I have to wonder if all the folks who (rightfully, IMO) slammed Jeb Bush for attributing Hurricane Charley’s unpredicted course into Florida as “God’s way of telling us that he’s almighty and we’re mortal” will voice similar outrage over James Wolcott admitting that he “root[s] for hurricanes” …
When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong–Mother Nature’s fist of fury, Gaia’s stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of its own back and teach us that there are forces greater than our own.
In addition to apparently enjoying, or finding a pleasant fittingness in, the destruction and death that such a storm causes, Mr Wolcott reinforces that it’s all part of some great plan:
Hurricane Frances also has a heraldic quality. Camille Paglia observed on Salon in February, 2003 that the explosion of the Columbia shuttle on the eve of the war on Iraq was a “stunning omen,” one that would make a Roman general think twice. A catastrophe strewing death, fire, and human remains across Bush’s home state of Texas was inauspicious to our undertaking; and so it has proven to be. Frances is the second hurricane to afflict Florida, home of brother Jeb, in rapid succession.
The gods are not pleased.
And, just to hammer the point home, if this were Jeb, or Pat Robertson, or Jerry Falwell, or someone else identified as a Christian (particularly the right-wing sort) writing about how they rooted for monsoons when sweeping down on the godless Hindus and Moslems in India and Bangledesh, or attributing a major earthquake in Iran as a bad omen sent from the Almighty for the mullahs, they’d be very justifiably demonized.
I’m just waiting for everyone to do the same for this jerk.
Unless, of course, he doesn’t really believe all of that Mother Nature and Gaia and omens and gods stuff. In which case it’s all okay, right?
(via Andrea)
Actually, I don’t have any objections to people speaking of hurricanes as God’s (or “Gaia’s” — though wouldn’t hurricanes come under the job description of Ares, god of storms and tempests ?) or Mother Nature’s, or what-have-you, way of telling us who’s boss, at least when it comes to things like weather. What I object to is the gleeful contemplation of the destruction to human property on the grounds that it is something the human race deserves, especially coming from someone who lives in the midst of a city that could not function for five minutes without all that “exploitation of nature” that he showily decries. And it’s all of a parcel with the rest of the bitter and — I can think of no other word — unprofessional writing on his blog.
I’ve heard it was supposed to be a joke, filled with bitter irony. I’ve also heard myself wishing for a tornadic event to visit itself upon his house. How ironic.
Actually I meant to write “destruction to human property and life.”
Who is James Wolcott? Is he a public figure? … I guess I’ve just demonstrated my ignorance, but I can’t ever remember having heard of him before.
He’s a writer (or “cultural critic”), published in the New Yorker and TNR and the WSJ, a media columnist in Vanity Fair, and with his own book on the stands, which I’m pretty sure I’ve seen on a prominent table at B&N or Borders.
Andrea, I suspect, if you’re going to tout Gaia as the Earth, then you’d probably need to blame Ouranos as the “Sky God” to blame.
Wolcott had better be careful. The Gods don’t like it when you mix them up.
Hmmm…
I really see no difference between Wolcott’s posting and things that Andrea and Saki post.
A skreed is a skreed, and a rant is a rant. But I do see a difference between a person posting things on his blog and a “Servent of the People”.
There is that distinction, yes. And a screed and a rant is, at least on one level, a screed and a rant.
Still, as someone whose voice spreads a lot further (to believe his clippings) than either Andrea or Seki, I would expect him to draw at least a little ire from those media pundits who’ve condemned, say, not just public servant Jeb, then Jerry or Pat (or Anne Coulter, assuming with some justification that she’s done it too) for their analogous drivel.