Found this question on an Instagram reel as dating advice for girls if they don’t know what to talk about and that men have a lot of opinions about this. Let’s see if she’s right.
But I already am a pirate?
Cowboy, no contest.
Samurai’s lives belong to their masters. I couldn’t live that way.
Pirates live by killing and stealing. I couldn’t live that way.
That leaves cowboys. Certainly not the glorious and romantic life Hollywood makes it out to be, but generally honest work toward specific goals and freedom otherwise, which’d be fine.
Also you can be a “cowboy” today, right now.
Pirate! CGP Grey has a great video on how pirate ships worked. They were a lot more democratic and fair than the merchant marine which worked their crew to the bone and paid them peanuts.
Forgot to mention the part where that democratic society is upheld by the fact that you can (and will, if you’re an asshole) be stabbed dead by nearly anyone you interact with. Your own crew, your “customers”, the law, rival pirates, all of them have a will and a way of removing you if you don’t play fair. This is great for ensuring a fair society, only at the constant imminent risk of death.
Although to be fair I suppose cowboys and samurai were also pretty frequently in deadly dangerous conditions.
I think I would be a samurai. Samurai, while fierce warriors, were also poets and great appreciators of the arts.
Have you read Musashi, the novel?
I have not but I did read Shogun by James Clavelle. It is an epic novel and quite a good read. I should check this one out. I am quite curious about it.
Nice, thanks for the recommendation!
It’s actually a series of books Clavelle wrote. He’s really a good author too. The research that he put into writing his historical fiction accounts remain true to the known records of the time. I don’t often reread books but I genuinelly enjoy revisiting his series.
Nice, actually I think I heard about it a while back.
There is also a miniseries made in 1980 by the same name, which is very good (in spite of the age).
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Cowboy literally just means rancher. It was not a particularly good job in the wild west and it’s only marginally better now.
Samurai were well respected, well paid, and had social status. The downside is that they needed to kill people or die trying when their boss said to, which doesn’t sound like fun to me.
Pirates also have the problem of having to do violence on a regular basis, but without the glamour and respect of being Samurai.
All in all, I’d probably choose samurai.
Can I be Hasekura Tsunenaga, the samurai who went to Mexico? That way I could be a cowboy samurai. Plus I could be a pirate during the journey from Japan to Mexico. ✓ ✓ ✓
So you got to eat your pirate rice cake with beans, and have it too.
Cowboy - Pros: lowest chance of death, honest work for honest pay. Cons: hard work for low pay
Pirate - Does internet piracy count? I get seasick to easily to be the boat kind. Also the death.
Samurai - Maybe an Edo period samurai, when they were mostly bureaucrats.
Just throwing this out there, you can literally be a cowboy or a pirate today right now. The only barriers to entry are willingness and the minor physical ability they require. Samurai is unfortunately impossible.
That’s not what the guy at the store said when he sold me this sword. /s
I’m a man and don’t have strong opinions about this, so count this as one vote against it.
Lol I was thinking the same, neither sounded really appealing to me but it’s not like I’d start a fight over it.
Samurai. They were freaking rich, ate good food and married well. They did good deeds and shit and had plenty of time for self reflection and improvment.
Good deeds like maintain the brutal feudalism which stunted Japans growth for centuries
No thanks. I’m a coward. I just want to sit on my ass all day and browse lemmy
What year for samurai, and what rank? Samurai in 1590 were very different from samurai in 1850; after the warring states period ended, samurai quickly lost everything except their pride. Merchants - nominally the lowest class (burakumin were outside of the class system) - had far more wealth and real power than the samurai in the years preceding the Meiji restoration. A low-ranking samurai around 1820 would be a life of poverty that was still filled with class and social obligations; not cool.
Overall, probably a ranch hand (cowboy was a derogatory term). Yeah, the pay was shit, and it was hard work, but you got to be outside all the time.
I would be a pirate. Because the other word for pirate treasure is Booty. (Beastie boys influence, I guess)
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