Ninjas are Lame

Earlier this year, CEI recognized Talk Like a Pirate Day. Today, December 5, many will mark The Day of the Ninja. For reasons I described here pirates do have some libertarian appeal. Ninjas — who frankly, are a lot more important in modern pop culture than they ever were in Japan — served their liege lords (usually Daimyos) as trained spies and, sometimes, assassins. Since the feudal system which ninjas helped to uphold has much in common with modern concepts of “corporate social responsibility,” and involved heavy redistributive taxation, I think that there’s a good reason for libertarians to reject ninjas and all for which they stand. Also, of course, if a pirate and a ninja were to get into a fight, the pirate would win anyway.