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Titanic Fever:
Why Then? Why Now?

Adam J. Green
The Journal of Psychohistory V. 26, N. 2, Fall 1998

With over 1 billion dollars in sales and 11 Oscars, Titanic has become the number one movie of all time, "accomplishing not only the unbelievable, but the unimaginable" as one newspaper charges (New York Post, Monday April 27th, 1998), that is, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Amidst all the hype, the hit music, the near blinding fury of ticket sales, a proper question to ask, then, would be: why has it done so well? What can explain its success? Movie-goers and star-gazers would attribute the movie's good fortune to either Leonardo DeCaprio's starring role as Jack or the enormous budget (and equally enormous returns) of the film, combined with the directorship of James Cameron and that inescapable song sung by Canadian Celine Dion. However, if big names and big budgets were all one required to have a top film, we would have never been witnesses to the Ishtar fiasco of 1987, which cost over 50 million and starred Hollywood A-list Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty, nor the similar fate which would fall upon Kevin Costner's 150 million-dollar Waterworld. Both these movies have since become the butt of many a joke, and are considered the standard low end of the movie scale, the yardstick by which shoddy films are measured, this despite their star power and their budgets (which were the highest at the time in 1987 and 1995 respectively).

Titanic's success in overtaking such classics as Star Wars and E.T. must then be rooted in causes outside the arena of the production of the film itself. This article hopes to show both how its success can be traced to the myth of the Titanic itself, and why it has lasted for so long, re-surfacing with such fervor specifically at this juncture in time. To examine this phenomenon, we must first go back and take stock of the world as it was just before Titanic sank. We must then examine the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the ship, both those factual and those attributed, and glance at how the myth of the Titanic was created ("myth" here is used not in the sense of a story which never happened, but a real event which has developed a "mystique" around it, leading to secondary stories and interpretations not necessarily found in the original, e.g. the JFK assassination). In order to bring the story to the present, we will explore the mindset of our own time, and take stock of the whole of the 20th century, of which, as will be seen, there could be no more quintessential example, no better singular object to represent it, than Titanic.

At the turn of the century, the Western world, and indirectly the rest of the world, was going through enormous changes. Politically, the expanding empires of Europe were busy arguing over second wave colonial expansion and over which of them possessed the best navy, while the peoples in the countries of Asia were becoming more and more enraged at their national situation, as well as where they stood on an increasingly global scale. Technologically, electricity was being implemented everywhere, automobiles and airplanes were in their infancy, and better ores and refining processes were improving all things mechanical. This time also saw the rise of new social sciences like Sociology and Psychology, as well as a general renewed interest in all things scientific. Socially, there were also the budding Populist movements of Europe and Asia, as well as a growing anger at the conditions of all workers, and of all women.

Crazes, Fads, Inventions, Discoveries

By the time the "teen" years began (1910s) these advances began to occur more and more frequently. The period of 1909 to 1914 can be seen as one of incredibly rapid advance, in which the limits of human potential and discovery were expanded at a blinding pace. 1911 and 1912, without a doubt, saw the most intense activity of the period; a new discovery was so quickly out-shadowed by another, any new record was superceded by a new mark within weeks. Speed was the buzzword.1 The music of the day was ragtime, a new sound based on syncopation with an upbeat tempo, exemplified in the early music of Irving Berlin (Alexander's Ragtime Band, Everybody's Doin' it Now) and praised as "the best heart-raiser you know."2 The American car craze began with the introduction of the Model T Ford, allowing everyone to own a car, and these years saw new car companies (Chevrolet, Dodge, etc.) spring up, highways built, and a whole new language come into popular culture ("speeding ticket", "jalopy", etc.).

The mania of those years extended into all areas of life, especially in 1911 and 1912. Those years, almost unbelievably, saw the discovery of radiation from outer space, vitamins, pulsar and white dwarf stars, super-conductivity, a drug to enable the body to accept implants, dipolar molecule movement, Machu-Picchu in Brazil, a method for measuring the galaxy, scurvy as a result of vitamin deficiency, and Kraft (brown) paper. The electric iron, the cloud chamber, cellophane, the Browning automatic pistol, the gyrocompass, price and cost-of-living indexes, and the first vacuum to amplify electric current were all invented. The theories of Continental Drift, Atomic Number, Gestalt Psychology, and the Nuclear Theory of Atoms were all posited for the first time, and the work of Marie Curie, the first Marconi wireless transmission, the first US electric ship, and Freud's first public discourse on the unconscious as a repository for the conscious were all completed.

