Pursuers and Scoundrels
The term "Tory" comes from a Celtic Root, thru the Irish,
"toraidhe ‘outlaw, highwayman,’ from tóir ‘pursue.’" [Multiple Dictionaries]
One Who Pursues, Pirate, Thief, Murderer, Capitalist
One who pursues, is also a term for pirates and privateers. Indeed, the term for a pirate voyage, was to go "on the hunt."
Pirates pursue treasure. When they do so legally they are called privateers. When illegally they get branded pirates. But both are the same attitude, except privateers often never share their loot fairly with the crew. So the word pirate can be used as synonym for a tory. In Italian the same attitude could be connected to the word "Guelf", which was borrowed from a German word that means wolf. The words for the alternative mood are Ghibelline (worm) or Whig (whiggamore, sheep herder [some say horse herder]) both of which have connotations of weakness to the macho pirates of commerce and pirates.
It is a term that has an identical meaning to the Hebrew word "rodef".
Essentially the Tory attitude in politics is that of pirates, pursuers of wealth and fortune by violent and ruthless means. Pirates often see themselves as wolves among sheep. The kind of competition they extol is that of wolves deciding who the alpha male is. Tories may pose as sheep or even as protectors, but the Tory impulse always emerges as war, conquest, oppression, and nationalism/nativism/jingoism.
Rodef רודף, lit. "pursuer"; pl. רודפים
Rodef is the Hebrew word for Tory or Pirate
A rodef (Hebrew רודף, lit. "pursuer"; pl. רודפים, rodfim), in traditional Jewish law, is one who is "pursuing" another to murder him or her. According to Jewish law, such a person must be killed by any bystander after being warned to stop and refusing. The source for this law is the Tractate Sanhedrin in the Babylonian Talmud, page 73a, which begins:
"And these are the ones whom one must save even with their lives [i.e., killing the wrongdoer]: one who pursues his fellow to kill him [rodef achar chavero le-horgo], and after a male or a bethrothed maiden [to rape them]...."
A רודף, Rodef, is an Evil Being who Hunts fellow humans as if they were mere animals for personal gain, sport and with little conscience. You can find cultures of this within the legal community in the operatives around our current President. Or on Wall Street.
The word "Rodef" essentially means someone who is a criminal, a thief, murderer or pirate. It is the duty of the function of law enforcement, to stop such behavior, "dead or alive."
Unfortunately, much "pursuer" behavior is perfectly legal. So you find Rodef in the legal community, the military and politics.
The Commentator then claims:
"This law, the din rodef ("law of the pursuer"), is significant as one of the few provisions in Jewish law permitting extrajudicial killings."
I believe that this is mistaken. When pursuing the pursuer it is likely that the pursuer will kill the pursuer. So it isn't so much that extra-judicial killing is permitted as that the Rodef is usually "armed and dangerous" and can therefore be "captured dead or alive." Which is consistent with more general law, as the purpose of having armed policing, or permitting citizens to defend themselves, is to permit them to stop those trying to murder, steal or rape; all behaviors that fall under the meaning of the Hebrew word "rodef". The Commentator concedes this:
"The allowance to kill the rodef does not apply, however, in a case where lesser means would prevent the innocent's murder.[1] Furthermore, according to the Rambam, killing a rodef who may have been stopped by lesser means constitutes murder, though the punishment for a murderer in this case is not dealt out by Beit din."
Tories and Pirates
Most people know about the Norse "Viking" pirates of the 800s-1066, but the pirate tradition predates and post-dates the Vikings and is part of British History, North to South. Among both the Irish and the English the Sea Dog Tradition is even more ancient. It is so ancient it's baked into our language.
Piracy is Part of British History going way back
If you look up the word for the Irish/Scotish Gaelic Language family it's called "Goedelic." and the word, oh the word:
"Goid steal, Irish goidim, Early Irish gataim: *gad-dô, root gad, @ghad, @ghed, seize; Greek @Ghandánw, @Ge@'/hadon, hold, contain; Latin prehendo, seize; praeda, booty, hedra, ivy; English get. Thurneysen has compared the Latin hasta, spear, giving a stem *ghazdho-." [mb21]
Or Savage:
"From Old Irish Goídil, Gael, possibly from Old Welsh -guoidel, Gwyddel; Gwyd=Wild, Savage" (the modern word Gwydd refers to a Goose, Geese and "Presence" so the inference might also be a stretch) [yourdictionary]
In either case, the British, even when at peace, sent out adventurers as privateers and mercenaries all over Europe, and after 1500, all over the world. That goes for English, Welsh, Scots and Irish.
Origins of Toryism
You can see the transition in attitude that created Toryism in the transition from the reign of "Good Queen Bess" and her relative King James the First of England, Also known as James IV. Good Queen Bess instituted various welfare measures and raised the Pride in Britain based on fighting off the Spanish invasion and her embrace of Protestantism. Queen Elizabeth also relied on privateers, or pirates to pursue much of her defense against the Spanish and allowed them to acquire private loot.
When I first wrote this in August 2017, I blamed King James for inventing Toryism. Indeed he relied on patriotism to try to unite the Kingdom. But he actually tried to reduce piracy, by ending privateering, which had the opposite effect of encouraging illegal piracy as unemployed sailors and former privateers found their previous way of life illegal. Toryism developed out of the realization that self interest could be profitable when tied to nationalism. King James institutionalized privateering in the form of companies like the East India Company. That institutionalization is the real origins of Toryism. I'll be updating this part later. He ruled both kingdoms from 1603-1625.
And the word for Tory from Gaelic Too:
- McBain's Dictionary: "tòir, tòrachd
- pursuit, Irish, Early Irish tóir, Irish tóruigheachd, tóireacht: *to-fo-racht, root reg of éirich. Rhys agrees. Cf. Old Irish toracht, successus, processus (= to-racht), tíarmóracht, pursuit (*to-iarm-fo-racht). From Irish tóruighe, pursuer, comes English Tory." [MB Sect 39]
Sources and References
I have a lot more to say on the subject. But I wanted to create this page for Definition sake. Posting this is part of my cleanup of draft articles.
- Guelfs and Gories, Wolves and Plunderers
- Tories and Whigs
- Tories Neoliberalism NeoKeynesianism Versus Post Keynesianism
- Tory or Privateering Economics
- Are Central Bankers Pirates?
- Taxation Principles
- Franklin and Modern Money
- Review of James Galbraith "Predator State"
- Tory Economics Versus Benjamin Franklin
- More on Pirates
- Trinity Church and Captain Kidd
- Posts on Privateering and Piracy
- Many Kinds of Privateering
- An Ideology of Privateering
- Many forms of Freebooting
- Pirates and Privateers/Privatizing History
- Origins of the East India Company
- Bretton Woods, NeoColonialism and the "Money Men."
- Origins of the East India Company
- Corrupt Court and Undue Influence
- East India Company and Islamic Jihad
- Utility Versus the Pirates
- Tribunals Admiralty Courts & Privateers
- Gresham's Law as a Tool of Regulation
- Black Sails:
- http://www.starz.com/originals/blacksails
- Cross Bones
- http://www.nbc.com/crossbones
- I buried other URLs in the notes in the article. But here's the article on William May:
- http://www.thepirateking.com/bios/may_william.htm
- More on Captain Kidd:
- http://www.biography.com/people/william-kidd-17179370#privateering-and-pirating
- http://www.blacksheepancestors.com/pirates/kidd.shtml
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