> James Michael Craven wrote:
> > For my classes in which there are some who have had a problem
> > demonstrating "command of the subjects" through the usual examination
> > modalities, I have given the following extra-credit assignment:
> >
> >
> > "The central concerns of 'Mainstream Economics' are seen by some as
> > analogous to concern with 'the optimum arrangement of deck chairs on
> > the Titanic.'See the movie "Titanic" and list/discuss/support ten
> > scenes, symbols, concepts or passages from the movie that represent
> > or could be seen as metaphors for aspects of the essence (inner-logic,
> > class structure, core institutions, power relations, contradictions
> > dynamics, etc) of capitalism."
>
> This is a nifty idea that should be expanded.
> With a generation that seems unable to read two consecutive sentences,
> that was born with a remote tuner in hand and a video store
> down the block, this might indeed be the way for a teacher to go.
>
>
valis
Thanks for the vote of confidence. Examples of what I am looking for
include:
1) Titanic was sunk by a very small initial tear in the hull; because
of the profit imperative and the imperative to minimize total costs,
the quality of the welding and riveting was poor and the initial
small tear caused pressure differentials that widened the small tear;
2) The arrogance of those commanding "the unsinkable" pushing the
ship through dangerous waters impervious to the trajectory and
looming dangers;
3) The class system of the system manifested on board with the poor
in steerage and the rich with easier access to the life boats and
comfy conditions;
4) Many of the rich drowned anyway due to not believing that the ship
could sink and remained on board with their illusions until their
death
>Titanic was White Star, a Morgan line, right? You can never go wrong
>bringing in J.P. Morgan.
> Haven't seen the film, but here are a couple of sickeners:
>
> 5) The Titanic was a commodity, produced with exchange in mind, and
> therefore had to be pretty. Sufficient lifeboats for projected passenger
> manifests would have broken the commodity's seductive lines (apparently
> true, the designer actually removed the necessary lifeboats from the
> initial plan - it's in his notebook). A triumph of exchange value over use
> value?
>
> 6) Once the integument is burst asunder (the hull), nothing can stop the
> sheer weight of the vast excluded (the water as prols; the bulwarks as
> seemingly invulnerable 'trenches and fortifications of the bourgeoisie'))
> from sinking those who would ride upon their backs (as the sea reclaims its
> dues, the expropriators are expropriated).
>
> 7) It was that virtuous thing, competition, that made Titanic sink. The
> trans-Atlantic blue riband is capitalism in microcosm, and but for this
> competition, the Titanic would have been a few miles south, travelling at a
> few knots less.
>
> 8) The watchman saw the berg and warned the bridge, but the captain could
> do nought. As the mass of the ship and the energy of the coal were beyond
> the skipper's whim, so is capitalism's historical trajectory beyond the
> control of the capitalist.
>
> I better stop - I'm losing my grip.
>
Less than 20 miles from the spot where the Titanic went down, the
California manuevered through the same ice field. But its only wireless
operator was asleep when the distress calls were sent; in addition, the
captain had ordered the engines stopped because of the danger.
A "Titanic" buff since childhood, I have briefly included the disaster in
appropriate US surveys as well in Progressive Era courses. We discuss the
perception of "Women and children first," vs. the reality of class as an
important determining factor. Students are quite surprised that all but 1
of the 29 1st and 2nd class children were saved while 53 out of 76 steerage
class children died.
Getting back to this thread, I believe the Titanic was built in Belfast,
where the shipyards didn't hire Catholics until at least the 1970s and
after that Catholics reported being violently harassed on the job. And the
song I was thinking of was "Legend of the Titanic," or "Fare Thee Well,
Titanic," by Leadbelly.
>>> >One important aspect of the Titanic disaster not mentioned in the film
>>> >or on the list:
>>> >
>>> >The White Star Line made a particular point of not hiring any Black
>>> >workers, even porters or coal stokers, who were common on other
>>> >steamships. The sinking was celebrated in African-American communities
>>> >as an act of retribution, probably one of the first examples of what
>>> >now might been called the "O.J. Simpson phenomenon."
Og det var det.
Stuff
Kjell S. Johansen