"Avast, Maties"

It's a little known fact that pirate ships were little democracies. We tend to think of pirate captains as tyrannical dictators, but nothing could be further from the truth. In most cases the captain was elected by the crew, mainly for his sailing skills. It was the crew who decided by majority vote if and when to attack. The infamous Captain Kidd was originally a respected middle class merchant captain with his own ship. He was forced by the British government to give up his business and hunt down pirates, and faced the threat of mutiny when his crew decided it would make more sense to engage in piracy themselves. In the ensuing struggle Kidd killed the leader of the mutineers and became a wanted man. It was a choice of being a pirate to survive, and it was a no-brainer. Later, when captured, his government refused to own up to their role in the debacle, and he was hanged. It shouldn't be a surprise that pirates today have co-opted our democracy.