They're Not The Same

Some cruise ship ran aground in Italy. And it is because of that unfortunate incident that we have to be subjected to the opinions of people which will ultimately make us realize how out of touch people are with reality. It's really in the aftermath of an accident where we learn that we are surrounded by morons who equate two things to be identical based on any sort of a remote similarity. This is exactly why I'm rethinking democracy. I can't trust these people to vote on stuff. I just can't. Nor do I want to. And you might be joining me after this little story.

We go over to ABC News to learn a little bit more about what occurred. Basically, it's what I just said above. A cruise ship ran aground fairly close to shore in Italy. Here's a picture of how close to the shore it actually was. (This is relevant for the points that I will be making shortly.) Behold!


Yeah, that's bad. Ships shouldn't look like that. It's unsafe and not very inviting. Let's look at the ship from a different angle. Behold!

Good thing that it's pretty close to the land, huh? And it certainly didn't just topple over like that all of a sudden. Here's a picture of it when it was starting to go that way. Behold!

And just one more to illustrate the distance from the shoreline and the not-so-deep depth of the water there (hence all of the running aground, don't you know?). Behold!


But the fact that it's not totally submerged and that land is so close and the waters are so shallow is definitely something to take into consideration when determining how to think about this accident. Well, those are things that a reasonable person would take into consideration. Let's look at some of the perspectives that other people had on this event. Take this one woman who had been aboard the ship when this happened who said, "Have you seen 'Titanic'? That's exactly what it was." Now, I'm not sure what part she's unclear on here. What actually happened in Titanic, what actually happened aboard the actual Titanic, or what the definition of 'exactly' is. But she seems confused about at least one of those three because I can tell you right now that this was not 'exactly' like what happened to the Titanic.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that poor woman wasn't scared to death and I'm not saying that the situation wasn't dangerous and life-threatening. What I'm saying is that it was not exactly like Titanic. Sure, they both involved a large ship, but for me, the similarities end there. One was right off the coast of Italy, the other was in the middle of the ocean in the middle of freaking nowhere and in freezing cold water with icebergs all around. Those two scenarios are not 'exactly' the same. Again, I'm sorry that this woman was involved in this accident and I am glad that she's OK. But I am tired of everything needing to be elevated to an artificial level of tragedy that just doesn't exist. Things don't have to be super-duper bad in order for them to be 'bad enough'. Bad is bad. Why make it worse with inaccurate hyperbole?

ABC News asked some people who were visiting something called "Titanic the Experience" ("a tour through recovered artifacts and replicas of the famed ship in Orlando.) what they thought. I have no idea why they thought to do that, but they did. I guess that ABC News must have thought that the Titanic sinking in the middle of the ocean and killing over 1,500 people in the freezing water is the same as a boat slowly tipping over because it ran aground on the coast of Italy. Other than the fact that they're both boats, I'm not seeing a lot of similarities. But I guess I'm the only one because one guy said, "When I saw the Concordia on the news this morning, this is what I thought about." Huh. So this guy saw (I'm assuming) something similar to the picture that I included here and his first thought was "It's just like Titanic"? How is that possible? My first thought was "Oh, good. It's pretty close to shore and it's in fairly shallow water. Did anyone die?" I did not think about the Titanic. Good Lord.

Seriously, is this what our society hath wrought? Any sort of misdoing involving a large ship and people automatically equate it to the Titanic disaster? Have the critical thinking skills in this country sank so low that people can't differentiate between two different boats, not to mention completely different circumstances, one hundred years apart? Even ABC News delves into the similarities between the two incidents. (Then again, on the ABC News website, they also tell us: "Authorities investigate whether ship's captain sailed too close to rocks." The ship is currently sideways! I'm guessing the captain was, in fact, too close to the rocks! They need an 'investigation' to determine this?! The boat is sideways, for the love of God!) Just because they're both boats that had problems doesn't mean that they're the same! AT ALL! I'm trying to think of a ridiculous example that I could use as a comparison to this, but the actual story itself is so ridiculous that I don't think I can come up with a comparison. They're both boats, but they're not the SAME! Think, people! Think! It's our only hope!

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