Scientists and theorists were not the only ones in on this reign of rapidity. Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole and Turcat-Mary won the first Monte Carlo Rally, but only following the first Downhill Ski Race, the first Transcontinental Automobile Race and the completion of the first Indianapolis 500. In addition to these official races, the average person wanted a chance to be a Sovereign of Swiftness. Records were set for speed in cars, in planes, and in travel around the world, only to be uprooted by the next challenger. Lasting records were also set for plane height, plane and automobile distance, and longest running times without re-fueling.3

This rampant mania was also felt in political circles around the world. The Chinese, Portuguese, and Mexican revolutions broke out, creating new republics; the Premier of Russia (Pyotr Stolypin) and President of the Dominican Republic (Ramon Caceres) were assassinated; the US moved into Honduras, Cuba, Nicaragua, and China to "protect American interests;" and there were riots in Ireland concerning the contemplated British "Home Rule." It was in this near-madness that the Titanic would set sail.

As is well known, the Titanic's captain and crew were convinced, like the rest of the world, that the ship was virtually unsinkable. Thus they took some very generous chances with it, namely reducing the number of lifeboats so as to give the first class passengers more room to roam (who needs lifeboats on an unsinkable ship?), and pushing the boat's speed up past 21 knots while ignoring warnings of icebergs which would normally call for reduced speed. (Whether they were going for a speed record is a matter of controversy, but since the sinking it has been assumed so, and the characteristics which people attribute to it are of course what matter.) Given the incessant drive for speed seen in everyday life, in music, in science, etc., that the ship should have been precariously barreling over the ocean waters seems to fit the mindset of the era quite well. But the attitudes of Captain Smith and his crew are not the only aspects of Titanic that made it an icon, and the physical act of collision is only part of the tale.

A Social Affair

The people in the Teens were also enacting a number of social changes, ones that were not only revolutionary, but basically set the pattern of the dominant social matters of the century. Firstly, it is important to realize that these changes did not come about by polite debate or even necessarily because those in power felt it "was time" for the changes to occur. The people made themselves heard in a blizzard of strikes, protests, and even riots. 1911 saw a nationwide strike of transport workers in Britain so fierce it required 50,000 government troops to quell the ensuing riots, while strikes in Spain required the declaration of martial law to restore order. The Social Democrats in France all threatened strike, the Portuguese revolted against their new government, London cabbies went on strike, and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union conducted an extended strike following a fire in one of their factories.4

These mass protests continued into 1912, which saw 100,000 dock workers strike in London and 240,000 protest the above mentioned Home Rule in Ireland. In addition, Massachusetts textile workers, Belgian miners, German Ruhr miners, and Anthracite Coal miners in Cleveland each held extended strikes, and over 1 million British miners participated in a 5-day strike.5

As unbelievable as the level of these strikes were, more unbelievable were the gains made by the people involved. By midway into 1912, Britain had opened 83 Labour Exchanges where the unemployed could go to seek work, the British National Insurance Act provided insurance for prevention and cure of sickness as well as unemployment insurance for those who could not find work, New York State maximized the work week at 54 hours, the US government enacted a 40 hour work week for its members, and the first State Minimum Wage laws (including women and children) were enacted in Massachusetts. Add to this the fact that the Garment Workers had gotten their desired changes and that the vote was extended to all men over 21 in Britain, and one sees quite clearly how effective the strikes really were. In these years, which culminated in symbolic acts such as the creation of the US Department of Labor and the rise of the Labour party in Britain, the social themes of the 20th century seemed to have been firmly rooted.

Dealing with Progress

With all this change, however, there are of course the common drawbacks which afflict any society in which change occurs too fastÉguilt and fear. How could a man of 40 face a world of cars, planes, unemployment insurance, mass transit, and republican governments, when all these things were unheard of when he was a child? How could a woman of 25 go to work in a factory, which she arrived at by subway, and which made standardized parts she used in her car and her iron, when her grandmother had toiled in the fields? The people's reaction was not very disguised. At first, there was an almost crazy response in popular culture. "Animal Dances" became the rave. The age's dancers jiggled and bounced to the Turkey Trot, the Grizzly Bear, the Camel Walk, the Buzzard Lope, and the Kangaroo Dip6 (imitation of the gestures of those animals), which required men and women to touch and paw each other, and support each other's aggressive swooping and rocking gyrations (which drew condemnation from none other than Pope Pius X)7. Cars became a necessity also, and the addition of accessories (survival kits, emergency supplies) a craze. In other words, the people nearly went off the deep end, thrashing about at the dance hall and preparing for the worst in their new cars. But in what would become their most enduring symbol, the biggest craze of them all was the Luxury Liner.

