Robin Hood: socialist re-distributor or entrepreneurial pirate?

[TrojanSkyCop1]

Okay, this should make for a semi-light-hearted debate here: was Robin Hood, the Prince of Thieves, a liberal or a conservative?

At the surface, his whole "Rob from the rich, give to the poor" mantra sounds like blatant liberal Democratic/socialist/Marxist welfare re-destributionist social engineering.

But from a thinking-outside-the-box perspective, it could be argued that Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham are the true socialists and wealth-robbers, bloated and corrupt Big Government fat cats who impose excessive and opprobrious taxes on hard-working ordinary citizens to feed their insatiable hunger for bureaucratic power. And by that same notion, Robin Hood is giving the citizens a much-deserved tax cut (or refund).

Not to mention his whole concept of leading a band of merry men, and being his own boss has a rather free-wheeling, entrepreneurial, down piratical ring to it, doncha think?
:pirategarr:

Okay, fellow WTers, what say you?

[TrojanSkyCop1]

Oh yeah, not to mention Robin Hood and his merry men serving as a fine example of armed citizenry.

[AlwaysVigilant]

I am going with Pirate, for a few basic reasons:

1. The powers that be would not allow free enterprise for the class of people he aided, so the fruit of their labor was of no benifit to them.
2. The work they provided for the true crown, was not properly accounted or reimbursed, and their taxes provided no protection or rule of law.
3. Corrupt Tyrants have no place ruling men of virtue.

[TrojanSkyCop1]

I am going with Pirate, for a few basic reasons:

1. The powers that be would not allow free enterprise for the class of people he aided, so the fruit of their labor was of no benifit to them.
2. The work they provided for the true crown, was not properly accounted or reimbursed, and their taxes provided no protection or rule of law.
3. Corrupt Tyrants have no place ruling men of virtue.

Well-said, brutha, well-said.

[bae]

Using the Scott/Ivanhoe version of Robin Hood, I'm going with Guerilla Warfighter, a valiant Saxon fighting off the Norman oppressors.

[LawDog]

Whenever the topic of Robin Hood comes up I start foaming at the mouth and complaining about socialist conspiracies. The leftists have managed to successfully co-opt the story of Robin Hood and claim him as their own. But he wasn't robbing from "the rich;" he was robbing the government. And not just any government, but a corrupt government that was taxing its citizens into poverty. (Parallels to modern America are welcome.) I don't think we can classify this tale as either liberal or conservative. I suppose "liberal" is the more accurate term if we use the classic definition--he was indeed promoting personal liberty. "Conservative," in the classic sense, is someone who is simply fighting to maintain the status quo; conserving social morality and maintaining a system of order. Robin Hood was definitely not that. He was attacking the system that was in place.

The government of Nottingham had devolved into mere thuggery. The government was not serving the people; it was enslaving them. Resisting a government like that is just as morally proper as resisting a highwayman. If a robber accosts you on the road and you can manage to kill him rather than pay him, then more power to you. Living under a corrupt regime, tax collectors get no better treatment.

Looking at our government today, is it serving us or are we serving it? You can trick most people into believing that they are free simply by letting them choose which fast food restaurant to eat at and what cable channel to select for their evening of lethargy. But they are slaves nonetheless. They are serving their master. And the master takes his cut before you get yours. Think I'm wrong? The difference between a freedman and a slave was that a slave had the choice of going elsewhere and negotiating different wages. Can you negotiate with your master? Can you strike a bargain for different wages or different taxes? Nope. You can pack your bags, move to another state, and get a different job, but your federal master will still be there to make sure that they get their cut before you get yours.

Robin Hood was a talented individual who decided to throw off his shackles and fight back. He wouldn't have voted for the Democrats or the Republicans. He would have emptied the campaign coffers of both parties, drank all of their beer, and left the candidates hanging from the rafters. I'm about ready to do the same.

[Steve Paulson]

I am going with Pirate, for a few basic reasons:

1. The powers that be would not allow free enterprise for the class of people he aided, so the fruit of their labor was of no benifit to them.
2. The work they provided for the true crown, was not properly accounted or reimbursed, and their taxes provided no protection or rule of law.
3. Corrupt Tyrants have no place ruling men of virtue.


Yep....what he said.

