Why do we celebrate getting beaten (or sunk!)?

I don't get all the fuss about the Titanic that there has been for the past few weeks. Of course I know why; the bloody thing sank 100 years ago on April 14th 1912, but I don't understand all the fuss. After all the hype and the money, it was a monumental failure when it came up against the best that Mother Nature had to offer which had been totally predictable.

You could argue that the Titanic was unlucky, I suppose. That a massive iceberg should be exactly where they didn't want it to be and that it pierced a vulnerable point on the hull could be construed as bad luck. But surely the point was that there shouldn't have been a vulnerable point and the ship's navigation instruments should have spotted it.

What is it about the British psyche which leads us to celebrate failures? They are littered throughout our history and dressed up afterwards as triumphs. Bannockburn, Flodden, Evesham, Paschendaele, Dunkirk... and the Titanic. All dreadful failures and all with massive losses of life. And all celebrated - why?

You don't catch the Americans celebrating Pearl Harbour, or the Japanese celebrating Hiroshima, or the Russians celebrating Chernobyl. Bet your life the Brits would!

Perhaps it's just an excuse for a party and our natural optimism. Perhaps just a refusal to accept defeat. I don't know, but it's very odd.

Personally it's a relief to be able to switch on the TV and not be bombarded with programmes about the damn thing, factual or fiction. But next it'll be the olympics and we'll be celebrating getting thrashed at various sports.

I don't get it. Really, I don't!