To travel on one of the many new Ocean Liner ships crossing the Atlantic, was to engage in what Thomas Wolfe summed up as "the supreme ecstasy of the modern world."8 These ships, at least one of which was owned by every nation with any self-respect, were comparable only to the 19th century "Robber Baron" houses of America in their grandeur and extravagance. They were decked with miles of lights, had promenades the size of city streets, and were lavishly decorated with only the finest wood and stone. They supported world-renowned chefs, dressed their staffs in themes like "Moorish Nomads," sported fountains and statues, and gave them names which reflected their size and majesty.9 The Titanic itself had a Parisian cafe, a gymnasium, a band, period staterooms, a swimming pool, and a series of squash courts. As the First Class accommodations and services were the only ones advertised, the common working class wage-earners stowed away their life's savings for a chance to spend just one voyage in luxury, to spend waking time in a dream. "Destination was irrelevant; getting there was the fantasy."10 If they could only get onto a ship, the rest would take care of itself.

Thus far we have seen the world events and popular aura in which the Titanic's voyage took place. The mania and speed of the time can hardly be exaggerated, nor can the attention given to ships like the Titanic. That this attitude, this way of living life in the early Teens contributed to the specifics of the Titanic's demise should now seem clear. What remains to explain, however, is why the icon of Titanic has lasted so long, and why it is an image that everyone can relate to, even today. To do this properly, we must invoke the psychohistorical theories of Lloyd deMause and others, who accurately predict that periods of progress and over-inflated change usually result in a catastrophic event, such as a war or a depression. After all, there have been other disasters comparable to Titanic (Lusitania, the Hindenburg, etc.), but they occurred at different stages in the cycle of the public mindset (during a war, following a Depression, etc.). Only Titanic remains as powerful a symbol today as it was when it originally sank on April 15th, 1912.

However, if the psychohistorians are correct; if the Titanic was somehow a culmination of this mania, a necessary release and a feasible sacrifice for the collective guilt of the masses; then one should also find impressive advances for women, which usually occur in conjunction with more large-scale advances. The evidence certainly suggests that this connection exists.

The State of Feminism

The beginning of the 20th century saw the Feminist movements, especially in the US and the UK, drastically altering their direction. While the earlier feminists of the 19th century began the push for the vote and campaigned against injustices done to women in their subordination at home, the early 20th century feminist faced a new world, one in which the men now went off to work in the factory and the woman stayed at home to raise the children (before, while subordinate, she had assisted in the agrarian labor).11 In accordance with the new emerging position of women in society, there was the emergence of the "New Woman."

Woman in the Victorian Era had already been deemed her husband's moral superior, although she remained his social and legal inferior.12 As life changed for the working and middle classes, however, there was a near reversal in male and female marital imagery. Women began to move from passive victims to active agents, and men, no longer so aggressively abusive (because of some legal redress and limited rights given to abused women) were seen as either passively abusive (non-supporters) or almost neutral (inadequate earners).13 Thanks to structural changes in the economy, employment opportunities for women greatly expanded, allowing many to enjoy a period of independence and to dispense with their "maidenly reserve." The New Woman wanted to sample both marriage and a career in the workforce, whereas her predecessors had been forced to choose between the two.14

Out of this view came feminist leaders like Rheta Dorr, known best for her 1910 book entitled What Eight Million Women Want, which focused on the latest expression of the women's movement, the Women's Club. Having come a long way from the days of the Cult of True Womanhood (late 19th century), these new clubs emphasized, organized, and mobilized women to action. Those like Dorr felt that women could indeed help themselves a great deal by organizing unions, by striking, and by lobbying for the passing and enforcing of protective legislation.15 Among the numerous clubs were the Women's Freedom League, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, The General Federation of Women's Clubs, the Nation Women's Party, and the NSPU.

