Birdnow's Aviary

June 22, 2023

Paper Moon

Daniel Jupp

I’ve just seen three different people argue that the people in that sub deserve respect because they are alpha males, modern explorers, boldly going etc.

If that’s true than every fat dad who pays to go on a fairground ride is Ernest Shackleton.

All they did was pay and sit down. And be too stupid not to get up again when they saw the thing was being piloted with a jury rigged PS4 controller.

If you visit a safari zoo and step out of your car, you aren’t Tarzan, you are a bloody idiot.

Genuine alpha males are still protective of their kids when they are 19, they don’t take them on half arsed death trips for a thrill.

Genuine explorers are the first person to get somewhere dangerous. The clue is in the word ‘explore’. They aren’t paying for the rich tourist version.

This is actually about the difference between real adventure, real machismo behaviour, real exploration and alpha traits, and synthetic, fake, purchased versions of those that just happened to be a bit more real than anyone intended.

It’s also about the difference between real, genuine, legitimate emotion (the kind you have when your mum or dad die through no fault of their own) and synthetic, fake, false emotion (the kind you have when a celebrity dies, or when a tragedy hits a bunch of rich strangers and you want to show how much better you are than your friends who post dark humour memes about it).

Real and synthetic. These are the two most important distinctions we can make, on anything. It’s real for the actual family and friends. It’s not all that real for anyone else.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:53 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Not to mention that they got into a tube that had problems that had been reported but not fixed. That was a schlock outfit, frankly, and although I am always sorry for loss of life, there was certainly the careless element here. The lawsuits will begin in 5... 4... 3...

And you're right, Tim, these people weren't explorers, they weren't going where nobody had been before; this was more like a carnival ride -- one that came off the wheels, sad to say. May God rest their souls.

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at June 22, 2023 11:10 PM (P/t0H)

2 Agreed in all respects. That being said, I cannot avoid being more than a bit freaked out for the people who died in a submarine implosion. a) I cannot count how many times my boat approached the limit of its design depth, 20 years after she was built, to the accompaniment of a great deal of noise as the hull contracted from the pressure of extreme depth. No matter how many times we did it, it was always nerve wracking. b) I lost a close friend (was best man at his wedding) on USS Thesher who was lost when she went below her crush depth and imploded.

Posted by: Bill H at June 22, 2023 11:59 PM (Q7br2)

3 Yeah Dana; they were thrill seekers, not explorers. And they trusted in a company that was not overly careful, it seems.

As you say, God rest their souls! It might be a quick way to die but I wouldn't want to go that way.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at June 23, 2023 06:22 AM (wpyPR)

4 Yeah Bill; I can imagine you have a degree of sympathy with these folks that none of the rest of us can understand. You've been to the Deep - many times. Closest I ever came was snorkling.

Bill, would that sub have imploded very quickly, or would they have known it was going to first? If it went quickly at least we can assume they didn't suffer the agony of knowing they were about to die such an ignominious death. I assume it was just like a bubble bursting "Pop!" Am I wrong in that?

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at June 23, 2023 06:24 AM (wpyPR)

5 In terms of recognition, they never saw it coming. At that depth and those pressures, the time between the sight of the beginning of it and death would have been too short for knowledge of it. A small fraction of a second.

Posted by: Bill H at June 23, 2023 09:17 AM (Q7br2)

6 Thanks Bill; what I thought. It's good to have an expert to ask!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at June 24, 2023 08:10 AM (NpDLy)

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