After a sharp exchange with one of the most muggy (or is that wumpish?) of
Mugwumps on another bulletin board on this same subject not too long ago, I've been reluctant to jump into this one - as a "big box
Yo-Ho-Hoer" (more on that in a moment...), I tend to get frustrated with those who, IMHO, make a fundamental mistake with respect to interpreting the culture of the Third Imperium: that is, those who extrapolate Third Imperium social institutions forward from our 21st century, predominately Western mores, rather than taking the Third Imperium as it is presented, and attempting to understand the social forces from which such institutions might arise.
Piracy is a social institution, and needs to be understood in this context. With that in mind, I'm going to drop what may be a novel concept on you:
Pirates = nomads.
Once you arrive at this simple conclusion, the context explains much about the whys and wherefores of piracy.
For example, why does a pirate use a multi-million credit starship to engage in dangerous attacks on other multi-million credit vessels? Why not just sell it and retire comfortably? After all, forging title and altering transponders may be difficult but is by no means impossible, and surely there are those who would buy the starship with few questions asked.
For the same reason that a nomad warrior doesn't trade away his horses: because the nomad defines his place in the world, and confirms his status among his peers, by his prowess as a rider and raider, not as a "mere" trader of horseflesh. To the nomad the horse is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It is integral not just to the nomad's lifeways, but to his social position and his very identity.
That pirate's starship is like the nomad's horses - a means to an end, with the end in this case not just plunder but rather living
defiantly outside the norms of society. Pirates inhabit a subculture where risk is its own reward, where an honest credit earned is accounted less than a bloody credit brazenly stolen. Risk-taking is integral to the pirate subculture - the more cunning or brazen the tactic, the greater the pirate's prowess among her peers. A pirate doesn't wish she was a wealthy merchant - in fact, she
disdains the merchant's comfortable lifestyle.
Yes, undoubtedly a few pirates follow the course of Henry Morgan, from pirate to gentry, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. Most pirates accept - no, they
embrace - the possibility of meeting their end in the cold of space in exchange for the wild thrill of the hunt, for earning the respect of their peers by their daring, tenacity, and skill, and, perhaps most important of all, living by the social norms that they create for themselves, not those which are imposed upon them.
This is why I consider myself a
Yo-Ho-Hoer. Up-thread
Bill Cameron [1] mentioned the idea that some pirates are essentially
dumb enough to try attacking merchants ships at the 100D limit, in the very teeth of armed traders and prowling warships. Clearly there are few things more dangerous to attempt, but
IMTU that's
exactly why they are tried time and again - because pulling off this most dangerous of tactics earns a pirate something far more valuable than mere plunder: Reputation. Prowess. Status.
Prestige.
IMTU pirates attack ships away from the main "shipping lanes" (that is, away from the 100D limit), such as intrasystem traffic. They raid settlements. They hijack starships in motion, or steal them from starports. Their favored prey are smugglers, that is, those merchants who choose to operate outside the law (read: social norm) and who are equally interested in avoiding things like patrol cruisers or customs cutters.
And they seek their prey at the 100D limit as well. They use subterfuge, from fake distress calls to posing as a patrol vessel. They work with hijackers already positioned aboard a merchant, to attack from without and within. They work in teams of multiple ships to lure away system defense boats.
And sometimes they will launch that most brazen, most daring, and most foolhardy of attacks, "unfurling the Red Jack" (pirate flags were originally red, not black) and raking a merchant's engine room with laser fire (Gunner Select programs are a must for pirates) then swarming over her hull in vac suits with breaching charges and laser rifles in hand.
(Thus do I consider myself a "big box
Yo-Ho-Hoer.")
Piracy isn't practical, unless or until you see it for what it is, not about wealth but rather about the rejection of those very social forces that would make piracy an unattractive option.
[1] Bill, your discourse on the
Yo-Ho-Hoers and the
Mugwumps was bloody brilliant!
