Mutiny
“It was, in royal eyes, quite acceptable to plunder ships and steal their booty,
as long as that was being done so for the furtherance of the empire, so long
as riches were still being channelled back to the capital. Pirates were ‘the
very negation of imperial social order’ precisely because to turn pirate they
had raised two fingers at those who commanded them.
It wasn’t their thievery that was so heinous, so extremely unpleasant,
but their self-determination and refusal to be governed“
Brewin, Kester. Mutiny! Why We Love Pirates, And How They Can Save Us
The Jolly Roger (skull & crossed bones)
“The skull and crossed bones does not just mean ‘we are bringing you death’;
rather it announces ‘we are the dead.’ We, the shat-on, the abused, the flogged,
the ones you treated as less than human, have escaped your power, have
slipped away from the identity you foisted onto us. We, the ones who you took
for dead, are returning as the dead – and thus free of all fear, free of all human
labels or classifications or ranks. We might say that pirates did not raise the
Jolly Roger as a symbol of violence, but rather as a declaration that no more
violence could be done to them.”
Brewin, Kester. Mutiny! Why We Love Pirates, And How They Can Save Us