Complex Numbers

Pirates

While in Floriduh last weekend, we saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - appropriately enough, considering we were maybe an hour from Disneyworld at the time.

When the second movie came out, I indicated that I wasn't impressed by it. Well, I was a bit more impressed by this third movie - the pirate accents were somewhat less thick, and I could understand most of what they said. The plot took enough turns to keep things interesting, and a lot gets wrapped up; there's not much more you can expect from the last of a trilogy.

Damn thing was long, though - and I hear they had to cut it even to get it to where it was.

But I've come to a broader conclusion than mere movie criticism:

I don't like pirates.

*waits while someone revives Problematic Content *

No, I haven't turned into a ninja.

The movies are fun and all, but the more I think about it, the more I don't like the glorification of being a pirate. "Take what you can... give nothing back." Seems to me that such an attitude is the problem, not the solution.

In the same theater, on a previous visit, I saw Superman Returns when it came out, so I couldn't help contrasting Superman with the whole pirate thing. I got to thinking: Superman (not a ninja) is the polar opposite of a pirate. I'd expect his philosophy to be more on the lines of "Give what you can, take nothing back." Less fun? Maybe, but...

I keep running into people who are proud of how they scorn rules and such - the pirate way. Others claim to follow rules but don't - which is, admittedly, worse, because at least with the first group you know where you stand (with your hand firmly clenched around your wallet). Thing is, rules and laws and so forth were put there to help us get along with each other - something that becomes ever more important in a society where global communication is nearly instantaneous. At a time when we need to be more careful of other people, we're becoming less so.

Robert A. Heinlein once wrote (paraphrasing here) that the decline and fall of any civilization begins with a breakdown in interpersonal courtesy. I'm not really sure if he had facts to back this up - all civilizations fall eventually, and one culture's courtesy can be another culture's mortal insult - but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a correlation. But no - we find it "cool" to insult each other, especially in the safety of the basement of the Internet, and insults have been big business for a long time.

"So people need to stop being thin-skinned." The problem with developing a thick skin is that you lose sensitivity.

Even the fictional pirates had a code - today's "pirates" don't seem to have even that. They take what they can. They give nothing back - except the ubiquitous clever, rude insult.

Do I want to see things become more politically correct? Not I - far from it. There's a line, though, and most of us don't seem to know where that line is. Probably has something to do with the Monkeysphere I posted about a while back. Some people just don't register as people, not when there are six and a half billion of us crowding the planet.

"The world's a smaller place now"
"No - there's just less in it."