After five days of intensive searching and anxious waiting, rescuers found remains Thursday of the submarine Titan which disappeared while exploring the wreck of the Titanic. All five people aboard the sub have died.
While that’s not the result any of those who held out hope – no matter how slim – that this would end in a rescue, there are those who are are downplaying the tragedy of lives lost.
OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet were wealthy, and their fortunes brought out the worst in many.
The sniping and vitriol was in full play on Twitter:
“In many ways, the swift rescue efforts for the billionaires trapped in the Titanic submarine, while poor & desperate refugees are neglected & left to die, mirrors a sad, familiar story of the world that has replayed across history. Little has changed. #OceanGate #submarinemissing” wrote one.
“Ok looks like the Titanic/Titan submarine imploded & killed its billionaire occupants instantly, rather than a fate of drawn-out suffering. NOW are we allowed to highlight the hypocritical double standards afforded to the hundreds of migrants who WERE left to drown in agony?” posted another.
“Billionaires deserve to die 2 miles under the sea, 5 feet in front of you, in space, over here, over there, anywhere. We don’t deserve the effects billionaires purposefully cause for profit yet we do.”
The Twitterverse was teeming with “better” things to be concerned with than the missing submarine, diatribes on what the search and rescue funds could instead go to. tasteless jokes – in short, a free-for-all of rank inhumanity.
There were calmer, compassionate souls posting their views, but nastiness sprouts and spreads like weeds.
Mainstream media had their digs as well, even before Thursday’s discovery put an end to hope and speculation. An opinion piece on CNN’s web site was titled: “While we hope for the best for the lost Titanic-exploring submersible, let’s not forget these other victims,” referring to the plight of migrants at sea.
And there were even allusions to their wealth being at the root of this catastrophe. From the UK news site National World, an article “Why wealthy people go on extreme tourist expeditions,” explaining that “there’s a psychological reason behind why wealthy people choose dangerous activities – and it’s to do with how they made their money.”
We don’t do this when people die in plane crashes. accidents. We don’t chide accident victims for spending their money on a vacation adventure while there are those in the world without enough to eat.
While there appeared to be many, many problems with the submersible (operated with a video-game controller), and questions about the actual need to explore the remains of the Titanic, none of that negates the fact that there are families who’ll never see their loved ones again.
“Send not to know for whom the bell tolls,” wrote John Donne, “It tolls for thee.”
