talk like a ship hijacker day

[rone]

All i can say on the subject is, "Avast."  Which, if you look it up, means "stop".

I wonder why popular culture embraces thieves, assassins, and slavers (pirates, ninjas, and pimps) and raises them to a level of cool.

Comments

[erikred.livejournal.com]

'Cos it annoys the hell out of people who are so postmodern they don't get it.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Your response was amusing yet completely worthless; very postmodern. So sharp you just might have cut yourself.

Why are pirates and ninjas cool?

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Because we've become such wusses.

Pimps, on the other hand, are not cool. However hard out here it may be for them.

[waider.livejournal.com]

If it wasn't for the Internet, noone would be able to take a half-assed stoner idea and turn it into a repeating world-wide meme.

I bet Vint Cerf and friends are so proud.

[reverendluke.livejournal.com]

I'm a bigger fan of vikings and mongols, personally.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Me, too. We should have a Talk Like a Viking day and make everybody learn Old Norse.

[tskirvin.livejournal.com]

It's the costumes. Americans love a good game of dress-up, even if just verbally.

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

I wonder why popular culture embraces thieves, assassins, and slavers (pirates, ninjas, and pimps) and raises them to a level of cool

It's that entrepeneurial spirit, of course! If dominant popular culture used a totemic value system (such as has been popularized about several native cultures), we might be inclined to hunt down and eat the hearts of these very icons of adulation! You know, to ritually absorb that entrepeneurial spirit.

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

don't you like theft, murder, and slavery?

[kodi]

Ninjas don't bother me so much, because I'm not aware of any deaths due to ninja attack over the past decade.

Is it safe to say you're not bothered by popular culture's embrace of primal lurkers beyond time which will one day resume their cruel rule of earth because such things do not actually exist?

[kodi]

That last sentence fills me with shame. The object of popular culture's embrace is "primal lurkers beyond time which will one day resume their cruel rule of earth." A better phrasing might be: "Does such an embrace bother you? Why or why not?"

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

The lurkers support me in email.

[vajrabot.livejournal.com]

>I wonder why popular culture embraces thieves, assassins, and slavers (pirates, ninjas, and pimps) and raises them to a level of cool.

Because they freely, proudly, do the sorts of things most people wish they could do but don't because of morality and fear of punishment. It also helps that the victims are people who are historically or sociologically remote enough from the pretenders that they don't have to feel any empathy for them. It's easier to pretend to be a ninja, whose victims were who-knows-what-sort-of-ancient-asian-people than a Nazi whose victims were the sorts of people we know and interact with.

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

Weird, I didn't see your comment, or those that followed. But I think it's amusing a bunch of us all independently came to a group decision that it's the freedom that's cool.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Ninjas display skill, focus, and discipline. These are attractive qualities. Pirates are emblematic of freedom, of being outside the constraints of civilized society while still reaping some of its benefits through plunder. See also: Ocean's Eleven and other heist movies -- skilled thievery, especially when thieving from folk perceived as 'having too much' or 'not deserving' their wealth, is often admired.

I don't know who the hell is into pimps.

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

The same people who are into rap music.

i.e. white teenagers.

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

Hey, there's movies about them!

The pirate-ninja thing is getting a little old. And the pimp thing has long since bothered me.

I prefer monkeys and robots. They're real, but completely different in popular culture than real life. They're dangerous too, but that's not their primary attribute.

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

It's that whole outlaw/rebel thing. There's always been a fascination with people who say "fuck you" to society. Witness Robin Hood. You can't exactly blame recent media blockbusters for why some guy became famous hundreds of years ago, so it must be this deeply-ingrained cross-cultural force. Society depends on people doing what everyone else wants them to, but we secretly wish to do whatever damn please. The more oppressive society is, the more violent our dreams become -- which is why cowboys, who used to be popular for the same reason as pirates, are no longer popular, but western outlaws still are.

As long as people are saying "I wish I were a ninja/pirate/gunslinger/Adam Ant, but without all the violence and craziness," I'm OK with it.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Hollywood appears to be simultaneously trying to convince me that pirates are cool if they kill people and steal or destroy property, but evil if they rip off movies. They're probably spending and profiting more on the former, too...

