TITANIC TRAGEDY

One hundred years ago the construction of the luxurious Titanic began. It was to be the world's most magnificent ship to that time. Three years later it became history's greatest maritime tragedy.

In the springtime of 1909 no one would have believed that the great ship Titanic would lie two miles under the North Atlantic Ocean. Its three hour nightmare—resulting in more than 1500 people drowning in icy blackness—was caused by a combination of human error and arrogance.

The tragic results shocked the world—especially the English speaking world. Its memory still does.

But the terrifying details of the Titanic tragedy and the epic proportions of its construction shouldn't fascinate us merely because it's a captivating story about only 706 of its 2,223 passengers surviving.

A century later
It should capture our attention because it's so immediately relevant to the perils of our world today.

A century ago who could have foreseen what the next hundred years would bring? Who could have predicted the paradoxical invention of today's powerful but perilous technologies?

Our 21st century began with a very eerie semblance to world conditions 100 years ago. The major players involved with the planning and construction of the Titanic were amazingly similar to those currently trying to keep today's fragile economic ship afloat.

Like the Titanic, our global economy is being stressed beyond the strength of its original design. But its architects are attempting to move it full steam ahead in an ocean of problems, any one of which could sink the whole enterprise. There are three Titanic sins that now threaten our survival.

Sin number one
When J.P. Morgan, founder of what is currently America's largest bank, financed the construction of the Titanic, his consuming passion was to overwhelm the competition for the most luxurious and largest ship in the world. He financed a team of engineers, designers and manufacturers to create the biggest ship imaginable, one sixth of a mile or almost 900 feet long.

An overwhelming vanity regarding Anglo Saxon technical brilliance mixed with a quietly assuming arrogance in the perfection of their creation was shared by the British and American financial and industrial elite, paving the way for the doomed maiden voyage of the Titanic. This attitude was the first and greatest sin of the Titanic's creators.

Newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic called it "the Wonder Ship," "the Last Word in Luxury," "the Unsinkable Ship," "the Biggest Ship in the World." It was nicknamed "the Millionaires' Special" on Wall Street.

J.P. Morgan planned to be on the voyage, but got sick and took the next boat from London to New York. Aboard was a "Who's Who" of the fabulously rich and famous, including the founder of Macy's, the largest big box department store chain in the United States. He drowned along with a White House aide to President Taft.

Attitudes haven't changed! The same careless vanity that captivated the Titanic's creators has permeated Wall Street's masters of the financial ship of state during the past two decades. This attitude has pushed today's global economy to the brink of collapse. Today's captains of finance thought their financial engineering of the New Economy would be the invincible ship that could carry the world to endless prosperity—with ample elitist benefits for themselves.

Sins two and three
The second astonishing sin was the reckless lack of planning for the safety and care of passengers and crew. The planners of the Titanic believed that only enough lifeboats to accommodate a maximum of 1,178 people were necessary, despite the fact that the ship's capacity for passengers and crew was 3,547.

The third sin was the callous disregard for the warnings about icebergs straight ahead in the path of the Titanic. Several ships communicated with the Titanic; and its own radio man transmitted a message that it had been warned of icebergs in its path. The captain did not steer away but increased speed, hoping to break the transatlantic record.

Are we also headed toward an economic, political and social disaster of Titanic proportions? Many political and economic leaders are confident we can spend our way out of the present financial crises. But navigating that ocean has never succeeded before.

A biblical warning
The Bible predicts that at the end time the entire world will experience a period of "great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again" (Matthew 24:21, New International Version).