After 5 days that felt more like 5 years we now know that the crew and passengers of the Titan are dead, but fear not disaster porn lovers the show aint over yet.
On Monday the world was greeted to the news that the submersible submarine The Titan, a $250,000 a pop pleasure cruise to look at the Titanic had gone missing with only “92 hours of oxygen”. The world then entered a frenzy as the hours ticked by, 80, 70, 60, 10, zero, but maybe still alive if they hold their breath, before the inevitable was announced.
For the casual newswatcher you’d have almost assumed there was nothing else happening in the world, with it at its height making the top 5 stories on both BBC and CNN. And as for social media? There was quite literally nothing else, thankfully we are now at least at the meme stage.
The reality though? Even James Cameron knew within an hour of them going missing that the sub had impounded. Why oh why then were we treated to a theatrical display of search, rescues abd finally the inevitable. The wreckage was exactly where it had been left.
The Plot of the Titan
It might have been a story about a mere 5 people dying, but script wise you could not have wanted for a better story. Said noble 5 consisted of one crew member 3 billionaires and perhaps the one real tragedy, the 19 year old son of a billionaire.
And what were they doing? They were dropping $250,000 a piece to go and potentially catch a glimpse of the doomed Titanic disaster of 1912 and Leonardo fame.
The news then did what the news does best by giving us multiple different potential scenarios for what might be happening, potential outcomes, talking heads, speculation and bait worthy interviews, and much talk about how reckless OceanGate were – another story and perhaps lawsuit that will undoubtedly drag on for months if not years.
This was though was but the eye of the storm……
How reckless were OceanGate and were customers duped?
One of the only good things about the ongoing fiasco was seeing the many people interviewed, who in essence did not say what they were supposed to do. Principle among these was Simpsons writer Mike Reiss, by far the most spoken to talking head who to sum it up stated “we knew the risks going in and the company even listed the 1000 ways we could die”.
And indeed they did, as well as including in the waiver that this was an experimental vessel that was not covered by any regulatory body. This of course has now led to people coming out of the woodwork stating that they had brought up concerns, had quit the company or dropped out of the “tour” for fears over safety.
Fair play to those people who had that foresight, but it does not take away from the fact that both OceanGate and the people who took the voyage were Pioneers going boldly were few had been before.
Again to quote Reiss, exploring the depths of the ocean has deep parallels with early flight and space travel. People experimented and people died.
There is zero irony that they were visiting the Titanic
Another key tenet of the reporting was the ‘irony’ that the potential, now confirmed deaths were at the site of one of the biggest maritime disasters and movie idea maker to have ever happened.
Thankfully this was largely shot down by most of the talking heads being interviewed. Those taking the trip were doing it precisely to see the Titanic in a submersible that came with a death waiver. Indeed these were thrill seeking adventure travelers that knew the risks.
One interviewer even tried to bait one of the interviewees (whose name I missed) about the tragedy, only to be told “This is part of the territory in this industry. People know the risks risks and people die”, much to the distain of the host.
And it is these risks that have also led the “many” to ask the “few” why anyone, particularly a billionaire would risk their lives on such an endeavor. But the sad fact is the many will never ever understand the few.
The many often ask me why I would want to visit places like North Korea, Syria, or Papua New Guinea, with my answer being a clear “why not”? Would I have taken the OceanGate submersible to the Titanic? You are damned straight I would. The many do not have to understand why we do these things, but they do at least have to respect it.
To read why Papua New Guinea is such a mess click here.
What about all the deaths in the Mediterranean?
And of course the icing on the cake from the retrospective enlightened classes, all of whom were glued to the show “Why was so much time, money and energy put into this when so many people die in the Mediterranean”?.
Sadly it is because not all lives are equal, as much as people pretend that they are. And it is not equal because of the world we have all helped to shape and create. Migrants dying on the Med is not newsworthy as it happens so much, kind of like school shootings now in the US. Billionaires in a tin can trapped next to the Titanic is fabulous disaster porn.
We can all pretend that this is not the case, but how many people now spouting this tripe actually do anything at all to help migrants? And no voting Democrat does not count.
And chief among the hypocrisy? None other than former Warmonger-in-Chief Obama who “slammed the hypocrisy over interest in Titanic sub compared to migrant boat tragedy”.
His point being that it was getting far more coverage than the migrant boat that sank with 700 souls on board. Of course he was cheered by everyone, with his former Presidential status giving him immense superhuman Captain Hindsight powers. But let us not forget that as President he not only did little for migrants, but was instrumental in the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi, the direct cause for the current crisis.
Yes, we should care more for the poor and downtrodden, but we don’t. Retroactively saying you do is just pure and simple hypocrisy. Do not expect that to stop anyone though.