Ship Of Fools

Gentle Reader, it isn't every blog post on this humble forum that is inspired by a travel article I read in the Globe And Mail.  This is about a ship.  Not just any ship but a luxury cruise liner.  And not just any luxury cruise liner.  Check the headline: "Cruising For The 1%"  It's about the new "unabashedly luxurious" Regent Seven Seas Explorer, an obscenely luxurious ocean liner that is yours for around, $5500 per person for ten nights to $135,000 US for twenty-seven days.  The CEO interviewed repeats several times in the article that they refuse to apologize for their excess, that the time for showing off ostentatious wealth has returned.

I would imagine, now that Trump will soon be inaugurated as President Dump?  Crooked billionaire in the Oval Office?  And that justifies this ghastly obscene spectacle?

The writer of the article, Adam Hammond, pulled it off rather well, indicating that this flaunting of wealth was not his style and mentioned very clearly his preference for humbler, generally accessible fare, as well as reporting that he has enjoyed better espresso in much cheaper cups.  I am also grateful that the Globe and Mail no longer seems quite so gaga about the wealthy and has endorsed in this article a balanced and not especially flattering critique.

What I find troubling is that this article appears to offer a blank cheque for this winner takes all mentality that comes from the crude excesses of accumulated wealth.  I also was intrigued about the brown-skinned waiter in one of the photos.  He was holding a bottle of champagne, his face forced into a rather cryptic half-smile.  This of course begs the question of the floating sweatshop, which is to say, the cruel exploitation and near slave-like working conditions for those who staff luxury liners.

I suppose it to be only too easy to get caught up in heated outrage about the inequality that this article not only indicates, but shamelessly screams out with paper and ink, and of course I am outraged about this.  To imagine the incredible waste of wealth that occurs on these ships.  The tens and hundreds of thousands squandered like so much pocket change by the wealthy, and because that is all it is to them: pocket change.  To think that not only would it be but a small sacrifice for these individuals to pay slightly higher taxes that would adequately feed and house all the poor on earth, but that with their billions, this would be no sacrifice at all.  Rather like me, on my tiny income, donating two dollars at the Safeway check-out to the food bank.

To imagine the people, cosseted by all this unimaginable wealth, lolling in luxury and comfort, their conscience numbed to extinction by their excess.  It is axiomatic that the wealthier we become, the more we think we deserve it, and the less empathy or concern we have for the less fortunate.  I almost feel sorry for these people.  They have lost, have bartered off that most essential quality of the soul that makes us indefatigably human: the capacity for love, justice and compassion.  Knowing what a Faustian bargain they are enjoying absolutely staunches whatever envy I might have towards them.  Even harder is it to have empathy for such monsters, but they of all people are to be pitied.  They have lost their soul and likely are never going to retrieve it.