Titanic America

Are we headed for an economic and environmental disaster of Titanic proportions? Will the USA be first?

Titanic sinking by Willy Stöwer

The Titanic was one of the largest and most luxurious ships in the world.

Like other North Atlantic liners at the time, the owners prioritized speed of crossing above all other considerations. Like on other luxury liners, the radio operators on board were there to transmit messages for passengers, not to pass on warnings, and only some of the iceberg warnings from other ships were passed on to the captain, who carried on at almost full speed. He had previously said that he could not “imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that”.

Such was the hubris of the day, that there were not nearly enough lifeboats for all the passengers at once. The captain of the ship was highly competent within the standards of the day, which were, with hindsight, clearly inadequate and were improved afterwards.

There were few actual sailors on board, and they were unfamiliar with the ship, so evacuation was a disaster in itself. First class passengers fared best, as there were fewer of them per member of staff. The third-class passengers were kettled down below as they were to go through immigration in New York, and many also suffered from learned helplessness and did not try to escape. Many of them were immigrants. Although it was supposed to be women and children first, the chairman of the line escaped in a lifeboat. Most of those who ended up in the water froze to death if they did not drown first.

...

The United States of America is, or was, the largest and most powerful economy and country in the world.

Like in other western economies, its large corporations prioritize profits above all other considerations. They shape the government and the economy to achieve their own goals, ignoring any warnings that they are on a bad course - that what many of them were doing is bad for the economy as a whole and the environment and health. They ensure that the standards of the day are watered down, ignoring possible consequences for others.

Most were bailed out after the crash of 2008, after which standards were improved, but they were soon champing at the bit again to deregulate so they could make more profit.

Many have made sure that they have their own lifeboats, in the form of luxurious bunkers, foreign passports and offshore bank accounts. ‘Women and children first’ has gone by the board. The rich first is their mantra, and once again, immigrants come last. Many are already being thrown overboard. The lives of the other (not rich, not white, not ‘upper class’) are of zero value to those running the DHS and ICE.

This time, the captain is not competent by the standards of the day. Instead, he is a highly incompetent pirate, stealing from the passengers and letting his paymasters steer the ship most of the time, then yanking it in another direction when he feels like taking control. Under this captain, the officers are mostly highly unqualified for their roles. The underlings - DOGE and ICE, for example - are totally ignorant of or indifferent to how the ship is supposed to be crewed.

...

And just as the Titanic was not the only ship courting disaster, so right wing pirates are taking control, or trying to, of as many other nations as they can. The UK is in their crosshairs. And if they succeed in stopping the AMOC, the UK, the U.S. East Coast and Europe could be the ones to freeze.

This time it may not be hitting an iceberg that triggers the disaster, but the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, or a major stock crash precipitated by climate-induced crop failures. Or who knows what else is looming out there?

The sooner we can throw the pirates in the brig and give control of the ship to people who are competent and professional and aware of the dangers, the better.