Submarines

Dear Elli,

This week, a tourism submarine imploded with five super-rich people on board.  They all died.  

I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the details, but it was impossible to ignore entirely.  The news updates were constant for multiple days.

I'm not writing you about this because the incident itself was particularly concerning to me, but rather because of some of the responses to it.  It's the type of shit that makes me want to go live in the woods by myself.  

We were talking the other night, and you asked me if I knew about the submarine saga.  I confirmed I did, and you said, "Mom, do you think they deserved to die?"

I knew immediately that you were seeing the response from the haters online, too.  The self-righteous asshats who are spouting off in every corner of the internet about the selfish and awful rich people who spend ridiculous sums of money to go on dangerous expeditions.  They say the expeditions are pointless and wasteful and stupid and those super rich people should keep their feet on solid earth and give their money away to help the poor instead.  These haters say those rich people deserved to die.

They say the same thing about private space travel, especially pointing to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.  Awful capitalist devils...  Meanwhile, they're steadily watching out the window for their Amazon package and talking about the amazingness of electric vehicles.  

I was pissed as soon as you asked the question about whether those rich people deserved to die.  Not pissed at you, but pissed at those people who fill people's heads with their hateful hypocrisy.  

Here's my thought on the topic.  I told you the other night, but I'm also putting it in writing so you can read it forever.  It's that important to me.

No.  They didn't deserve it.  Unless that sub was filled with five serial killers or child rapists, nobody "deserves" to die in an horrific disaster.  Period.  

We need people like them.  

There is a very small portion of humanity that is truly fearless.  And a tiny portion of those fearless people are also big thinkers.  When you combine those two qualities, we all get spectacular achievements.  And sometimes spectacular failures.  

If those fearless big thinkers listened to the ignorant hypocrites online, we'd still be standing around on the beach wondering what was on the other side of the ocean.  There would be no transcontinental travel.  No planes.  No submarines.  No rocket ships.  No nothing.  Shit, we probably wouldn't even have the bicycle.  Or even the wheel.  And we certainly wouldn't be sitting on the couch ordering shit from Amazon while we discuss the environmental benefits of electric vehicles.  The hypocrisy would be hilarious if it wasn't so alarming.

Those fearless big thinkers are risk takers in a way that most of us can barely comprehend.  They are wired differently.  They do weird shit for fun, too.  Like riding in a submarine 13,000 feet underwater to take a peek at the Titanic.  Or taking a leisurely cruise into space.  They'll spend ungodly sums of money to do it, too.  

And guess what?  Whether those super rich people are fearless big thinkers themselves or just fearless idiots who inherited their riches, the money they spend on their weird expeditions funds even more discovery.  Hell, who knows what kind of amazing, useful things we'll find someday at the bottom of the ocean or up in space?  

You can bet your ass that those haters on the internet won't find shit.  But you can also bet your ass they'll love that shit once it's found, even as they hate the people who found it.  Hypocrisy is an astounding thing.

Don't listen to the haters, kid.  And as you continue to learn about all the explorers and inventors and amazing discoveries in your history books, know that those people still exist today.  They're the same people so many others love to hate - especially when they're successful.  

I love you.

Mom