R.M.S. Titanic

"Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."

At the time of its launching, the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic was generally regarded as the finest ever example of the shipbuilder's art. Widely believed to be unsinkable, the vessel was indeed a beautiful, well found ship, and worthy of its title 'The Largest Ship in The World'.

However, a fearful combination of circumstances led to its foundering two and a half hours after collision with an iceberg, about 400 miles from Cape Race, on 15th April 1912.

Among the factors which led to its demise was the unshakeable belief held by the people of the time in the supremacy of man over nature. The disaster shattered that belief for decades afterwards.

The tragedy was predicted in a novel written several years beforehand.

Eighty-five years and two weeks after the Titanic sank, at the end of nearly two decades of its similarly unshakeable belief in the supremacy of the free market, Britain's largest and most formidable political party suffered a similar disaster.

In our lampoon of the British Conservatory Party, Phundria unwittingly drew a parallel with the Titanic disaster, which uncannily predicted the scale of their ensuing electoral downfall.

Phundria now predicts that the outcome of the Browser Wars will be a similar disaster for one of the protagonists, who will by the year 2000 be a spent, discredited force. In fact, 2000 might well be the number on its own particular 'iceberg'!

"You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time."

The Web is for all of the people, all of the time.