Pirates bug me as mythological icons because of the particular problems I mentioned above. And because, unlike the other myhologized movements you talk about, pirates were apolytical. The embrace of pirates to me reflects an embrace of a kind of anarchism that is about finding personal satisfaction, flaunting your membership in a small, self-selected counterculture, and not really giving a shit about the rest of the world. I guess that's lifestyle anarchism. I won't pretend to be a piratologist or something, so I don't know as much about them as I could, but I think the choice of pirates as icons reflects the priveldge and whiteness that characarises so many of the anarchists that idolize them.
The slave trade was complicated. There were freed slaves who were also slave traders. There were maroon societies that kept slaves. I know pirates weren't the primary actors in the slave trade, but let's choose heroes who resisted slavery instead of accepting or embracing it. That seems basic.
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Date: 2006-02-03 09:32 pm (UTC)The slave trade was complicated. There were freed slaves who were also slave traders. There were maroon societies that kept slaves. I know pirates weren't the primary actors in the slave trade, but let's choose heroes who resisted slavery instead of accepting or embracing it. That seems basic.