So, an intriguing bit of worldplay for you today; what exactly is the difference between a pirate and hijacker nowadays, anyways?
Firstly, pirates. I’m pretty sure we’re all well aware of the oft-quoted Jack Sparrow stereotype that Disney’s rammed down our collective throats. Never mind the fact that Mr. Depp is suave, sexy, and oh-so-dreamy – the portrayal is simply wrong. It’s as if Disney expects us to believe that the high-seas were roamed by a couple hundred Keith Richards look-alikes, and not a group of particularly fierce sadists.
Secondly, hijackers. This word is largely thought to be Rudy Guiliani’s second, shortly after birth.
And the first? I’ll give you a hint; there’s both a 9, and an 11. But I digress.
My point, is that we seem to be attatched to fairly traditional, and largely stereotypical connotations of what both pirates and hijackers actually do nowadays. But ultimately, the two have actually become representative of the same thing. This is particularly noticeable when you compare the content of news outlets here in North America, to those overseas. Both the likes of Fox news (whom I loathe), and CNN (also a subject of loathing) gravitate towards the use of hijack. The BBC, and other wordly news networks tend to employ pirate. One plays on fear, the other, sensationalism.
When it comes down to it, do pirates really bear any similarity to the pirates of old, nowadays? I’d like to think not; conventional pirateering was often embodied by wanton theft and pillaging, and staunch disregard for morals and ethics – particularly when coupled with the uncanny desire to resort to violence and death. Or so our overlord Wikipedia tells me. Modern day pirates, meanwhile, tend to lack this particular defining quality; in fact, the International Maritime Bureau (there’s a desk, too, I hear) notes that the number of hostages taken by pirates is vastly higher than the number of crewmembers ultimately killed in attacks. This is probably because modern day pirates don’t actually steal; they extort. And that, my friends, is a whole different categorization all together.
This leads me to believe that modern day pirates have become just a little bit soft. Or, more likely, they are no longer true pirates in the conventional sense, but simply common thieves and criminals, that happen to posess seafaring tendencies. Of course, modern day news organizations have better things to do than explore the development of words and meanings; “Both travel the sea to commit crime you say? They must be pirates!”
And hijackers? Technically, such a designation should be considered correct as well, seeing as this is essentially what’s being done. Of course, there’s a reason that North American media outlets simply love to gravitate to this sort of wording, and that’s because it plays upon fears of terrorism. Afterall, if the hijackers are attacking our boats, WHAT MODE OF TRANSPORT WILL BE NEXT?! This is a question I look to Fox News to answer. Tonight. At 11.
All in all, we’ve simply accepted the re-tooled usage of these words, in whatever way news-organizations feel fit. But in reality, it seems that both words essentially mean the same thing; a group of men, probably not very different from those found in Oceans 11, raiding an obscure freighter in the Pacific to satisfy some monetary shortcoming, through both hostage taking and extortion.
Of course, that would make a horrible cutline. Pirates and hijackers it is.
