[Locke]

Originally Posted by DiracSpike

The parallel of this to the line-ups on Everest struck me as well.

I don't believe its right to tell people how they can or can't spend their money but this does seem like a complete waste to me. Not from an ethical point of view though, most of the coolest historical places I've visited involved sites where many people died at one time. Just in the last two weeks I was at the colosseum and Pompeii, minus the difference in ease of travelling to those places is there really any difference between them and the Titanic? I personally don't think so. I'd really like to go to Auschwitz someday as well, same thing. But for this the cost and the risk of physical safety to see it pushes into the realm of folly for me, same as climbing Everest.

I also like your comparison to a "got the tshirt policy", people do these things and act like it's some big accomplishment when it really isn't anymore. It was when it was first achieved, but not by you in 2023 now. Robert Ballard using cutting edge technology and standing in the face of his funding getting pulled to scour thousands of sq miles of empty ocean to finally find the most famous shipwreck of all time that had been lost for 70 years. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay finding a way up the world's tallest mountain that had foiled or killed anyone that tried before. These were great accomplishments by great men, but you paying money now to walk in those footsteps doesn't give you .1% of that clout. I have way more respect for someone that trains their ass off and sets a PB time in a marathon than I have for someone that climbed Everest these days, at least I know they accomplished it on their own through will and self improvement, not because they had the cash and spare time.

Ugh....that is powerful. Fair warning...that will ruin your day, but its fascinating.