americanpirate

Earlier this week I went into the local geek store for some comics (um, and then I saw that big shiny new Conan book...)
Anyway, they had a TV running and showing one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I think it was Dead Man's Chest. So I got to thinking. I differ from some people's opinions (hi, Sra) in that I find DMC the best of the three. Beneath the PG-13 fantasy adventure movie Disney let them actually make, there's the structure of a really vivid and dark fantasy horror movie that I find very compelling. The movie is full of devil's bargains, occasionally literal but more interesting when figurative. All the characters find themselves putting their souls (if you will) at stake, having to risk something precious, having to compromise their sense of what good people they think they are, in order to stay alive and out of prison with even the slightest hope of life, love, and happiness still being at the end of the tunnel. It can be quite interesting and chilling, and it's much more than I expected from a followup to the fun magic action yarn of the first movie.

The third movie does an interesting thing in making a tale of pirates versus the British seafaring interests into a war of freedom versus authority. Real world pirates might have been relatively cosmopolitan and socially loose compared with the societies of the time, but theirs is hardly a story of freedom. Pirates were still all about domination and their social structure had its own kind of authoritarian hierarchy, though the rule-by-the-strong was a little more obvious.
Still, an American movie will infuse itself with American (or more properly, Western Liberal) values, myths, and metaphors. And so we see the story of a diverse bunch of rag-tag freedom-loving good guys overcoming their differences to make a great stand for liberty and justice against the amassed forces of control, privilege, and power. It's a story we love, and we'll tell it again and again with pirates or cowboys or spaceships or gangsters or even stockbrokers.

pledge

I'm going to make some commitment, as one of the growing number of atheistic yahoos writing screeds on the web, not to ever say someone is stupid just for believing in gods. Although I find occasional use of terms like "faith-addled" cathartic at times, I recognize that many intelligent and sincere people have come to the conclusion that some religion or religion-like thingy is true. It is a position I believe to be incorrect, but that demands open discussion, not disparagement and dismissal.

besthighdiot

Signs of idiocy: they actually think high school was "the best years of our lives."

evil2sphere

I'm inclined to think the evil really does lie in the desire, rather than the act of domination. The "will to power," as it were. If you pay lip service to freedom, but quietly stew over how much you wish you could just make everyone live the right way, that's still evil of a sort. On the other appendage, you might generally want people to pursue their own lives and dreams as best they can, when some particular circumstances make it necessary to cut off someone's choice sphere. Such as if their immediate dreams involve burning down people's homes or something.

I use the phrase "sphere of choices" as a conscious extension of something I read about one's "circle of choice." I think it was in a Thomas Sowell book or something. It just seemed so... flat. "Sphere of choices is a nice three-dimensional metaphor for our spongy two-and-a-half-dimensional minds.

evil

Evil is the desire to command, control, or compel someone in their sphere of choices.

pureperfect

Perfection is a false concept. Attempting to invoke it in reality assumes a completely static universe. The word "perfect" is only ever used to describe things that don't actually exist: the perfect vacation, the perfect man/woman, the perfect job, the perfect martini...
Using the word is tacitly admitting the thing you're talking about does not actually exist.

idiotevol

Signs of idiocy: they think "but it's still a bacteria" wins the point for creationism after someone points out that evolution of new species is routinely observed in microbial organisms.

ETA- not original to me

empathy

Empathy is the foundation of all true morality.

justaregularguygal

It's rather jarring, when looking through books in the mystery/thriller, fantasy, and supernatural/detective/romance/werewolfporn genres, how many main characters are presented as just trying to settle into a nice, normal, relaxed life as a bounty hunter, detective, or even assassin. Granted, in real life, PI is allegedly one of the most dull lines of work there is, but really, a reporter or community activist or dozens of other possibilities (including, shock, a cop) has just as much excuse to travel and get involved in adventurous situations as the inherently unbelievable "just your average working jane/joe bounty hunter."

It's also amusing to wonder which is more silly: the exotic/sexycool/macho name of the lead character, or the exotic/sexycool/macho pseudonym of the author.