a little history

[Scottri]

I have mixed feelings about things like this. If people want to take risks with their lives so be it. It's their life. As long as they don't take others out with them then fine. I just hate how here in the US people take risks and there are lawsuites that follow.


Scott

 

[Walter]

Slavery has been very common throughout history. All groups have been enslaved and all groups have practiced it. From our perspective slavery is evil and to be condemmed. From an historical perspective this isn't always the case. OTOH, killing millions of people is evil regardless of perspective. Columbus was evil. To say that everyone exploited the indigenous Americans does not excuse mass murder never seen before.

DSSW,

WWW™

 

[Butch103]

I knew I should have listened to you , I just knew it.............I agreeand I was going to bring up the same point re slavery and exploitation, but I thought no, why bother....................hmmmm should listen to my instincts.........

 

[watergal]

I don't know anything about Columbus except in 1492 he sailed th ocean blue (or so I am told). But...

I have great admiration for people like Amundsen who gather as much knowledge and experience as possible, take great pains in preparation, make a plan and contingincy plans, and explore knowing they may not return, but also knowing if they do others will benefit.

I agree that competent adults should be able to act in any foolhardy manner they wish as long as it doesn't affect others.

I think it is too bad when people take risks without being fully aware of the high probability of a bad outcome and/or not considering other reasonable alternatives. I think it is absolutely tragic when friends and family have to suffer because someone didn't take time to learn from mistakes that have already been made. It is more than just "not taking someone else out with them". Families suffer from deaths. Taxpayers foot the costs of rescues/recoveries/medical care. If no one else is really involved, fine, but very few people are that isolated.

 

[100days-a-year]

"Let He who is without Sin cast the first stone"I don't often deride others too much about things like this.My reasoning is a wasted youth.I see many people opposing 1 idiocy while embracing another.How many people die from Deep Air per capita Vs.Alcohol,Tobacco,Drugs,unsafe sex,riding without a helmet or seatbelt?Better yet ,think about being on the floor in your bedroom praying to God to save you from the heart attack YOU caused by not eating right ,exercising or listening to the doc.Everyone does dumb stuff at some point.The pioneering spirit types die when we make mistakes sometimes,but this enables others to make an informed decision about our future course of action.I dive air occasionally to 150 or so,I dive solo most of the time.What I do tho ,is learn to minimalise my risks to a level I'm comfortable with.I find control and derision to be far less desirable in a human being than stupidity......

 

[Lost Yooper]

To elaborate on Watergale's post. Doing stupid stuff, and dying from it, gives the diving industry a darker black eye and feeds the ever hungry lawyers of this country. Worst case scenario will be that people dying from doing stupid stuff will eventually get the government involved, and then we'll all suffer from the gov't's inevitable ignorance.

Dive safe.

Mike

 

[neil]

Mike is right on the money.
To be a pioneer or explorer is to go someplace or do something that people have not done, or rarely done before. The dangers of deep diving on air have been known for decades; re-read "The Silent World". I don't really care if some divers want to be daredevils The problem is, as Mike said, that the public and the government will not make a distinction between them and ME. Divers are divers, right?

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by Walter

My problem with Columbus is the fact that he was evil. Columbus enslaved the people he found. He enslaved them to enrich himself and the Spanish nobility.
WWW™

And so was most everyone else in those days, Walter. None of us need look far into the past to find despicable characters. In a few corners of the world we have made some progress... Slavery was banned in 1954 in Saudi Arabia, and may yet be wiped out in Africa. But not yet.
Rick

 

[Walter]

Rick,

You missed the point.

"he caused the deaths of approximately 6 million people."

DSSW,

WWW™

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by Walter
Rick,

You missed the point.

"he caused the deaths of approximately 6 million people."

DSSW,

WWW™

No sir, "he" did not. I didn't miss your point - your point assigns responsibility for the actions of generations of explorers and conquerers from several countries to a single man. That is preposterous. Montezuma dined on human babies, and his priests danced in the skins of sacrificed virgins. Vlad the impaler put hundreds of his own people on pikes. The Campbells doublecrossed and murdered the MacDonalds in their sleep. And on and on and on, to this day. As evil men go, Columbus was barely a blip on the scope of history.
Rick