And the romanticization continues...<p>Just like the Wild West outlaw or the medieval highwayman (like Robin Hood), there seems to be this weird sense of elevating thuggery to heroic status when the metaphorical statute of limitations runs out. It scares me a bit to think the people like Timothy McVeigh, the Columbine killers or these Somali pirates are going to be fondly remembered as I approach my retirement years...
The Emperor says to the Pirate: "How dare you think you can molest the seas!"<p>The pirate replies: "I am but a man with a small boat, so you call me a pirate. Yet you have a vast navy, and they call you an Emperor? How dare you think you can molest the world!"<p>-- Noam Chomsky: Pirates & Emperors<p><a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=676452061991429040" rel="nofollow">http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=676452061991429040</a>
> <i>At a time when the legitimate world's favored system of government was unconstrained monarchy, early 18th-century pirates were practicing constitutional democracy.</i><p>... and at a time when the legitimate world's favored system of government is unconstrained "democracy", modern pirates are practicing refreshing market anarchism.