Women and Children First: Confucius Would Agree

The hair-raising crash landing and rescue of flight 1549 has been all over the news the past couple of days.  It is mind-boggling that no one was seriously injured.

As I processed the news I noticed something: the invocation of the "women and children first" rule, the notion that in dire circumstance, such as a boat sinking, women and children should be allowed to escape first.  This idea goes back, in Anglo-American practice (there might be similar ideas in other cultures with distinct histories), to at least 1852 (ht Jezebel).  As I heard it mentioned by people who had suffered through the crash, and by various commentators, it struck me as a Confucian idea.

That may sound odd to some, who associate Confucianism with a fairly rigid patriarchy that historically in China valued men over women and children.   But Confucianism has always been more than crude patriarchy (even if it has been historically connected to patriarchy).      

The core of Confucian thinking is Duty, living up to our obligations to family and society.  The particular meaning of Duty emerges from specific social contexts: that which is considered an obligation will vary by time and by place. The idea of "women and children first" is generally understood and circulated in American society, even if it is unevenly practiced.  Thus, to some degree, it was not surprising that it should emerge as an organizing principle for getting people off of the downed plane.   But it is notable that in such dangerous and difficult circumstances it was followed.  This suggests that it continues to be a generally held ethical principle defining the way we should carry out our duties in not only our closets loving relationships but in our interactions with strangers as well.  And that sounds Confucian to me.

It is certainly not a Taoist idea.  Nothing in Taoism, to my mind, would lead us to articulate a general rule that would favor one type of person over any other type.  Taoism is too radically relativist and individualistic to give rise to such an imperative.

It should also be said that the resiliance of the "women and children first" rule in the Flight 1549 case is an example of the persistence of tradition.  I write a lot on this blog about how the broad processes of modernization tend to undermine traditional ideas and practices - "all that is solid melts into air" and all that.  But here we have an instance of a traditional idea continuing the shape contemporary social practice.  Even if it was an invented tradition, not reaching back further than 1852, it has some historical depth to it.  And its survival, the endurance of tradition, would also, I suspect, please Confucius.  

 

Comments

[sophmom]

Sam,

This to me, is an interesting discussion.

I think the idea of children first is one we might all agree with, but might should be followed with, whomever happens to be traveling with that child, and to take it a step further, whomever happens to be most likely to safeguard the child during the process. And then there's the issue of practicality, which should maybe take priority over all of the above. Wouldn't it be faster and safer, and thus more conducive to saving more lives, to escape in somewhat the order of seating in relation to exit?

I have no idea how my comment fits into the tenets of Confucianism, but would be curious to hear the answer.

[Sam Crane]

Sophmom,
Thanks for stopping by (and, by the way, the wine was great!).
What I mean to focus on here is the conscious effort to develop some understanding of preserving our closest loving relationships. That is what is Confucian about all this. Of course, the specifics of how that is best done can vary from time and place, and you suggest some practical variations. But to have some general ethical guideline beyond domination of the strongest and fastest is what I wanted to highlight here.

[sophmom]

Sam,

Thanks for the reply which I belatedly noticed. The story fascinates me, and I wonder at the details in that span of time between descent and final rescue, how each moment must have seemed possibly the last...and then not, and then again not, and then finally safety! And then, how all of it would be so amplified if safeguarding a child...

Anyway, what a glorious day today! Truly a new beginning.

Best to you.

[isha]

From http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/crashing-planes-and-shooting-children/

...
Some quick news here: the very same jet that crashed into the Hudson River nearly crashed into Newark Airport, New Jersey, one week earlier. It looks like the jet was badly maintained.

...
Two days before US Airways Flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River, passengers on the same route and same aircraft say they heard a series of loud bangs and the flight crew told them they could have to make an emergency landing, CNN has learned….

Expert Aviation Consulting, an Indianapolis, Indiana, private consulting firm that includes commercial airline pilots on its staff, said the plane that landed in the Hudson was the same one as Flight 1549 from LaGuardia two days earlier. Photo See images from the rescue in last week’s crash »

“EAC confirms that US Airways ship number N106US flew on January 13, 2009, and January 15, 2009, with the same flight number of AWE 1549 from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas [International] Airport in North Carolina,” Expert Aviation said in a statement to CNN.
...
Well, this story has more sides to it. Evidently, birds probably were not the cause of the engines falling off. Even when birds hit engines, both engines don’t fall off. When I heard that the engines were missing when the jet was pulled out of the water, I found that fishy.

If the engines fell off and there was previous warnings, the loud snapping sounds, etc. may mean that the jet should have been grounded a week ago. This is one bad aspect of aviation: during hard times, the airlines lose funds and cut corners and we get a rash of crashes. I hope the entire fleet is grounded and carefully checked.

...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/19/hudson.plane.folo/index.html