For most, the focus of their actions were to secure for women the right to vote in elections, or universal suffrage. Many women felt that most social troubles could be credited to an exclusively male government that rested on violence, and that if women were given economic and political equality, such bad conditions as poverty would disappear.16 The various governments of the day were all too unsure as to how to deal with the suffrage issue. British parliamentarians were split in their opinions, and although the House of Commons had voted in principle in favor of giving women the vote, no government had yet seriously considered it.17 Similarly in the U.S., Presidential candidates endorsed suffrage in the 1912 election campaign,18 but didn't grant it until 1920. Many leading politicians, especially in England, were afraid that if women were given the vote, they would all vote in one direction (Conservative in Britain) because of their age and possessions.19

While the government had succeeded in stalling the advance of women for a while, they could not hold them off for long. The view had changed, and as working-class women were increasingly seen as capable and resourceful in the workplace, they were also seen as responsible and capable adults.20 The women agreed that their place was in the home, but as Rheta Dorr put it:

Home is not contained within the four walls of an individual home. Home is the community. The city full of people is the Family. The public school is the real Nursery. And badly do the Home and the Family and the Nursery need their mother.21

The women endorsing these views were baffled at how a supposedly "liberal" government could continuously deny their fundamentally liberal demand.22 Frustrated and seemingly deadlocked, many women increasingly felt that all the public discourse, all the strikes and the protests, all the rhetoric you could shake a stick at, was simply not doing enough.

Militant Feminism

The period surrounding the Titanic disaster saw the emergence of a women's movement never before seen: Militant Feminism. For the Militant Feminists, women were the spiritual descendants of the likes of Joan of Arc; they argued that a government which was lacking in relevant principles and had become morally and politically bankrupt was forcing them to engage in social disorder.23 Militancy was seen as a moral philosophy, a way of looking at the world, especially in terms of an understanding of history and the process of social and political change, which these women felt had come to a turning point. Once militancy began, the social ostracism and the need for secrecy which was increasingly attached to acts of militancy served only to further lock the Militant Feminist into an automatic progression towards greater and greater risk-taking.24

Militancy involved aggressive parades in full view of key public officials, breaking windows, setting fires, and contemplating bomb attacks. Those imprisoned for their civil disobedience began another form of protest, the hunger strike, which would create huge scandals as wardens and guards tried to force-feed their inmates. While most militant activity was suspended during 1910 and early 1911 in Britain due to a supposed forthcoming women's suffrage bill, activity resumed when it was not passed. Its failure raised the stakes, leading to more arson, bombing, and self-sacrifice of women at key public events (e.g. Emily Davidson threw herself under the King's horse during a Derby Day parade).25 While some writers suggest that militancy was a natural alternative to constitutionalism (as to play the game is to endorse it), others contend that it was a sign of a general pathology within Teen society and the political processes of that time.26

Militancy, then, is but a symptom of the national and international conditions of the time, another piece of the manic puzzle of the age in question. Again in 1911 and 1912, the tangible results of the movement were indeed impressive women in Washington State, California, and Portugal actually got the vote, while Italian women received near universal suffrage. German women organized legal aid, and Japanese women began publication of a feminist newspaper. Amidst all the parades, the police raids, the feminist-encouraged American "Court-watching" and the hunger strikes in Britain, women's roles and rights were clearly in flux, and progressing. In 1911 and 1912, one does indeed seem to find the classic pattern of increased progress for women just prior to a major event.

The Many Meanings of Titanic

Now that the conditions surrounding the sinking of the Titanic have been discussed, and the era in which it occurred understood, all that remains is to explore why it is that Titanic has stood in the public memory for so long. There are a multitude of possibilities. Beginning immediately following the sinking of the ship, writers, journalists, painters and film-makers all began to posit the meaning of Titanic. This process has continued right up to the present day, culminating most recently in the above-mentioned blockbuster hit. There are as many theories as there are theorists, but an attempt will be made here to cover as many ideas as possible, so as to give the fullest picture possible of the myth of the Titanic.

