Friday, January 04, 2013

Has the Titanic finally sunk from our imaginations? What will be the new great disaster?




This last year marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.  I have grown up with the ship, had the chance to meet two survivors of the disaster, and have had a eager interest in all things about it.

But, I think I have had enough of the Titanic for a while.

It was Titanic overload last year. So many programs, Titanic in 3D, books, lectures and new museums. I think the Titanic went out of our collective interest with a bang.

 Now after a century I would guess it is time to let her rest. All are gone who sailed on her or saw her above the water. Now as we go to the 101st year of the Titanic, it will be a slow fade from the collective interest of the world.

 While she will always have her die hearts, the Titanic has now finally slipped into history's storage file and will not be the top contender of disasters anymore.

 What I see in the near future are the new Organisations that will deal with the 9-11 tragedy. Which I think in 20 years or so will start to take on more and more followers. There will be survivors who will speak and as time goes on when the last fireman, police officer, office worker, or child passes away it will be important news.

I can foresee a meeting on September 11, 2081, where a few survivors from 9-11 tell their stories for the millionth time.  All those who were born 50 years after the event, will thrill to hear them again and again. These survivors will take on a mythical status, just like the Titanic survivors a century earlier.

The Titanic had her century and of course we will still hear from her now and then. But in the 21st century the new focus will be on 9-11. Which will be looked at as the first major disaster of its kind that so shocked the world and brought it to it's collective knees.

Just like the Titanic...