Her exclamation: You’re so deep!
My reply: Well, thank you. My insights into character flaws come from reading Plutarch’s Lives.
The first thing I want to say about this submersible fiasco is that I deeply respect the flippant attitude of the man responsible for it, Stockton Rush. A flippant attitude is incurable, and one simply manages this condition. My own has gotten me into significant trouble, so I get it. Die the way you lived, no regrets.
That teenager on board likely didn’t feel this way, but we’ve all gotta go sometime. At least he’ll never find himself staring up at the ceiling from his bed in a nursing home. Getting crushed to death at the bottom of the Atlantic is a far more glorious death than most will achieve in these dark times. Maybe he had it easier than a lot of us are going to get it, so I don’t have much sympathy.
However, my own casual disregard for the rules doesn’t lead me into setting up scenarios that are so wildly unsound from a technical standpoint. This isn’t the sort of engineering I do, but I’m aware the U.S. Navy generally doesn’t go that far down, and for starters, carbon fiber isn’t a great material for deep sea survivability. I’m pretty sure Uncle Sam would be willing to splash down (lol) on 100% naval grade steel if he was going to fool with the Titanic so that his crew didn’t end up in Davy Jones’ Locker.
A quote from the Gospel According to Matthew immediately pops into my mind, and I could write a more specific addendum which applies to this situation, but rather than being vulgar or blasphemous I’ll just point out that they went to gawk at a large tomb and now they’re buried in it. So, itself, on its own, actually fits pretty well.
Also, I respect that Rush informed everyone up front and made them sign a waiver before taking their 250,000 grand. They can never complain he didn’t warn them. From a moral perspective, he bears essentially no culpability. It’s one of these things where somehow a passenger could figure out how to make lots of money and then not appreciate the fact that a vessel operated via a Logitech computer game controller is probably going to be taking him on a one-way trip. Rush gave plenty of interviews saying he was irritated getting bogged down with safety. Fair enough. In his own words:
“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.”
See he didn’t claim that he knew he could do this safely, he said he thought that he could. There’s an enormous difference between these two words, one that can get people killed. These submersible toys are pretty popular among the elite. I saw a story somewhere awhile back about how a billionaire had one on his yacht that he used to watch whales mating. Whales are supposedly pretty smart. If I was Mr. Whale mating with Mrs. Whale, I’d be rather pissed off if this guy showed up to spectate and do something about it. I wonder what goes through the head of a man who’s made billions.
The safety issue is also pretty remarkable. Apparently, he fired an old white guy for pointing out this thing was a death trap. This I respect from a business standpoint. Why keep somebody on the payroll to point out obvious shit? An old white guy on a job site with a clip board busting your balls about safety and shoddy workmanship is a real pain in the ass.
As you might be aware, old white guys are better than any other demographic at pointing out safety and violations and a lack of quality control that can get people killed or maimed. A diverse female hire probably knows nothing about the technical details of getting crushed to death at 12,500 feet. So yeah, she could probably come up with “more inspirational” ideas. Mr. Rush wasn’t wrong there, either.
I’m not a callous man but this country is far gone. The kids are turning into trannies and we’re on the brink of World War 3. A headline about some guys dying in a submersible isn’t going to interest me enough to click on it. It’s like a headline about a mass shooting at Walmart. “Poor bastards” pops into my brain for half a second and I keep on scrolling for something more alarming. It was only through social media posts that I realized this was so ironically hilarious.
I’m proud to officially announce my candidacy for the office of Dogcatcher.
I must confess when the mini sub met its demise what came to mind was not the USS Thresher but the CSS Hunley. That is just how my evil Southlander brain works.
Yeah, I checked it out in Charleston. Far more technically sound concept, IMHO.
It’s as you said, that despite Rush being a total moron, you can’t fault the guy for false advertising. He really did deliver on his promise of a “once-in-a-lifetime” adventure.
Zing!
That last paragraph nailed it
We can’t all be optimists.