Ochitsuite yo, Francis-kun

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Going by what few historical records actually exist about them, ninja were only rarely assassins. The Sengoku period saw them employed them as spies and special ops agents, for the most part. "Nin" not only means "to conceal", it also means "to endure". Much of their training focused more on survival than attack.
The basic book of strategy among the shoguns was Sun Tzu's Art of War, which prescribed the use of spies, and espionage was rife between the states. They were almost never assassins for hire, they were usually very talented men (and women) in military service for their lord or state. To the Japanese, the ninja are more like magical Green-Berets.

kaizoku to ponbiki no yatsu wa saitei nan da yo.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

So they're Blackwater. Got it.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Oh, no. Hell no. Most ninja in record were recognized vassals of a warlord, if not actual samurai themselves. Not illegal mercenariescontractors.

Re: Ochitsuite yo, Francis-kun

[palecur.livejournal.com]

magical Green-Berets.

Dammit now I am envisioning hairy military dudes having a stars-and-swirling-modesty-mist nude transformation sequence a la Sailor Moon, the archetypal Magical Girl. You suck so bad.

Never has this icon been more appropriate

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

all stars and bars swirling around him to burst off in an explosion of glittery hearts and sea eagle tats!

Karl Rove ni kowatte, oshioki yo! (In the name of Karl Rove, I shall punish you!)

Re: Ochitsuite yo, Francis-kun

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

The Internet may not have exactly that, but it has the next best thing. (http://syndicated.livejournal.com/warrenelliscom/1191921.html)

wrong branch, but:

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

OORAH

[merovingian.livejournal.com]

We love pirates for the same reason that we love Santa Claus:

Because we are told to do so.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

I love Santa Claus because the alternatives are disturbing (http://erikred.blogspot.com/2007/05/rare-exports-pts-1-and-2.html).

[merovingian.livejournal.com]

That's something to see, that is.

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

Think about spammers for a moment.


*Now* how do you feel about assassins?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

No, no, important people are assassinated. Spammers should be slaughtered.

[mdyesowitch.livejournal.com]

I embrace it because it's fun. I'd embrace Talk Like a Scot or Talk Like a Hillbilly day with the same enthusiasm.

However I will comment that rogues have always been lovable. Have you ever wandered down the romance aisle? These are a sampling of the "heroes"
Vikings
Pirates
Slave Owners (popular in the 70s and 80s...not as much today)
Sheiks (still every bit as popular)
Vampires
Werewolves
Thieves
Rakes (men with more money than sense and a ferocious sense of entitlement)

The point is, it's fantasy. And if we want to romanticize a pirate or privateer (pirate with a country), we can do it because they're no longer a threat. I don't see it as a glorification of a bloody profession; anymore than I assume that because I daydream about masterful men, I secretly want to be raped. You're drawing a line between reality and fantasy and that line was never meant to exist.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

I am disturbed that robots, monkeys, and ninjas are not on that list. Clearly, something must be done.

[mdyesowitch.livejournal.com]

In fairness, my list was a subset. Robots would appear on any comprehensive list.

Oddly enough monkeys and ninjas are still on the outs...

[wisn.livejournal.com]

> I'd embrace Talk Like a Scot or Talk Like a Hillbilly day with the same enthusiasm.

January 27 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns) and the Saturday after November 9 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadie_Hawkins_Day), respectively.

Before you ask, I already know about Talk Like an Irishman day, too.

For some reason, the internet trendsetters are not latching onto these things.

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

Spoilsport!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I'm Old Man Grumpus!

[wisn.livejournal.com]

> I wonder why popular culture embraces thieves, assassins, and slavers (pirates, ninjas, and pimps) and raises them to a level of cool.

We keep voting for Republicans too. Even though they repeatedly fail to be fiscally responsible or even heterosexual.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

On a related note, why is it that nothing can possibly be funnier than Nazis?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

False. Funnier than Nazis: lolnazis.

[peglegpete.livejournal.com]

Man, you were two dashes and a space away from being my hero FOREVER.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

What, you wanted a .sig heil? I don't get it.