A ship-sized metaphor
Who hasn't felt like that tiny excavator this year, doing the best we could while a pandemic of overwhelming scope trapped us all in place?
This is the editor’s letter in the The Week magazine.
"Put it back!" That was the consensus reaction on social media this week after valiant earthmovers, an armada of straining tugboats, a swarm of muck-sucking dredging ships, and a super-high tide created by the fortuitous alignment of the moon, sun, and Earth led to the freeing of the mammoth Ever Given from the bank of the Suez Canal. The ship's entrapment was the metaphor for our time — a meme generator, a late-night comedian's dream, 200,000 tons of schadenfreude. We've all had days that left us muttering, "How could I be so stupid?" So there was something comforting, even delightful, in the spectacle of a cargo ship the size of an obese Empire State Building, laden with 18,000 containers, getting wind-blown diagonally into the canal's sandy bank, blocking more than 400 ships behind it for six days. Human error, one suspects, may have been a factor, too.
The photo that most resonated with many of us showed a dwarfed excavator scooping out small buckets of sand from under the embedded behemoth's bow. Who hasn't felt like that excavator this year, doing the best we could while a pandemic of overwhelming scope trapped us all in place? Other metaphors abounded: Comedian Jimmy Kimmel likened the stuck Ever Given to an artery blockage that had given capitalism a heart attack. On Instagram, a conspiracy theorist opined that the entire spectacle was a "false flag psyop" designed to prepare the sheeple for "the upcoming collapse of the global system." Politifact felt the need to post a story asserting that "this is not a staged event." But now the Ever Given has been freed, all is well, and the metaphor holds: Vaccinations are pulling us out of our horrible predicament. Buoyancy is returning. After a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year, the stars seem to be aligned in our favor at last. Let's follow the tugs, and toot our horns in celebration. Freedom is thataway.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
William Falk is editor-in-chief of The Week, and has held that role since the magazine's first issue in 2001. He has previously been a reporter, columnist, and editor at the Gannett Westchester Newspapers and at Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.
-
'The House under GOP rule has become a hostile workplace'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal is about more than bad bets
In The Spotlight The firestorm surrounding one of baseball's biggest stars threatens to upend a generational legacy and professional sports at large
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Feds raid Diddy homes in alleged sex trafficking case
Speed Read Homeland Security raided the properties of hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Gaza hospital blast: What the video evidence shows about who's to blame
Speed Read Nobody wants to take responsibility for the deadly explosion in the courtyard of Gaza's al-Ahli Hospital. Roll the tape.
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Giraffe poo seized after woman wanted to use it to make a necklace
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Helicopter sound arouses crocodiles
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Woman sues Disney over 'injurious wedgie'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Emotional support alligator turned away from baseball stadium
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Europe's oldest shoes found in Spanish caves
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Artworks stolen by Nazis returned to heirs of cabaret performer
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published