The most common symbolic view of Titanic was of course the way in which it played the theme of the class struggle, which was in flux as Edwardian England declined. "The ship immediately became symbolic proof of the unique systematic inequality of British society."27 Even in the ship's design one could see a blueprint of the British class system. The vertical system of decks and the vertical system of social stratification seemed related...(even) the third-class toilet bowls were iron, second-class porcelain, (and) first-class marble.28

This view of class structure played out on Titanic was, some say, even foreshadowed in the works and speeches of the early 20th century. For instance, in 1901 H.G. Wells compared the state of Edwardian Britain to a shipwreck at sea:

He (Wells) referred to the new Urban Poor (the old working class) as the "submerged" Immediately above these hapless, he saw the diffuse remnant of the old middle class, a vast intricate confusion of different sorts of people, some sailing about upon floating masses of irresponsible property, some buoyed upon floating masses of irresponsible poverty, some buoyed by smaller fragments (and) a great and varied multitude swimming successfully without aid or with an amount of aid that is negligible in relation to their own efforts.29

Thus, the structure and state of relations in the Old Order seemed to have been personified by the very design of Titanic and the way in which it treated its differently-classed passengers. Recalling how the ads for the Luxury Liners focused only on the First Class accommodations, we can even draw a parallel to how the masses supported the new industrialized and democratic nations when they began, but once they "got on board" they realized that what they had dreamt of in a new world had turned out to be just that - a dream.

That the ship could been seen as "a schematic" for the British class system is not to say that Britain was the only nation to identify with the symbolic loss of the boat and its passengers. Far from this notion, "the impact of the sinking in the U.S. was as great as in Great BritainÉif anything greater."30 Most Americans, both then and now in fact, rarely seem to know that the ship itself was build in Ireland, and assume it was built in North America.31 This assumption could perhaps be linked to the fact that many of the notable and powerful figures who went down with the ship (often the "highlights" of the telling of the Titanic story) were Americans, among them John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor Straus (of Macy's), George Widener, and Major Archibald Butt (President Taft's military aide).

The essence of the American version of the story, though, was expressed in no more perfect fashion than by "The Unsinkable" Molly Brown, a crass, tell-it-like-it-is, "un-ladylike" wife of a self-made millionaire. Mrs. Brown, who by many standards oozed with typical "Americanism," strongly emulated the "resilience and exceptionalism"32 of America at the time. Being part of the "Nouveaux Riches" and basically following her own code while mingling "socially" with "Old Money," Molly also is a perfect symbol of the position of the U.S. at the turn of the century. Americans were newly successful, had already acquired immense fortunes, and while they "dealt" with the other world powers, they basically got involved in whatever matters interested them, acting not particularly impressed or interested in the "old" customs or ways. Mrs. Brown was also a symbol of American Isolationism, again by making her own rules and joining with the others when she so desired. Especially in hindsight, we can see these attitudes as they were expressed by the United States at the beginning of World War I, a war they considered "a European affair" for its first 3 years.

Another important interpretation of the events surrounding Titanic has to do with the Feminist debate, which, as already discussed, was raging all over Europe and North America exactly at the time when the ship set sail. The controversy of the times was clear: women wanted greater voice and power, men didn't really want to give it to them. Two major aspects of this battle were projected into Titanic: the "feminization of the ship," and the question of chivalry. In most countries at that time (and to some degree still today), ships were considered to be female. As a writer in The English Review wrote in 1912, "...a woman is always the beautiful thing: as girl, as beloved, as mother. It is her privilege, as the weaker vessel"33 (emphasis mine). This quality has led some to see the wrecking of the ship as a symbol of how many felt about the rising voice of protest among Feminists: it was out of control, and if not stopped, all were headed for disaster.

Interestingly, some others have spun this view in the other direction; because the ship was built and steered by men, its wrecking by Mother Nature was the ultimate symbol, and a projection of classic male fears onto the voyage. The author of a 1995 book on Titanic perfectly states, "...we could say the Titanic disaster is a case of male culture being undone by female nature, a variation on the devouring female, or vagina dentata theme."34 Echoing the words of deMause and others, he continues:

Although ships are, of course, usually referred to as female...they nonetheless represent an attempt by Homo Faber (man the builder) to overcome the limits on his desire to conquer space imposed by the sea, the Great Mother of Waters. Add the sea's agency, an iceberg slicing away at this male creation (the "castration complex"), and the famous call "women and children first" (Nature saving her own), and the masculine is further jeopardized.35

In the ageless tradition of male fears of castrating women and the deMausean Dangerous Mommy, the men in an age of seemingly increasingly hostile women projected their worst fears onto the mythical boat.

