The ugly envy of the left over the dead Titanic tourists shows them for what they are so much for Be Kind
I ADMIRE bravery. I admire adventurers. And I was brought up in a Britain which admired these things too.
But much of our country has changed. Where we used to admire adventure we have become cautious and safety obsessed.
Where we used to admire heroism we now favour moaning and victimhood.
Where we once admired success we have come to elevate failure.
There could hardly be a clearer demonstration of this ugly shift than in certain responses to the submersible tragedy at the site of the Titanic.
It was confirmed this week that the lives of all five people on board were lost due to a “catastrophic implosion”.
They included 19-year-old Suleman Dawood and his father.
It is unimaginable what his grieving, widowed mother is going through now.
Ordinarily, the people who talk about “kindness” and “compassion” would be kind and compassionate at such a time.
But no. Because the people on board the vessel were guilty of a terrible crime; they were rich.
The victims included Hamish Harding, a self-made billionaire from this country.
Dawood’s father Shahzada was also a successful businessman.
You had to be wealthy because places on the sub reportedly cost as much as £200,000. And of course, money like that provokes envy in ugly people.
Sure enough, one of the vilest commentators in Britain promptly leapt on the victims.
Self-confessed “communist” and Guardian writer Ash Sarkar, who can frequently be seen on the BBC, lost no time in trying to politicise the tragedy.
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Even as hope remained that the men could still be alive, Sarkar took to social media to say: “If the super-rich can spend £250,000 on vanity jaunts 2.4 miles beneath the ocean then they’re not being taxed enough.”
That’s quite the reaction. As a teenage Pakistani boy and four others were thought to be struggling for their last breath as oxygen supplies dwindled, this “luxury communist” criticised them for not being taxed more highly.
From where I sit, when someone is dead or dying it never occurs to most decent people to have a discussion about tax policy.
But Sarkar and other lefties on social media doubled down on the victim-blaming — something they usually pretend to hate.
“The Titanic submarine is a modern morality tale of what happens when you have too much money, and the grotesque inequality of sympathy, attention and aid for those without it.”
The point of this ghoulish communist seemed to be that if the victims had been poor no one would have taken any notice.
But similar disasters that have grabbed the world’s attention have often involved people with no money at all.
A few years ago the world was on tenterhooks at the story of the Thai boys stuck in a flooded cave.
People from around the world — including billionaires — rushed to try to help and, indeed, on that occasion the schoolchildren were saved.
The public’s sympathy has nothing to do with wealth.
It has everything to do with empathy for people in an unimaginable situation.
The idea of running out of oxygen is one of the most basic human fears of all.
But bitter people are able to feel bitterness everywhere.
If the victims had all been white then the bitter Left would have attacked them for being white.
But as it was they have been attacking them for being rich.
For having the money to view the wreck of the Titanic, something plenty of us would have liked the opportunity to do.
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If anyone is to blame for the tragedy it is OceanGate, the company in charge of the expedition.
But it is not the fault of the victims.
And in any case, apart from being rich and successful what exactly were they guilty of? Of being curious.
Of wishing to explore the depths of the ocean. Of seeing extraordinary sights and returning to tell people about them.
Of putting their lives in the hands of people who they trusted.
They are people to be admired, not attacked. They should be admired for being successful in their lives.
And they should be admired for continuing one of the things that is greatest about us as a species.
Which is our quest for knowledge and experience, even when it comes at the most terrible price.
A healthy society would admire them.
Take it lying down
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YESTERDAY was the 7th anniversary of the Brexit vote.
Which meant yet another orgy of complaining, weeping and gnashing of teeth from the BBC.
With each year that goes by, the corporation’s hatred for the 2016 public vote grows in intensity.
This year it celebrated by once again inviting Alastair Campbell on prime-time TV.
Because if there is one thing needed to improve the public discourse it is Tony Blair’s most-famous spin doctor telling us the vote was based on a big lie and then explaining the perils of telling lies.
When I encountered Campbell – who was involved in the discredited Iraq War dossier – on a TV show last year, I told him that the majority of people want to hear him talking about political lies about as much as they would want to hear Jeffrey Epstein discuss the age of consent.
Campbell didn’t like that and stormed off the show.
He likes to give it out, does our Alastair, but he isn’t any good at taking it.
Strike misery again
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WHAT is wrong with this country?
Why have we gone back to the endless strikes of the Seventies?
It seems there isn’t a day that goes by without some industry, somewhere, striking.
This time it is, once again, the rail unions.
The RMT has planned fresh strikes to coincide with the beginning of the summer holidays.
The planned dates of July 20, 22 and 29 will affect some high-profile targets like the Ashes Test matches in Manchester and London, the Open at Hoylake’s Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
But the main aim is simply to screw up the plans of ordinary Brits going on holiday once the schools are out.
They are so selfish, the RMT. Its members are more than well-enough paid.
And besides, everyone in the country is suffering from inflation and the increased cost of everything.
But the RMT does not care any more about that than it does the pubs, restaurants, hotels and other businesses which will be affected by their actions.
This country’s small businesses are only just recovering from years of Covid hell.
They need to be back on their feet and booming.
How typical of Mick Lynch and his fellow union bosses to think only of themselves.
Putin’s destiny
TALKING of bravery, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was ordered to stay in a Russian prison this week.
A “court” in Moscow rejected his appeal to be freed ahead of his trial.
The reporter was snatched off the streets in March on fabricated “spying” charges and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
But Evan put on a brave face in court where his parents were present to support him.
The world has plenty of evidence of Vladimir Putin’s gangster-like behaviour.
Not least his illegal invasion of Ukraine and war crimes.
Who knows, hopefully one day it will be Putin in the dock and Evan will have long been freed.
My money’s on Elon to leave his Mark
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IT would be one of the strangest prize fights of all time.
Tech wizards Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg appear to have agreed to a cage match.
It comes after a report that the boss of Meta is plotting a rival platform to Musk’s Twitter.
So the tech billionaire challenged Zuckerberg, who practises mixed martial arts, to a fight. And he took to Instagram to accept.
Despite admitting he “almost never” exercises, my money would be on Musk.
Zuckerberg’s companies have spent recent years trying to limit public access to information – suppressing newspapers, silencing opinion, quashing stories.
Whereas Musk is a free-speech kind of guy. He believes that people should be the best deciders of what we are allowed to know and say.
So as they mug up on how to take each other on, Musk is going to have an advantage.
He will be able to hear from people who know what they are talking about.
Whereas Zuckerberg, if he follows his own rules, will have to edit out any views he doesn’t like.
Perhaps Zuckerberg will be able to learn a very basic lesson the hard way. A very hard way.
from London News Station: Your Trusted Source for Local News and Updates in the Heart of the City https://ift.tt/l19mOTy
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