Without doubt, the title of this post might seem very strange – which is somehow intended as well. Never the less, it is exactly what it’s going to be about. Also, I thought it would be good to go back to the really random inputs, after being M.I.A. for so long. Sorry about that.
Throughout the history, pirates have never really been regarded as joyful chaps, which is probably due to the fact that all we’ve heard about them is the (mindless?) raiding and razing of cities and ships alike, fighting, rum-drinking and stealing both persons and treasures – and more rum. In the modern times, the pirate regalia seems to have been toned down, the rum drinking has been toned down, and only big ships are being attacked. Disrespectful in regards to the pirate legacy, as far as history goes. It would seem that this would result in pirates being very unpopular in social terms, so there must be other factors to look at.
The modern times brought us other things than under-dressing pirates: movies, for instance. Here, in the case of a certain bunch of fine pirates from the Caribbean, a trend of good (or well, more correct would be to say “not as bad as the bad ones”) pirates surfaced. What’s even better, was that these pirates certainly weren’t under-dressed, but looked like proper pirates – even the bad ones! They also provided a high amount of entertainment and the coolness-factor, in the form of cutlass-battles, acrobatic fights across the decks of their impressive vessels.
Not only that, pirates have also managed to get an (more or less) official day of the year, where everyone is advised to talk like a pirate – fittingly named “International Talk Like A Pirate Day“, on September 19th. Few can argue against this humorous idea, and it certainly gives the pirates a good notch upwards the positive scale.
The new times furthermore provided us with pirates entering religion, for being the chosen people (and, on top of that, “absolute divine beings”) of The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Relevant to the now heated debate (pun intended), the amount pirates seem to have an influence on the global warming, which itself should be a good reason to like them even more.
So, what could a pirate waltzing around these days expect? I tested this around a week ago, as I was going to a Carnival-party further into Copenhagen dressed as a Pirate, and had to ride the Metro alone (my companions chose to battle the frozen winter on bicycles). Here, I was vocally greeted with “Arr!” and other greetings, which is highly unusual, as it’s rare to even get a vocal greeting from random people – at least in Denmark. Perhaps it was the dashing good looks, perhaps it was the climate-knowledge (COP 15 was, after all, taking place in Copenhagen) or the respect of their good free spirit (both referring to the soul and the rum here). Further backing up the theory on the dropping amounts of proper pirates, I only managed to find one other pirate at the party.
All in all; there are few classical pirates left, we aren’t such bad a bunch (except the modern wanna-be pirates), and by increasing the amount, you’ll help the climate. What’s not to like?
