I rewatched the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie yesterday.  Jack Sparrow is always good for inspiration.  The breathing in of his character’s way of moving through the world works pretty well.  You know what the Black Pearl is?  Freedom.  He knows exactly what he wants.  He just isn’t quite sure how to get there from here.  I want my shoulder to work again without pain.  I’m not sure how to get there from here.  Along the way, complications arise.  Well, life is like that, eh?

No matter how hard things get, no matter where Jack finds himself, he never gives up his dream.  Taking his ship back from cursed people who can’t die?  That is totally possible, even if improbable, and it is one courageous decision at a time that gets him there.

The thing about pirates, is that they are not hierarchies.  They don’t obey authority out of loyalty.  They obey authority if it gets them closer towards their goal than not doing so.  The only rule is: what a man can do, and what a man can’t do.  That’s some serious heresy right there.  Every organized religion in the world is against that right there.  That right there is free will.  It is the Satanic equivalent moral code: “Do what though wilt shall be the whole of the law.”  There is no worshipping the powerful undead, only negotiation, parley, bargaining.  Captain Barbosa is a trickster.  If you don’t specify that you get left behind when the Black Pearl leaves and never returns in exchange for the medallion?  You go with.  The lawyer training in me smirks in amusement.  You can never cover all contingencies with your increasingly complicated negotiations.

So why is it that people deal with the Devil, then?  Why do people deal with tricksters when they know the trickster will exploit every loophole?  And why is it that tricksters seem to keep their bargains instead of just taking what they want by force?  Why can’t tricksters just do what they wilt?  I don’t have a good answer, and obviously some of them are not bound by bargains at all.  How do I know you’ll keep your word?  I don’t.  Unless you are honorable.

If you are an honorable person, then doing what thou wilt is not the whole of your law.  Not by a long shot.  Instead, you do what you were tricked into saying you would do, even if it feels wrong.  You keep your word, even if it does not benefit you.  You obey authority, even if it does not benefit you.  This means, you’ll take the drugs your doctor prescribes, even if you are sure that a lifestyle change is what you really need instead.  Maybe what you really need is to not be abused by the people around you, to feel safe because somebody has your back instead of stabbing you in it instead of pills.  Maybe you shouldn’t drink milk when you’re lactose intolerant, even if your doctor insists you need the calcium for strong bones.

Sometimes authorities are full of bison large intestinal contents.  Sometimes, they order you to do things that don’t make sense in your specific situation.  Sometimes, they order you to do things that don’t make sense in general because nobody thought about the real assumptions and looked at the demographics.  Do people who never drink dairy products because they come from a race of people who are lactose intolerant really have higher rates of osteoporosis?  Really?  No, they don’t.

The scientific method is broken, because it only looks at one little material thing.  It doesn’t look at the energy side of the equation.  It doesn’t look at the stories.  The meaning is just as important as the physical reality.  That’s why it is important to acknowledge the power of corporations and governments and religions and the pharmaceutical industry, even if technically those are just ideas and make believe.  That is why it is important to consider yourself a pirate.  As a pirate, you are not required to obey any authority out there if it does not benefit you.  That is magic.  How do we act, when we realize that all governments exist by magic, all property ownership exists by magic, and all currencies exist by magic?  I don’t know about you, but maybe magic is important enough to dedicate quite some time to studying how it works.

Maybe I should use all of the tools presently at my disposal to get closer to my end goal of freedom.  One small step at a time.