The five departed souls of the Titan submersible suffered two tragedies. First, the tragedy of dying in a catastrophic implosion deep in the North Atlantic. Then the tragedy of posthumous ridicule. There seems to be a stark and bleak lack of sympathy for the men who perished. Instead a moralistic mob has found them guilty in death of the worst sin of our times: hubris.
Much of the discussion about these doomed adventure seekers is making me feel nauseous. The virtual chatter is even worse. The bony finger of judgement is being pointed. ‘Who in their right mind would pay a quarter of a million dollars to gawp at the ruins of the Titanic?’, ask armchair moralists. It feels like an orgy of puritanical derision, with some even asking if these decadent men with more money than sense got what they deserved.
Like Pope Formosus they have been put on trial after death, only in the kangaroo court of Twitter priggishness rather than in a cadaver synod.
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