Somebody Needs to Read Him Some Montaigne and Read It Good

A few thoughts concerning the following article in HuffPo: 

Mark Wahlberg On 9/11 Plane: I Would Have Beat Terrorists, Landed It Safely

With regard to a certain celebrity's action-hero projections in the article referenced, I’d say the fellow is being just a bit insensitive toward those who died in the attacks. Anyone who would make such statements as "If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did" (he seems to be talking about the planes that flew into the World Trade Center) needs to read Montaigne's essay "On the Inconsistency of Our Actions." He needs to study a good grammar handbook, too, but I let that go.

The truth is surely that nobody really knows how he or she would face the prospect of certain or nearly certain sudden death. Being strong, bold, and active (and a movie star) isn't a guarantee that you'll go out like a hero, and being a wise philosopher isn't a guarantee that you'll go out with dignity, either, instead of curling up in a fetal position, sticking your thumb in your snout and whimpering for your long-departed mother. (Not that the latter would necessarily be such a wrong thing to do. Maybe that's what some people would need to do, and if I were sitting next to them, I'd like to think I wouldn't tell them to shut up and make my last interaction a mean-spirited, intolerant one.) You can hazard a guess how you might face an unexpected, violent death based on how you've lived your life, but you don't KNOW because it hasn't happened to you up to now or you wouldn’t be reading this.

As Oscar Wilde said a long time ago, "only the shallow know themselves." It’s worth keeping in mind.