The Titanic Over Again

Glorifying the heroics when the Titanic sank obscures the fact that it was a terrible disaster that never should have happened. There was so much confidence in the technology, maybe because Britain was where the Industrial Revolution began. The Titanic was unsinkable. There was no need to bother with warnings about icebergs up ahead and come to a halt like nearby ships. Setting speed records was more important. There is also the controversy over the quality of the rivets used to secure the plates on the part of the ship that contacted the iceberg.

The trouble is that we keep replaying the Titanic. The 2017 Grenfell tragedy was just like the Titanic, except that it was in the middle of London instead of at sea. Instead of the controversy over the plates on the outside of the Titanic it was about the cladding on the outside of the building. There was the same overconfidence in the technology, and the feeling that there was nothing to worry about. Image from Google Earth.

Then there was the Post Office Scandal. The same overconfidence in the technology. Hundreds of people were accused, and many convicted, of being short of money. (In Britain post offices can be run out of stores). Just like the icebergs up ahead, warnings were ignored that the technology might be at fault. Instead of the quality of the rivets on the Titanic it was faults in the software.

Let's realize that the sinking of the Titanic was a terrible tragedy that should never have happened and that it can happen again in other forms.