Overconfidence
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Topic 1 – Overconfidence
The topic is found in the movie “Titanic” occurs when the ship’s owner who is also the manager, Bruce Ismay, orders the captain, Edward Smith, to try to beat a world speed record. The captain is uneasy about it. The consequences of overconfidence are seen when the ship tragically crashes on an iceberg.
The level of overconfidence is further shown by the ship’s crew failure to carry enough lifeboats. This leads to an awful situation where people scramble for the insufficient lifeboats. They try all tricks available to board the few boats and rescue their lives. One of the men disguises him as a woman since the women and the children are given the first priority. He pulls a gun on a desperate passenger who is trying to get into his lifeboat. He is, struck however, by one of the ship’s officers with an oar and he plunges to his death.
It is too late when rescue arrives. Most of the male passengers have died. There are so many fatalities from the incident. Out of the 1,523 passengers on board, only 705 survive. It is a great tragedy especially given that the ship was in its first voyage.
The overconfidence of the owner of the ship in its ability leads everyone involved to ignore important safety measures. The resultant disaster and the so many deaths could have been avoided had the crew taken the precautionary measures in this voyage. However, the overconfidence they had made them ignore everything they needed to do to make sure that should anything happen, a disaster of this magnitude is avoided. Most probably, the ship could have completed its first voyage had they taken the necessary safety measures.