[Nick Randall]

Steal from the rich and give to the poor. Hmm. Are you sure we ain't talking about 2012?

[TrojanSkyCop1]

Steal from the rich and give to the poor. Hmm. Are you sure we ain't talking about 2012?

Bingo. One of my friends (fellow WT member T-Rex) brought up Robin Hood on another friend's Facebook page, which inspired me to start this thread.

[AlexSpartan]

Tagged for interest. I have my own opinions, but I'd like to hear more, first.

[Greg Nichols]

he was robbing from overtaxing- Big govt officials and returning the funds to the populace so basically he was a combative pirate CPA.

[fidalgoman]

Using the Scott/Ivanhoe version of Robin Hood, I'm going with Guerilla Warfighter, a valiant Saxon fighting off the Norman oppressors.Since I have Kevin Costners version stuck in my head I'd have to go with bae. You are free to rewrite your own screenplay however.

[The Shadow]

While some think Robin was robbing the rich to give to the poor (AKA the Norman Lords and John's tax collectors) in actuality he was collecting the Ransom needed to Free King Richard which the Normans and John refused to do.

[bae]

....in actuality ....

In actuality, there are about a dozen different versions of Robin Hood, in different times, doing different things for different reasons :-) Most, if not all, of them were fictional.

[Mickey Rourke]

Using the Scott/Ivanhoe version of Robin Hood, I'm going with Guerilla Warfighter, a valiant Saxon fighting off the Norman oppressors.I'm going with this version.

And "Ivanhoe" is one of my favorite books of all time.

[P.D.]

Using the Scott/Ivanhoe version of Robin Hood, I'm going with Guerilla Warfighter, a valiant Saxon fighting off the Norman oppressors.

Ditto that.

[Danneskjold]

Basing my reply on the Disney version, where the rich are the state (Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham) and the poor are the feudal taxpayers, I'd say he's an anarcho-capitalist libertarian pirate, much like Ragnar Danneskjold from Atlas Shrugged, who took down government ships to pay taxpayers back all that they had been taxed, and in gold too.

[TrojanSkyCop1]

Courtesy of a friend on Facebook:

27486

[Eskrimaworks]

I currently have the Kevin Costner Robin Hood in mind, so I'm gonna have to go with the following:

Illegal immigrant masquerading under a stolen identity. Aside from that I'll have to say pirate entrepreneur. Thank you, TrojanSkyCop1, for a refreshing perspective on such a colorful character.

[WinstonSmith]

Hmmm. I'd be more inclined to say pirate if somebody could point me to some blackmarketeering (a.k.a. smuggling). As I recall, it was just the confiscation of gold from the "rich" who confiscated it via taxes from everyone else. I'm inclined to like neither Robin Hood, nor Prince John at the moment. (Though Robin is more appealing than the prince for sure.)

But it's been years since I've read the books.

[ImFromTheGovt]

In support of Lawdog's post (not that he needed it):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood

[quote]
Robin Hood (spelled Robyn Hode in older manuscripts) is a heroic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero) outlaw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw) in English folklore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_folklore), a highly skilled archer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archery) and swordsman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordsman). Although not part of his original character, since the beginning of the 19th century[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood#cite_note-1) he has become known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor",[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood#cite_note-development-2) assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Men)".[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood#cite_note-Merry-3) Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_green) clothes.[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood#cite_note-Child-4) The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws.[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood#cite_note-Holt.2C_p._62-5)

[ss58]

he was robbing from overtaxing- big govt officials and returning the funds to the populace so basically he was a combative pirate cpa.

this^^^^^^^^^

[skirmishline]

He couldn't be a liberal since he was an archer and a poacher. Liberals would be for bow control laws and would be anti-hunters.

He served as an archer in the King's army so he started out as a conservative. But he later turned against the establishment.

A conservative or a liberal? A conservative gone libertarian I think.

[DonSmithnotTMD]

Using the Scott/Ivanhoe version of Robin Hood, I'm going with Guerilla Warfighter, a valiant Saxon fighting off the Norman oppressors.

This. the versions I have read indicate he was robbing from the government. I sort of think he was an early middle ages Masoud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Massoud

[daniel87]

Pirate


Piss off the king. Be loved by the people. Like a gorilla he used the pitence given to the people to hide him

Do you really think he gave it all...


Call it a different take :)

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