudalism into modernity, the prospects of the
ordinary man were few. They lived lives of futility upon the few acres of the
land of their birth, completely controlled by the local nobleman, or they
escaped into military service, another nightmarish world where the slightest
infraction was met with severe discipline such as flogging.
A pirate,
though, thumbed his nose at the crown head, the authorities, and the society
that despised him. A pirate lived a life of freedom. A pirate did as he pleased
with his shipmates, and though he chose a life of debauchery and pillage, it
was his choice. That was exhilarating to men whose life’s courses were
otherwise determined by the status of their grandfathers’ births.
They were
free! Although that meant that their only means of support was robbery and that
they made poor lifestyle choices, throwing themselves into drunkenness and
squalor, promiscuity and disease, yet—it was their choice. That made all the
difference.
Is it any
different today in our poorest, most desperate, urban neighborhoods? Places
where there are no prospects, no means of holding a job because there are no
jobs, and no opportunities to do anything else than hang out on the street
corner?
Life can be
brutal and short. Authorities look for the slightest infraction and though we
no longer use hanging, these young men are tossed into prison for long
stretches of their lives, long enough that all meaning has gone by and the most
basic of human desires—that of producing the next generation—is thwarted.
It is a life
where life is not guaranteed. An encounter with the authorities is a crapshoot—one
may live or one may roll snake-eyes. The choice to obey and you will live is
not given to the pirate in the ‘hood. When you look at the world through their
eyes, their choices are not surprising after all.
When there
are no jobs, the only choice is to be an entrepreneur. What business
opportunities exist in the neighborhood? Ones that require no capital outlay
(for they have none)? The opportunities may be illegal and invoke the wrath of
authorities, but that’s only a cost of doing business. It’s all they have.
Don’t preach
at them about education, these city pirates. Even if you assembled a group of
100 superteachers, who rescued their schools, and they spent their K-12 years
learning, walking out with a diploma, what good is that when there are no jobs
for them, their neighborhoods disintegrate, and they struggle to survive?
Look at the
world through their eyes and the ones who drop out, the ones who check out,
seem smarter than the ones who hang in.
And for a
few brief years, only a few but enough, they live lives of freedom. Free to do
as they choose, free to raise a finger (you know which one) in the face of
society, free to compete for supremacy with no rules, free to be the best they
can be in their world, even if that world involves violence, murder, and emotional
turmoil.
Free.
Addendum:
What happened to the pirates?
Once the
authorities became serious and united in wanting to suppress them, military
operations against their strongholds and towns that supported them grew
comprehensive and more effective.
But there
are always plenty of places in the world to hide. What really did the pirates
in was that the world changed around them.
As colonies
expanded and prosperity grew, as opportunities for merchants, craftsmen, and
small farmers meant that an ordinary man could find the means to earn income
and support a family, the allure of piracy faded and then died out.
These
changes also took place in the homelands of Europe.
It is no
different today and it is time our society got on with it—creating and
expanding opportunities in our poorest and most desperate neighborhoods so that
our young <ahem> entrepreneurs would find other avenues in which to
invest their energy and their lives.
