Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!
Aye Aye Captain!
Shiver Me Timbers.
Blimey!
Savvy?
These might be some of the first things that come to your mind when you hear the word pirate.
Along with the sounds, images of a bloodthirsty guy with a big beard, a peg leg, an eyepatch, a chapeau with the devil’s symbol shouting vulgar words might pop up in your head too.
You are wrong. Pirates are amazing.
Almost everything about pirates is exaggerated. Pirates are not evil creatures who always hunt for gold and kill everyone they come across as portrayed by books and Hollywood movies. Sure they killed some people, but in those days, who did not kill. But most of the time, they did not kill for gold or any rewards but instead were just trying to defend their country from colonizers.
Unfortunately for them, they lost the war, and you probably know, history is always written by the victors, so pirates became a byword for law-breaking rascals.
But that is not my point. I am not here to justify their past actions. Who cares if they were not the so-called evil guys as thought by modern-day society. That does not make them the ideal humans. There are plenty of people like them who exist today.
My point is that amongst pirates, ableism, sexism, and discrimination do not exist.
Don’t have a leg? Wear a peg leg and go run like the wind!
Lost a hand? Wear a hook and go fight someone.
Blind in one eye? Put on an eyepatch and go lookout for enemies.
Deaf? Go man the cannons, you glorious scumbag.
A woman? Who gives a shit. You can be the captain.
Male? Uh-huh, privileges don’t exist here. Mop the floor, you idiot.
Black or white? No one cares. You work hard, you rise the ranks. Or else shit on the floor.
The point is they don’t care who you are or what you are because as long as you can do something useful, they don’t give a shit.
There are probably only a handful of human settlements on Earth which exist like this. But what makes pirates better than them is that every pirate follows the pirate code.
In simple words, pirates have a constitution. Everything from how to split the spoils, who does what job, roles of the captain, etc, are written in it. Anyone who breaks a rule is punished by hanging till death. It may sound a little too harsh to some of you, but to enforce discipline and order, you have got to do whatever it takes.
Today’s world is the opposite. Ableism exists. Sexism exists. Discrimination exists. Privileges exist.
Differently-abled? Oh sorry. You are going to be discriminated against everywhere, every time. No jobs for you.
A female? Oops. This is a terrible time for you to be born. You will not have any say in our patriarchal society.
It does not matter how talented or hard-working you are. Your success in life is determined by your social and economic background: Your parents’ wealth, your ethnicity, your color, and a gazillion other factors.
Laws are useless. Innocent people rot in prison while criminals roam free. People do not think even once before breaking them, forget twice.
The point is, in today’s world, no one is allowed to be themselves. You will always live in doubt, fear, and insecurity. You may be a celebrity, or a famous scientist, or heck, even the president of a country. But you will always be subject to this.
Imagine a world where no one cares about your background. People only care about what you can do. There would be no doubt, no fear, and no insecurity. It would be a utopia, except that it already exists.
Only two things matter in the world, what a person can do and what a person cant do.
Pirates for life!
