Après le déluge, rien.
by Capt. Fogg
Political and economic repression probably bother the Burmese less of late than the problem of staying alive in the mud along with the rotting corpses of man and beast. It's a natural disaster of bigger than average proportions and some estimate the death toll will be over a million when the toll of disease and malnutrition is paid. The earthquake in Sichuan seems almost inconsequential in comparison and so do the hurricanes, school shootings and lead paint scandals of recent times, yet the "Hillaryobama" chant continues to dominate all three rings of the 24 hour American news circus.
If the magnitude of the tragedy is lost on most of us, the significance of the event is clear to the Apocalypse fans. It's more evidence of the end times. It's more evidence of the the human sacrifice demanding Yahweh "who so loved the world" getting warmed up for the big one. To some, possessed of a more informed and wider view of history, it's just another small incident in a billion years of much worse. To others, it's a demonstration of the perils of overpopulation and poverty. To the more fashionable, it's the alarm bell of the Global Warming warning system. To the religious leaders to whom America listens while condemning Reverend Wright, it probably shows clearly the perils of not accepting their processed Jesus product and at least hints of various sexual improprieties of the oriental sort.
To me? Well I just knew you'd be interested. To me it all means nothing. It means we live very briefly in an unfathomably huge, ancient and hostile universe in which we and all we do are supremely insignificant except to each other. It means we waste our brief and often miserable lives by pretending it's otherwise.
Cross posted from Human Voices
Political and economic repression probably bother the Burmese less of late than the problem of staying alive in the mud along with the rotting corpses of man and beast. It's a natural disaster of bigger than average proportions and some estimate the death toll will be over a million when the toll of disease and malnutrition is paid. The earthquake in Sichuan seems almost inconsequential in comparison and so do the hurricanes, school shootings and lead paint scandals of recent times, yet the "Hillaryobama" chant continues to dominate all three rings of the 24 hour American news circus.
If the magnitude of the tragedy is lost on most of us, the significance of the event is clear to the Apocalypse fans. It's more evidence of the end times. It's more evidence of the the human sacrifice demanding Yahweh "who so loved the world" getting warmed up for the big one. To some, possessed of a more informed and wider view of history, it's just another small incident in a billion years of much worse. To others, it's a demonstration of the perils of overpopulation and poverty. To the more fashionable, it's the alarm bell of the Global Warming warning system. To the religious leaders to whom America listens while condemning Reverend Wright, it probably shows clearly the perils of not accepting their processed Jesus product and at least hints of various sexual improprieties of the oriental sort.
To me? Well I just knew you'd be interested. To me it all means nothing. It means we live very briefly in an unfathomably huge, ancient and hostile universe in which we and all we do are supremely insignificant except to each other. It means we waste our brief and often miserable lives by pretending it's otherwise.
Cross posted from Human Voices
Labels: apocalypse, Burma
posted by Libby Spencer at 10:49 AM
7 Comments:
Natural disasters are just that; events in nature that just -- happen. The rest is "man's inhumanity toward man."
To borrow from Dion, what the world needs now is love.
Fogg - amazingly, I agree with you completely until your utterly depressing concluding paragraph. Cheer up! You live in FLA; where I live, the high is only 49 degrees today!
To me, it was a storm that formed in the Indian Ocean that struck land.
Just got back from the spending the day with doctors. Great post.
I agree with you completely until your utterly depressing concluding paragraph.
Along with Fogg, I default to the idea of an imperturbable Universe. As a fellow Floridian, you should know better, notwithstanding the fact that we choose to live in a hurricane zone and accept this risk as a tax on our leisurely lifestyle.
A warming thought just to irritate: In another 4 billion years, more bloated than any living politician or pundit, our Sun will turn into a Red Giant, and none of us will rise from our graves to bellow in protest or blog about it.
Mother nature does have a way of exposing our utter insignificance, doesn't she. As far as I'm concerned, each natural disaster like this that brings hardship or death to otherwise desparately poor and innocent people is just further proof that God only exists in the imaginations of the fearful.
Nirvana means extinction or oblivion - it's the only real security.
I don't think any species can possibly survive long enough to see the sun swallow the earth, but it will be uninhabitable long before that and will undoubtedly suffer many catastrophes and catastrophic extinctions. Is there hope that we will continue to evolve toward batter brains with fewer bugs in the operating system? I don't know if we will allow it.
I don't find it depressing at all that all things come to an end. I find it inspiring to know that nothing we do is of any consequence but to ourselves. I wish others found it inspiring enough to inspire compassion.
What I do find depressing is the unwillingness to help others that some people express and even more depressing is to watch grown men and women grovel with contorted expressions of passion before imaginary and invisible gods instead of doing something.
I find it inspiring to know that nothing we do is of any consequence but to ourselves.
Eloquent and quotable! Another great line from Captain Fogg.
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