The evidence of such male fears also makes an appearance in another Titanic favorite, the famous quote of Lady Astor, who purportedly said, "I asked for ice in my drink, but this is ridiculous,"36 which supposedly took place just after the collision with the iceberg, that is, before the passengers realized that they were in any danger. Though sources close to some survivors suggest that the woman who spoke those words was in fact one Nancy Astor instead of John Jacob Astor's young and naive bride, the British associated the comment with Lady Astor because of her elevated stature amongst the rising women of British society.37 In this way, the British could poke fun at a powerful woman (humor is often used as a license for off-color remarks) in some sort of male revenge against both her feminism and her well-known anti-war stance.38

Interlude

Before dealing with other interpretations of Titanic, it seems important at this point not to overshadow what has been another major transliteration of the Titanic experience over the years: World War I. As part of the larger process of international relations as they developed from the 1890s up until 1914, the key years studied in this paper, 1911 and 1912, were indeed an intensification of the growing sentiment in Europe. If one were to glance at the over-all "puzzle" of the years and issues leading up to WWI, the period covered in this paper could be seen as just one "piece," but a large one, and very near to the center.

For starters, the Titanic itself was built as part of the naval rivalry which had begun between Britain and Germany, and each new vessel was an attempt to "outshine" the other guy. In the 18 months leading up to Titanic, the possibility of war in Europe grew ever closer and the strain on the countries to be involved increased substantially. The French advanced into Morocco, an area which was in dispute between the French and the Germans. After four months of diplomacy and growing speculation, which looked at times "...as if it might lead to a war between the two nations,"39 a treaty was reached.

Also in 1911, Italy declared war on the decaying Ottoman Empire over the territory of Tripoli, which brought with it expectations of a Mediterranean war.40 While Italians took to the streets to support the war (similar to the Germans in the Weimar Republic at the outbreak of WWI), Cairo had to declare martial law so that they could restore order in Egypt. The Turks were slaughtered by the Italians (in the case of the village women in Tripoli, literally);41 and looking more like a kingdom whose days were numbered rather than an Empire which had once controlled all of the Middle East and North Africa, the Turks were forced to concede Tripoli in the Treaty of Lausanne. The Ottoman Empire's enemies wasted little time once news of their poor military showing arrived. During 1911 and 1912, Russia occupied Northern Persia (after agreeing on Asian spheres of influence with Japan); and the Balkan States, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania (which would declare their independence) and later Greece provoked Constantinople into what became the First Balkan War, a direct predecessor of World War I.

As perhaps a metaphor, a sign, a foreshadowing of the war just two years away, Titanic has been seen as a watershed between the 19th and 20th century,42 just as World War I has been seen as the end of the 19th century reality and the beginning of a new 20th one. Stephen Kern connects Titanic to World War I because

(In) the shortsightedness of the lookouts, the lack of safety precautions, the reliance on technology, the overweening confidence, the flurry of wireless messages, even the icebergs in the path of the liner (one) finds larger scale analogies in the July crisis of 1914 that precipitated the catastrophe of the Great War.43

As we have seen with the larger group fantasy of mania which characterized the age, the theme of the day was "ignored warning messages and push(ing) the throttle full speed ahead."44 As it was with Titanic, so it was with WWI. The symbiotic nature of the two events was echoed in 1918 when the Titanic's sister ship the Olympic became a troop carrier (a destiny that the Titanic would have probably shared)45 and was rammed by a German U-boat.

"Modern" Interpretations

The sinking has been viewed as many things: an Elizabethan or Greek tragedy, a classic battle of Man and Nature with a nemesis this time of ice, the cold indifferent hand of fate, and even "the" final catastrophe.46 Now that many years have passed since Titanic's fatal collision, those of us looking back have the advantage of knowing how things begun in that time panned out. We recognize that in many ways, those years saw the end of an era, be it Edwardian England, the 19th century political systems of alliances and colonies, or the unwillingness to include women in the vote. Some say it was the end of an era of confidence and optimism, which gave way to one of pessimism and fatalism about the quick changes that were going on in the world.47 Others see it as the end of Victorian expansion, in both the material and cultural arena.48 In America, the profound reaction to the disaster could "be compared only to the aftermath of the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy."49

Since the time of the collision, Titanic has been used as the ultimate symbol for the cartoonist searching for a way to depict a "sinking" career or "shipwrecked" policies.50 It has also appeared as a metaphor for everything from the events surrounding the Russian Revolution of 1917, to the start of the Cold War in 1945, to the leftist student revolutions of 1968. In fact, the concept of Titanic has never left the public stage for more than a couple of years before it has showed up again. Though the 1997 James Cameron production of Titanic was by far the most successful portrayal of the myth, it was only the most recent addition to an enormous collection of articles, books, songs, paintings, television specials, plays, and movies which deal directly or indirectly with the many elements which surround the tale of the Titanic.

