We think it can be controlled, directed, bent to our purposes. We believe we are above it - better, stronger, in control, responsible. We blindly - gleefully even - lay claim to being responsible for all of nature's ills. It must be man we cry!
Yea, even when disaster strikes, we still want the crisis to be of man not of nature. We have turned our backs on the force of nature, waved away the truth that we are but scurvy ants scurrying on the surface of a small planet in a small solar system - a place governed by nature's power not the power of man.
Sometimes nature reminds us - in the most terrible, terrifying of ways - of her power. She says to mankind - I am in charge not you. You are nothing.
But we don't listen choosing instead to find reasons in the actions of men to explain the majesty of nature. Instead of recognising the sovereignty of nature, we look instead for man-made disaster.
Our breath is taken away when nature visits us with terror - we cannot explain, we cannot comprehend, we just have to cope. And to cope we must make our own, self-built disaster from the ruins of nature's act.
That, my friends, is hubris.
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3 comments:
I can only say that you have expressed it perfectly.
Exactly, and to extend your insight - the utter posh arrogance of the eco-idelaogues and recyclomaniacs who promote the notion that man has the power to "destroy" the earth with discarded cigarette butts and plastic bottles. Don't get me wrong I am all for not littering, but the idea that mankind will "destroy" Earth with our refuse is simply arrogance run amok. The late comedian George Carlins said it best when criticizing the environmentalists and this absurd notion of destoying Earth: "Earth will shake us off like a bad cold.....".
Well said, and presumably it's also connected to the 'blame culture' which now dominates society. When anything goes wrong it has to be somebody's fault.
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