Oh Worrals although an extremely good rebuttal to Blackie's post of no consequence, you've broken rule 101..."Don't feed the troll"...especially when it's half past the mast of o'beer o'clock!
Well it's well past the mast of shiraz o'clock here, in fact I think the mast sank without a trace some time ago, but still...
IMO Blackhand makes some good points that deserve discussion, particularly with respect to personal responsibility. If there was no paying customer or bystander involved I'd agree with most of them.
If people want to be idiots and kill themselves then that's their problem (BASE jumpers included). However, there was an unwitting customer who died through no fault of his own, and to me that's the fundamental difference.
So-and-so leaps off a building and his parachute fails? Care factor
.
So-and-so falls on a teenage apprentice who was going to do his shopping and kills him? Different kettle of fish.
So-and-so charges a fee to take a tandem jumper and infers to that tandem jumper that the activity is both safe and legal, the coppers knew he was undertaking this activity and accepting paying customers, yet didn't arrest him and confiscate his parachute?
Anyway, if we're doing poetry (a sure sign that the bar should be closing soon, bet Tailwheel wishes he had bouncers
) I'll add this commentary from Eliot;
Mistah Kurtz—he dead. A penny for the Old Guy
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw.
Alas! Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
The hollow men will probably escape unscathed. The hollow men doubtlessly remain strong in the belief that They Did Their Best and this was simply an unfortunate turn of events. The next time some maverick gets restricted and wants to fly pax anyway (safe in the personal belief that he knows best) he will assume that the Hollow Men will not be able or willing to stop him. After all, they didn't or coudn't stop Hempel; why should he be any different?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?