The Symbol Titanic

Titanic has meant so many different things to so many different people. At the extremes, some viewed it as God's payback for the excesses of human arrogance, while others saw the surface collision as metaphor for what their existence had become in modern times: a series of "...unhappy coincidences" and the "fatal collision of incompatibles in human life."51 Others maintained that the loss of the ship was like the loss of a city, "because of the extraordinary extent of its international population cross-sectionÉa highly various cultural microcosm," and that the story of the last night of those aboard the Titanic "is really about the last night of a small town, but culturally more like a metropolis."52

But isn't Titanic really a microcosm of the 20th century? Weren't those manic years of 1911 and 1912 simply an intensified period of the social and technological processes which have shaped our lives for the last 100 years? Here we have Titanic, the most impressive, advanced, and luxurious creation ever devised by humankind (or so it was seen), speeding along the ocean at a manic pace, confident that nothing could possibly stand between it and its glory. This whole century has been about change: political change, which intensified with the revolutions and conflicts in those manic years; social change, reflected in the advances gained by workers in general (including the beginnings of the welfare state) and women specifically (intensifying a world-wide movement which dominated much of the century); but most of all, technological change. Only 100 years ago, there were almost no cars or telephones, no radios, no airplanes, few effective cures for epidemic diseases, and little use of electricity, not to even mention the lack of computers, televisions, birth control pill, or contemporary knowledge of physics, chemistry, or astronomy. The change in this century has all been manic, out of control, no holds barred. These days you barely own a computer or use a brand of heartburn medication for a year, and there is already a better one available.

On the other hand, 100 years ago we didn't have nuclear weapons, we hadn't experienced anything close to the scale of the fighting of World Wars I and II nor the rate of civilian casualties experienced in those wars (not to mention the horrors of the Holocaust), and the global environment was nowhere near its present decayed condition. This whole century is the Titanic. We are all on board "Spaceship Earth," failing to heed the warnings of global warming, of depleting ozone, of AIDS and Ebola. We feel "virtually unsinkable," thinking deep down that our scientists and engineers will come up with the solutions to our problems long before we feel the "real" effects.

As one author explains, "Titanic, in short, sailed and sank at the very center of contemporary cultural preoccupations. The ship's size itself ensured this."53 Titanic was the largest moving object we had ever built, and while it was fantastic and graceful, it moved at "an alarming speed."54 "The lack of discipline in the building and management of the ship brought about arrogance and overreach,"55 just as our own arrogance will no doubt be what ultimately destroys us.

The Second Deluge

Titanic conjured up the ancient image of the Abyss, a dark hole which can suck anything and everything within its vicinity into its bottomless depths. Those who witnessed the final submerging of the vessel and saw those last swimmers consumed in the unforgiving whirlpool emerging from the middle of the ocean, could only later describe the scene as "the end of the world."56 They must have realized that in their mad rush to push the limits as far as they could, they had simply gone too far. The actions of Captain Smith, as he confidently ignored the warnings of icebergs in the waters ahead, were described as both willful blindness, and indirectly, murder.

Over the century, authors have captured the essence of what Titanic had meant to the world in 1912, and what it still means to those of us living in the present. Titanic "seem(s) almost to have embodied first the raised hopes and then the dashed hopes of modernism; the catastrophe was in the richest of ways, a modernist event."57 More recently, however, there have been a flurry of books on people, both on the ship itself or from the comfort of their homes, who had "premonitions" of the sinking of the ship.58 At this point, while one reads the literally dozens of accounts recorded for the most part before the ship set sail, one has to wonderÑwas it that obvious? Perhaps it was the people themselves who wanted the ship to sink. Perhaps the crew merely acted out some massive group fantasy which was screaming for a sacrifice. One indeed has to wonder if, as one author puts it, "we haven't tried to make the ship a kind of scapegoat, bearing to the bottom our own unease about wealth and position."59 Did the passengers of Titanic know what they were getting into when they boarded the new ship on its maiden voyage? Was the Captain in fact simply a receptacle for the unconscious wishes of the passengers to be a sacrifice for those back home who felt overly guilty at the progress and success they had experienced so intensely in the past few years? So go the real questions of Titanic.

