---
title: Dark Stance Thinking, Demonstrated
date: 2012-01-30
tags:
- dark stance
- morality
- pirates
- tantra
techne: :done
episteme: :believed
slug: 2012/01/30/dark-stance-thinking-demonstrated/
---

As I [once noted][Dark Stance]:

> In the Dark Stance, you *don't* embrace hatred because it makes you do good things, or gives you a rush, or so you can see through it and overcome it, nor do you *endure* it. That still assumes that hatred is only instrumental or an unfortunate necessity. Dark Stance embraces hatred *for hatred's sake*. Also, the Dark Stance is not an Evil Trope. The Good and the Bad Guys both don't want to suffer, they merely use different ways to overcome their own suffering. Evil might be willing to cause suffering for others, but it will never cause it's *own* suffering. The only fictional example of someone taking the Dark Stance I can think of are Planescape's Sensates.
> 
> And the weird thing is, for the few days now that I've been learning this, for the few hours I've been able to hold the Dark Stance, I felt *satisfied*. 

After running through a dark forest at 0°C, high (who the fuck runs sober?!), I noticed something. (Besides that I really need a better lamp than my MP3 player's display next time.)

There already is a precedence for Dark Stance thinking. And it has a catchy tune. Listen (starts a minute in):

<%= youtube("http://www.youtube.com/v/YvUbbYX9BMs") %>

In particular, look at these lyrics:

> Now take Sir Francis Drake, the Spanish all despise him,  
> But to the British he's a hero and they idolize him.  
> It's how you look at buccaneers that makes them bad or good  
> And I see us as members of a noble brotherhood.  
>
> [...]
> 
> On occasion there may be someone you have to execute,  
> But when you're a professional pirate  
> You don't have to wear a suit. (What?)  
> 
> I could have been a surgeon,  
> I like taking things apart.  
> 
> I could have been a lawyer,  
> But I just had too much heart.  

That's exactly what it's about. Embrace the monster that you are. If you are a pirate, be the *best* pirate you can be. Whatever you do, do it *right*.

This is the real problem, hidden by hypocrisy and moral progress thinking. The faulty idea is that we are good because we do good things. This way corrupts Honor, corrupts what Ye Olde Existentialists called authenticity. We are good because we are *pure*, unified in what we do. We embrace what we are and do it the *right* way, regardless what it is. A pirate is not evil for being a pirate, as long as they are a *professional* pirate.

*(On the off-chance that I become a religious saint some centuries down the road, I want to force the Muppets into the canon of whatever religion takes me up. This will be my true heritage.)*
