Titanic Arrogance

[KhakiBlueSocks]

This is something I just have to get off my chest:

As some of you may know (and those who don't, pick up a book!) tomorrow is the 95th anneversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic when 1,523 people lost their lives due to man's arrogance and belief that he has conquered nature and God.

I know it sounds dumb and that I'm just ranting about nothing, but when I think about how everyone involved with the Titanic (Shipbuilders, owners, even the captain) put their faith in a few tons of steel and iron, and even went so far as to say "God Himself Cannot Sink This Ship", it really ticks me off. Even now, 95 years later, we've suffered at the hands of our own arrogance and belief that man can triumph over nature. When will man come to realize that steel and iron can bend, but God's mercy and kindness is ABSOLUTE?

Sorry if the above didn't make a lick of sense. It's just something I had to get off my chest.

::puts his soapbox away::

[rsnumber2]

I fully understand what you are saying. Unfortunatle, people will continue to do so "in the name of science."

[Tenshi no Ai]

It is interesting, the irony of the phrase in which they claimed that man can surpass God through technology. Although I've seen the movie many many times (and one of the few that's still willing to admit that it WAS a good movie), guess it's somethign that I never really thought about too much on... But, it's sad... And even now in the present, things seem to be getting worse and worse... Hope and everything is being put into the hands of man and technology :/ Well, it pretty much is something that's been going on for centuries, but with technology getting better and better... yeah... I totally know what you mean.

[bigsleepj]

No offense, Joshua, but the White Star Line's boss did not wake up one morning and say "Let's build a ship that God himself could not sink". I'm not sure what the origin was of the famous line, but it was probably dreamed up by a newspaper man and many just repeated this over and over until it became the unofficial slogan. It may even have been the captain. The designers of the Titanic just wanted to create the safest boat they could, and the shipbuilders were paid to build the ship. They did not want it to be an affront to God (heck, it was build in Ireland, a very religious country). Maybe even the owners of the Titanic went along with this suddenly repeated slogan because such an over-repeated phrase was good word-of-mouth publicity. It was not their intention to defy God in the realistic theological and philosophical ideas. Maybe in the back of their minds, when that saying and similar phrases has been repeated over and over they believed that they have defied nature and this wrapped their common sense in a delusional bubble of protection. It did breed a startling amount of hubris that sealed the fate of the ship, but I don't think they wanted to make any statements about man (though I'm sure at times they dressed it up as that). Even science had nothing to do with it. At the very simplist they just wanted to one-up the competition in the luxury department and make oodles of cash.

The arrogance lies I think in the 1910's society (sometimes referred to as the Gilded Age) which projected so many features onto the Titanic. It got caught up in something larger, a society of classes (both racial and status-driven) and facades that was coming to an end but thought it had reached it's peak and from there on it can only go higher faster. Motorcars and airplanes were appearing, electricity was encroaching in much of the Western world, a new thing called movies and radio began rearing it's head. It looked as if the human race could do nothing wrong. Did they expect two world wars, a cold war and something like the atomic bomb? The owners of the Titanic were reckless and to a degree arrogant, but it was caught up in the zeitgeist of the time. It's easy to judge them harshly and to interpret their folly in several ways with almost 95 years of hindsight. But each age is as arrogant as the one before and the early 1910s is no exception.

Hmmm. I think what I said wasn't particularly consistant. It's just my thoughts.

[Sapphire225]

This is something I just have to get off my chest:

As some of you may know (and those who don't, pick up a book!) tomorrow is the 95th anneversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic when 1,523 people lost their lives due to man's arrogance and belief that he has conquered nature and God.

I know it sounds dumb and that I'm just ranting about nothing, but when I think about how everyone involved with the Titanic (Shipbuilders, owners, even the captain) put their faith in a few tons of steel and iron, and even went so far as to say "God Himself Cannot Sink This Ship", it really ticks me off. Even now, 95 years later, we've suffered at the hands of our own arrogance and belief that man can triumph over nature. When will man come to realize that steel and iron can bend, but God's mercy and kindness is ABSOLUTE?

Sorry if the above didn't make a lick of sense. It's just something I had to get off my chest.

::puts his soapbox away::

Not to be rude, but didn't they only say that in the movie? I don't know for sure if they said it in real life. But if they did, it was Man's fault for trying to play God.

[Destroyer2000]

Excuse me, but I thoughte the Titanic sank April 12th?

[ShiroiHikari]

I believe it was April 14, 1912.

Being fascinated with the history of Titanic, I have to admit I'm a little put-off by this thread...also, just because someone said something stupid, does that mean they deserve to die, along with all those other innocent people? To me, that doesn't sound like something God would do. Is God really so petty and arrogant as to say to Himself, "How dare those puny humans say I can't do something! I'll show them!"

[Kkun]

It isn't a problem of Titanic Arrogance; it's a problem of a Titanic conspiracy! Remember: until there's proof that they didn't do it, I'm convinced that they did.

[Fish and Chips]

It isn't a problem of Titanic Arrogance]Titanic conspiracy![/url] Remember: until there's proof that they didn't do it, I'm convinced that they did.

*Sees title "Unfastened Coins."*

*Favorites repeatedly.*

[termyt]

I believe the whole "unsinkable" bit was mostly a ploy to sell tickets. Transcontinental traffic was big business at the time and arrogance has always been good for marketing.

The fact of the matter is the vast majority of ships do not sink (in peacetime ). Not because they can’t, just because running into something that will sink you is rather rare, especially if you are not careless. Saying a ship is unsinkable is just playing the odds that it won’t ever sink.

The Titanic was actually fairly well designed and could have survived a number of different calamities that had sunk lesser ships. The damage it sustained was unfortunate enough to breach a couple of these new safety measures.

[mitsuki lover]

It was the fault of stupidity in that the nightwatch didn't see the iceberg.