As we approach the Millenium, it is natural for us to look back and take stock of where we are and where we have come from. As a personification of the 20th century, the sinking of the Titanic seems a fairly obvious choice as a symbol for this process of reflection. As the dollars pour into the film-makers pockets, movie-goers everywhere continue their journey into their own consciousness and unconscious, placing themselves on that giant ship on the silver screen. Viewing the film over and over, they bask in its glory, feast on its lavish decor and gourmet meals, let loose at its wild parties and on its scenic decks. And as they stare at the nighttime sky, undisturbed and beautiful as it is with little interference from the hive of society that built and pilots the glorious ship, they pray that this time the dream never ends, that the iceberg waiting to end their fleeting existence is seen, and passed.

The Old Testament tells the story of Noah, and how he and his kin were saved from God's deluge. Humanity and the animal kingdom were allowed to continue, and God promised never to flood the world again. But Titanic carries to us a new message; "she warns us of a possible second deluge, this one of our own making, from which no vessel can deliver us."60 Deep down, we know that we're still on that Ark, still on board Titanic. We know the world we have created. In our own arrogance, we may have once again ignored the warnings of icebergs and death up ahead. In our own impertinence, consumed in our own sense of greatness and vanity, we have damned ourselves.

Adam J. Green is a Canadian Psychohistorian currently studying at the Master's level, and is the Canadian Branch Manager of the Institute for Psychohistory.

footnotes Below

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footnotes:

1. Panati, Charles (1991). Panati's parade of fads, follies, and manias: the origins of our most cherished obsessions (HarperPerennial, New York), p.103
2. Ibid., p.104
3. Trager, James (1992). The people's chronology: a year-by-year record of human events from prehistory to the present (H.Holt: New York), pp.689-696
4. Brownstone, David M. (1996) Timelines of the 20th Century: a chronology of 7,500 key events, discoveries, and people that shaped our century (Little, Brown: Boston), p.283
5. Daniel, Clifton (1987). Chronicle of the 20th Century, Vol.1 (Chronicle Publications), p.159
6. Panati, op. cit., p.70
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., p.88
9. Ibid., p.89
10. Ibid.
11. Daniel, Robert L. (1987). American Women in the 20th Century (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, San Diego), p.6
12. Ibid., p.7
13. Smith, Harold L. (1990). British Feminism in the 20th Century (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst), p.35
14. Daniel, Robert L., op. cit., p.21
15. Ibid. p.15
16. Ibid. p.16
17. Tucker, Elizabeth M.M. (1982). British History 1760-1914 (Edward Arnold: London), p.235
18. Daniel, Robert L., op. cit., p.24
19. Tucker, op. cit., p.235
20. Smith, op. cit., p.34
21. Riegel, Robert Edgar (1963). American Feminist (University of Kansas Press, Lawrence), p.177
22. Smith, op. cit., p.18
23. Ibid., pp.15-16
24. Ibid., pp.16-18
25. Tucker, op. cit., p.235
26. Smith, op. cit., p.10
27. Foster, John Wilson (1997). The Titanic Complex: a cultural manifest (Belcouver Press: Vancouver), p.43
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid., p.53
30. Ibid., p.65
31. Ibid., p.14
32. Ibid., p.34
33. Ibid., p.49
34. Heyer, Paul (1995). Titanic Legacy: disaster as media event and myth (Praeger: Westport, CT), p.155
35. Ibid., p.155
36. Foster, op. cit., p.64
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. Daniel, Clifton, op. cit., p.156
40. Ibid., p.154
41. Ibid., p.155
42. Foster, op. cit., p.22
43. Ibid., p.59
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid., p.54
46. Ibid., p.36
47. Ibid., p.22
48. Ibid., p.22
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid., p.64
51. Ibid., p.54
52. Ibid., p.43
53. Ibid., pp.54-55
54. Ibid., p.55
55. Ibid., p.51
56. Heyer, op. cit., p.159
57. Foster, op. cit., p.56
58. for examples see Garder, Marvin (1986). The Wreck of the Titanic foretold? or Butler, Robert Olen (1996). Tabloid dreams: stories
59. Ibid., p.44
60. Heyer, op. cit., p.159

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