The English “Pirate” is derived from the Greek word “πειρατής” (peiratēs) and this in turn from the verb “πειράομαι” (peiráomai), “I attempt”, which is a derivative of the noun “πείρα” (peîra), “experience”.

Pirate indicates the investigator, the tester, is a key word for humanity and characterizes our species. Basically, we are all pirates, that’s what we do every day, we try for something new at all levels and thus we become more experienced. Everyday we attempt to do various things, make new friends, try new things, like a new haircut, new clothes, a new food that’s been suggested to us. In the field of politics, a Pirate tries something new, mixing statutes and principles of the available theories and practices, in his navigation for a better and more democratic world. And only then he becomes experienced, after having become a pirate, an experimenter, who has tried for something.

But what does the word “experience” mean? According to the ancient concept, something becomes experience when it is proved and tested. Physicists are directly related to experience. They are making experiments, trying to solve a problem and overcome the difficulty by changing an approach by doing something differently. An experiment is a test carried out carefully in order to gain knowledge. When knowledge comes then it can be tested and applied in various fields. In that way, Pirates examine the accepted data to discover new structures and form other alternative assumptions, using their inventive skills of analysis and synthesis.

The meaning of “peiráomai” covers, conceptually, a Pirate. We are all Pirates in this perspective, because we like to mix things, theories and concepts, reality with fantasy and utopia. We test, we look at whether something suits us, or anyone else. And through this process, we feel, we experience, we taste. We are all seekers! “Peiráomai” means I try, I dare, I presume!

Coming from the depths of the centuries, the word “pirate” took on another dimension in our days. The ruling classes saw pirates as rebels and hated them. Free spirits, who often acted in a reckless manner, their symbol was the incarnation of rebellion, disobedience and resistance. Rebels without a state, they were not submissive to any law, except from the laws they instituted themselves, improvising together and often acted like barbarians. The captain was subject to immediate recall but life in a pirate ship was certainly freer than life on board with the fleet.

The Pirate ideology moves upstream and tests ability and luck. This is the feeling of a Pirate: to attempt, to try to achieve something, to bring a new concept. Sometimes it goes beyond a certain point and perhaps exceeds certain limits, because it is an expression of challenge. And finds ways, finds passages, everywhere, attempting for something that has never been done before, and perhaps brash and off the beaten track, venturing “the new”, suggesting something revolutionary.

Eventually, a pirate can be a tester, or a composer, or even more a remixer of the experience of human knowledge.

Picture: CC BY-SA 3.0 Piratenpartij Nederland

About Stathis Leivaditis

The English “pirate” is derived from the Greek word “πειρατής” (peiratēs) and this in turn from the verb “πειράομαι” (peiráomai), “I attempt”, which is a derivative of the noun “πείρα” (peîra), “experience”. Coming from the depths of the centuries, the word “pirate” took on another dimension in our days. The ruling classes saw pirates as rebels and hated them. Rebels without a state, they were not submissive to any law, except from the laws they instituted themselves, improvising together. This is the feeling of a Pirate: when something doesn’t work, you have to attempt to bring a new concept. Sometimes it goes beyond a certain point and perhaps exceeds certain limits, because it is an expression of challenge; the challenge to change the system. I’m a member of the Board (and former chairman) of Pirate Party of Greece, also a member of press team of PPGR, former journalist, now a free lancer. I’m in the team of Pirate Times from the start, I joined voluntarily and consciously because I am interested to meet pirates from around the world, to exchange views and spread the pirate spirit.

 

• 
• 
• 

 

The English “Pirate” is derived from the Greek word “πειρατής” (peiratēs) and this in turn from the verb “πειράομαι” (peiráomai), “I attempt”, which is a derivative of the noun “πείρα”…