Steve the Pirate: Delusional or Enabled?
Arrrrrrr!
Yes, that’s right, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day!
I had two questions on my mind when I heard about today’s celebration. Let’s take them one by one.
Arrrrrrr!
Why do pirates say ‘Arr’? Why can’t pirates just say ‘yes’ or simply nod their head? Why does their affirmation need to be packaged in this throaty utterance?
The piratesinfo website has our answer. According to them, ‘Arr’ wasn’t associated with pirates until the 1950’s, about 150 years after the golden age of piracy. It all comes from Robert Newton’s portrayal of Long John Silver in Disney’s British adaptation of Treasure Island. His long, drawn out affirmation became standard pirate nomenclature in the twentieth century and beyond.
On a side note, if you’d like to perfect your pirate lingo, the fine folks at WikiHow put together a twelve step program just for you!
Now onward to the second question: is Steve from Dodgeball truly delusional?
If you’ve never seen Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, then LEAVE NOW.
Nah, just kidding, you can stay, but be forewarned, mild spoilers ahead matey.
Ok, so we all know Steve: he dresses and talks like a pirate despite the fact that he obviously lives in contemporary America. He’s a kind guy, though. And, other than his pirate demeanor, seems overall rational.
Steve’s Fandom page (linked above) has this to say about him,
He is extremely delusional and genuinely believes that he is a pirate.
This isn’t obviously true to me.
To make my case, I’ll quote at length from the articleUnderstanding Delusions. Here we go,
A delusion is a belief that is clearly false and that indicates an abnormality in the affected person’s content of thought. The false belief is not accounted for by the person’s cultural or religious background or his or her level of intelligence. The key feature of a delusion is the degree to which the person is convinced that the belief is true. A person with a delusion will hold firmly to the belief regardless of evidence to the contrary. Delusions can be difficult to distinguish from overvalued ideas, which are unreasonable ideas that a person holds, but the affected person has at least some level of doubt as to its truthfulness. A person with a delusion is absolutely convinced that the delusion is real.
There are two points we need to note here:
- delusions do not have any level of doubt;
- delusions are distinct from false beliefs held in virtue of the person’s cultural background.
About the first point: we know from the film that Steve does doubt the belief that he’s a pirate. After an apparent moral failing, Peter (the protagonist) brushes Steve aside, brusquely telling him that he’s not a pirate. Afterwards, we see Steve abandon his pirate wares and don polos and khakis. For the time being, he is no longer Steve the pirate.
Were Steve delusional, Peter’s harsh words wouldn’t have impacted his pirate self-identity. Delusional people don’t doubt their delusions in the face of contrary evidence. But Steve did just that.
Now, the interesting part: the second point. Delusions are distinct from cultural background. However, I contend that Steve’s belief that he’s a pirate isn’t distinct from his background as a member of Average Joe’s Gym. The way I see it, the gym members, insofar as they never deny his piratehood, give Steve the cultural acceptance to believe himself a pirate.
They are, as it were, a culture of enablers, giving him the mental latitude to continue on with a false belief. And that’s why Peter’s denial of Steve’s pirateness is so soul shattering—it denies Steve of his cultural bolstering.
This way of thinking doesn’t tell us why Steve started thinking he’s a pirate. That seems a mystery. But it does tell us why he continues to think he’s a pirate: because everyone he’s influenced by lets him think it.
So, no, Steve isn’t delusional. He just happened to stumble upon a culture allowing him to perpetuate his strongly held false belief.
And with that said, arrrrrr…
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!