Thursday, April 23, 2009

Did you know that Americans are pushy?


According to the Discovery Channel, Americans on the Titanic were rude and pushed ahead of other passengers to get on the lifeboats, while the Brits:

on board the sinking Titanic died while politely queuing to get their place on a lifeboat, while Americans pushed their way on



This is according to:

new analysis of passenger data
Nothing like having concrete evidence to prove something:

David Savage, a behavioral economist at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and Bruno Frey, of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, spent more than a year studying survival rates from one of the worst maritime disasters in history.
Because as we all know from saber metrics, the numbers tell the entire story, and there is no evidence needed. And by all means, let's pick a bullshit hypothesis and make the data fit it in order to prove a point:

"The Titanic was built in Great Britain, operated by British subjects, and manned by a British crew. It is to be expected that national ties were activated during the disaster and that the crew would give preference to British subjects, easily identified by their language," the researchers said

They found that British passengers, who queued for a place in one of only 20 lifeboats provided for the 2,223 on board, had 10 percent lower chance of survival than any other nationality.
So lets look at this. The ship, built by, and manned by, the Brits, sank because the British captain was trying to set a speed record and was going too fast at night for the conditions. The British company that built the ship decided they didn't need to spend money on binoculars for the look out to actually spot the iceberg. And the British crew let the lifeboats, manned by British seamen, pull away from the ship half full.

But the Americans are rude, pushy, murderers, who jumped into the lifeboats at the expense of other passengers:

In contrast, Americans, who reportedly elbowed their way to the front of lines, had a 12 percent higher probability of survival than British subjects.
Now, lets look it another way. The ship, sailing to America, was carrying Americans. Who were going home, not immigrating. So lets assume, since this is what this entire study does, that most of the Americans had money and were traveling in first or second class, and not steerage. Therefore, they were close to the decks, closer to the boats, and more likely to have loaded before the immigrants from the lower decks were able to get up there. While all the Brits were not immigrants, it is certainly reasonable to assume that many of them were, and were in the bowels of the boat with others. Proving my point:

Passengers of the first and second class were advantaged: they likely had better access to information about the imminent danger, not to mention that they were closer to the boat deck.
Remember, Brits comprise English, Welsh, Scots, and Irish. British here is a handy word for English, and ignores the nationality of the others.

When the sailors were loading the boats, it was most likely in a first come-first serve basis of women and children. From what I read, the study doesn't break it down by gender, but says younger women and children were more likely to be saved. This all jives with those who survived, and doesn't prove a damn thing at all.

Americans can be pushy, and might have pushed their way to the front. But Brits are just as likely to be pushy. I live here, and I see it all the time. Think of hooligans. It's nice to think of all Brits as being the polite, Jeeves's the butler robots, who would stand by and let themselves drown while others save themselves. Much as many Americans did, to include John Jacob Astor, who died on board. This is conveniently overlooked.

I don't understand the point behind this. The sinking was done in a British boat, with a British crew and captain, and owned by a British company that failed to provide enough boats. So, in order to make sure they don't get blamed, Brits now want to blame America's for the deaths because of some numbers on a list. This is just blatant anti-Americanism, and they don't do anything more to prove their case then I have done to disprove it. And I'm not even trying.

With all the problems in the world such as terrorism, the economy, children dying in Africa by the millions, and no clean water, is something like this really necessary. Seriously, what was the point of this. I just don't see Americans can be considered guilty of anything.

We are, however, guilty of James Cameron's awkward moment at the Academy Awards, and that song by Celine Dion that just won't die a natural death.

2 comments:

Nick said...

Yeah, but what about the Poles?

Ron Rollins said...

Well, that's an entirely different story.