Sinking Ship - What Would You Do?

[Turbodick]

Women and children first are supposed to get priority to lifeboats on a sinking ship.

So, some heart patient male that is 80 years old is criticized for waiting in the semblance of a line and having the audacity of taking his seat when it comes open on a lifeboat, because there is a 30 year old female that doesn't have a seat.

Is he wrong to take his seat?

 

[joelcairo]

Women and children first are supposed to get priority to lifeboats on a sinking ship.

So, some heart patient male that is 80 years old is criticized for waiting in the semblance of a line and having the audacity of taking his seat when it comes open on a lifeboat, because there is a 30 year old female that doesn't have a seat.

Is he wrong to take his seat?

Morally: not at all.
The whole women and children first concept is more about math than morals (the children have more years left and the women are needed to produce more children - one man can impregnate a LOT of women, as Screamin' Jay Hawkins proved over and over again!)

Mathematically: Very possibly because if he dies there are very few years left anyway but if she dies it's probably about 55 years lost - based on estimated life expectancies.

 

[Ricky bonds]

if i was in that particular sinking ship, i would have jumped and swam to shore..it was right there.
in any other case i would take out my iphone..and ask simon paul what he thinks i should ask the staff on the ship to do.(he always has the good questions)

 

[simonpaul]

Ricky,instead of thinking at me ,next try to give us good response.

 

[Ricky bonds]

my bad simon:eyebrows:...i couldnt help myself, no malice intended.
i agree with joelcairo, morally right..mathematically wrong.
of course common courtesy says to let your elders go first...but that is in daily life situations where politeness counts, not in a paniked situation.

 

[wasisname]

Women and children. Arn't they two of the same .

I fear death too much. I will be willing to kill anyone, up to and including the president to save it. You don't want to know what I would do to keep alive. I'll deal with the guilt later.

The president line is an adaptation from the TV show undergrads where Rocco tells what he is willing to do to join Alpha Alpha.

 

[Turbodick]

Well, in any event reports say the situation in Italy saw a lot of people clawing their way to the front, so someone 80 y/o with a heart condition wouldn't get to the lifeboat too quickly or be able to give up a seat.

I'm sure there were some real acts of selflessness too.

 

[GuitarPlaya]

if i was in that particular sinking ship, i would have jumped and swam to shore..it was right there.

Ricky, some people tried and died because the water was too cold and they had a cardiac arrest ...

 

[sweetwater]

I think I'd get the women and children in the lifeboats, then put my head between my legs and kiss my ass goodbye. :wave:
Sweetwater

 

[Siocnarf]

This reminds me of a joke:
Its the story of a British gentleman, an american and a frenchmen during a shipwreck.

The brit says: "children and women first"
The american replies: "fuck the women!"
And the frenchmen ask hopefuly: "do we have time you think?"

(you can also substitute the names of your favorite merb members for extra fun)

 

[Doc Holliday]

I was curious what this thread was about, thinking at first that it was about the Montreal Canadiens......

 

[Ricky bonds]

I was curious what this thread was about, thinking at first that it was about the Montreal Canadiens......

omfg..that was a puck to the side of the head! i was not expecting that comment, and i just spit out a cube of filet mignon..laughing.!:lol:
my sentiments exactly

 

[evillethings]

...funny thing is, i thought this was a headline in the Leafs Nation thread!

... I fear death too much. I will be willing to kill anyone, up to and including the president to save it. You don't want to know what I would do to keep alive. I'll deal with the guilt later...

funny + scary! :lol:

if there's one thing i learned from watching the film titanic, there's plenty of good usable floating dead ppl you can group together to make an environmentally sound life raft.

 

[anon_vlad]

if there's one thing i learned from watching the film titanic, there's plenty of good usable floating dead ppl you can group together to make an environmentally sound life raft.

I was completely wrong. Joe T. could conceivably some day be useful.

 

[hormone]

the whole women and children fisrt. Fascinating on the BBC site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16576289

To summarise, sounds like this originate din the mid 1800's... on a military ship that had about 30 women and children. The commander ordered his soldiers to let the women/ kids escape first... and most of the men died!
It's a chivalrous thing. Chivalry is moribund.

I would have swam the couple of hundred meters... but again, this happened at nite, so maybe people had no clue how close they really were to the coast.