Posted on 04/21/2014 5:14:13 AM PDT by servo1969
If we are unable or unwilling to see and confront the extreme lack of character -- the dishonor -- in Captain Lee's behavior, on the grounds that "we weren't in his shoes," then we are only increasing the chances that our own response, should we ever find ourselves in similar shoes, will be as weak as his. If we rationalize his action, we are implicitly rationalizing our own. That, in fact, is likely the main reason we excuse shameful actions so easily today: we are hoping to excuse ourselves from scrutiny (including and especially self-scrutiny) regarding our own failures of character. Moral relativism and psychological drivel about "drives" are the sophistries of weak men -- and they are intended to be exactly that, by those who propagate them, because these sophistries also produce weak men, serving the interests of a vicious ruling class quite well.
This self-absolution that passes itself off as "empathy" is one of our late modern diseases, and goes a long way to explaining our easy tolerance of increasingly generalized amorality, both in private conduct and, ultimately, in the criminal enterprise we dignify today with the name "politics."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
But the botched evacuation? From the info on AM news, it sounded like directions from shore weren't all that assuring. He was concerned about an order to evacuate which would cause death if the passengers didn't have survival gear and weren't picked up quickly in the frigid water. It sounded like the ship tilted so much that using lifeboats wouldn't get everyone off.
Evacuations of ships are tricky. There will be panic and loss of life in most cases. Otherwise, people would not have been stuck on those cruise ships that stopped functioning.
I'll be one of those reserving judgement until we know what caused the disaster and how quickly and dramatically that ship tilted and started sinking.
The writer relates this accident to our own “leadership”.
Think back to Benghazi, a classic modern case of a captain and his crew abandoning ship with passengers trapped on board. Captain Lee of the Sewol was indeed just an ordinary man, though one lacking the character his passengers and their families had the right to expect of him. Captain Obama, by contrast, was the nominal “leader of the free world,” and did not even face any personal risk in choosing his dishonor. And yet what were the consequences? Investigations, hearings, softball interviews — where is the cold disgust that ought to greet Barack Obama and his Benghazi first mate Hillary Clinton any time they have the gall to show their mugs in public? Captain Lee will never again have command of so much as a tugboat, and appears in public wearing a hood to hide his disgrace. (Hence he deserves our pity.) Captain Obama remains the darling of the American press, and was re-elected two months after his most exposed moment of consciencelessness, while Clinton remains the odds-on favorite to become the titular head of the most powerful ruling faction on the planet in 2016. (Hence they deserve none.)
Evacuations of ships are tricky.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Even trickier when at night and the PROFESSIONALS hopped the first life boat ashore.
Great excuse was heard yesterday....
Captain said something along the line of
‘I couldn’t stand to hang around and see the people in the cold water without enough gear, so I left’.........(OR to that effect)
Seems like the old ‘WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST’ has morphed into
“WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST -—BUT
.....me and me mates will lead the way in the head life boat”
The captain knew enough to save himself and his crew...
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