Wednesday, March 25, 1998

Noble notion takes dive in "Titanic" poll

By Bob Greene

With all the talk about the movie "Titanic" - talk about the cost of the movie, about the special effects, about the 11 Academy Awards - perhaps the most intriguing discussion of all was initiated by three journalistic organizations in Minnesota.

The organizations - the St. Paul Pioneer Press, KARE-TV and Minnesota Public Radio - took a poll asking Minnesota residents:

"Who gets the lifeboats?"

In other words, "If such a disaster were to take place today and once again lifeboats were in short supply, how should the captain decide who gets first choice at the lifeboats?"

The world is awash with romanticism these days because of the goodheartedness of the Leonardo DiCaprio character - and of so many of the other male characters - in giving up their chances at life for the women and children on the ship. But "Titanic" is only a movie - and the world has changed quite a bit since 1912.

A man giving up his life for every woman and child on a ship headed for the bottom of the sea? It's a lovely concept, but we live in a society in which men don't stand up to offer their seats to women on buses, much less give up their lives for women they've never met. Women and children first when survival is it stake? If you've ever seen people cutting in front of each other in grocery lines, or in their cars in the last few feet before reaching tollbooths, you have to ask yourself what would happen on a ship with an hour or two's flotation left in it.

Women and children first? Perhaps - but it's more likely that not only would a depressing number of aggressive men fight their way onto the boats, but some would seek out the captain to make sure they got credit for their full frequent-sailor miles even though the ship didn't complete its entire voyage.

The poll offers more than a few revealing insights:

Overall, 52 percent of the respondents said that the policy should, indeed, be women and children first - and then men, if any seats are left.

But the men who responded were more inclined to feel this way than the women. Sixty-eight percent of the men said it should be women and children first, but only 36 percent of the women agreed.

Among the women polled, 42 percent thought it should be children first - then men and women equally.

How about first come, first served - or, as it most likely would turn out, survival of the fittest? Thirteen percent of the men liked that idea, while only 5 percent of the women chose it.

What about the elderly - the people who would likely have the least physical strength, and thus the smallest chance to push their way to the lifeboats? Would their sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, step aside to help and honor them?

Not likely. Across the board - men, women, respondents overall - the result was the same: A tiny 1 percent would defer to the elderly.

Some of the comments that accompanied the poll were illustrative of our new society. A man named Dave Hoffman suggested people on the sinking ship should "have to arm wrestle for it. If you win, you get on the lifeboat. If you lose, shark food." Another man said the women-and-children issue would be an "irrelevant question. The boats would be commandeered by gangsters and hoodlums; the rest would have to look for a piece of driftwood."

Some of the responses were not exactly soaked with sentiment. Why not let the elderly get on the lifeboats? Darlene Burns, 51, said, "I love seniors, but what are they going to do for us in the next 30 years if they're 70?"

The concept of a man stepping back and letting any woman or child have a seat? College student Ethan Bischoff said if he had a wife or child on the ship, he would let them go before him, but after that "I would serve my own needs before I'd let anyone else go. That's the way society is today."

Would it really work out this way - in a society accustomed to speed-dialing ticket agencies to beat out other people for a seat at some concert, would people really, at the most consequential juncture of their lives, instinctively make altruistic choices over who should survive and who should perish?

If you've observed movie-theater patrons ditching in front of each other to grab the best aisle seats in the last minutes before "Titanic" begins, you think about all of this and you get a sinking feeling.

Chicago Tribune