A Proper Risk Appraisal

I don’t know much about spaceships. What I’ve observed over the years however, is that when something goes wrong they tend to explode. This is obviously not a great experience for anyone involved. Also, I saw in a movie that, historically, black women are responsible for programming our spaceships even though they were secretaries and this was the official responsibility of white mathematicians with PhDs. Thus, I have no desire to be shot into space.

Apparently, we have a pair of astronauts stranded up there because the contraption built by Boeing to ferry them doesn’t work. I hope they can return to this shithole safely and perhaps they will by the time this gets published. It seems like they’ll just have to take their chances riding in a probable death trap since it’s the only way down.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to classify them as “poor bastards.” These are victims whom I shrug off as the natural casualties of America just as I would expect them to do of myself under similar circumstances. You volunteer to be an astronaut and everyone knows that diversity is America’s top priority. Naturally, things will go wrong as a result.

A 737 jet nearly plunged straight into a neighborhood in California last week. The sort of carnage an impact would’ve caused is something most Americans would find rather disconcerting. In recent years, there have been two such 737 crashes, if I recall correctly. Boeing has admitted that diverse workers in South Carolina falsified 787 inspection records, and stuff has been falling off of other various models as well.

This is what I can recall, so there’s probably much more and all of it should be pertinent to someone considering getting shot into space in a boutique Boeing Starliner. I think the Russians had been taking care of this before Boeing with the Soyuz, but they got angry at an American astronaut for drilling a hole in it because she wanted to go home early. Maybe I’m remembering wrong, I just don’t care much about this stuff.

Right about this time last year, I wrote an article about my admiration for a flippant man named Stockton Rush. He told everyone that he thought he could make regular visits to the Titanic in a flimsy submersible operated with a Logitech controller. He didn’t guarantee, never said he was sure, and made his passengers sign a waiver so they were clear on this part:

“There’s a limit. At some point, safety just is pure waste. If you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, don’t get into your car, don’t do anything. At some point, you’re gonna take some risk and it really is a risk-reward question. … I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.”

There was an incredible amount of risk involved with letting this dude take you on a trip to the Titanic but the price was right and he told everyone up front that this was a risky proposition. In other words, he did nothing wrong in terms of his moral obligation to his passengers.

I just wish that Americans got this same deal with diversity. Boeing should warn all crew and passengers that diversity is the company’s priority, not safety. We all know that diversity is the priority no matter the consequences, so why can’t they just tell us that they think they can probably get us there safely instead of implying that we’re buying the outcome of reaching our destination alive?

We have to hear about how diversity is such an asset to Boeing instead of the jarring possibility that the passengers could be killed by it. In the very least, the airlines should play a highlight reel of these mishaps during the pre-flight video while the narrator talks about diversity and what to do in an emergency.

5 comments

  1. Perhaps it’s no accident that the acronym for Diversity, Inclusion, Equity is D.I.E. Could be a subliminal tip from that Divinity that shapes our ends. When I was eight years old I wanted to be an astronaut. I’m too old now, but would tell any aspiring youngsters to aim at being a cosmonaut.

  2. I’ve got an upcoming business trip that will require a ticket on a Boeing plane. If I don’t ever come back, you magnificent gents will know what happened.

  3. I watched the launch as it occurred. I was fully expecting them to explode with the craft on launch. It didn’t, and they didn’t, I was shocked! Re-entry obviously presents something of a different problem; I’ll be very interested to see how it pans out. With you, I hope they make it back with everything in tact. At this point, I wouldn’t bank on it, though. By the way, we really really should spend untold trillions trying to figure out a way to get to Mars, don’t ya think?!

  4. Reading the comments for both “Proper Risk Appraisal” and “Gliding To Perdition” made me realize where things go wrong:

    Judeo-Puritans/Socialists divert capital of all types away from practical ends to social ends; from a masculine mindset to a feminine mindset, wherein nothing is ever solved and the drama never ends.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *