The hurricane (storm) which has caused devastation along the Gulf Coast and delivered a near-fatal blow to New Orleans is a reminder that Nature is really only tameable in trivial ways. Anyone who has travelled around the USA with open eyes will see endless evidence that it is a continent shaped and reshaped by extreme weather. Recorded human experience of this land covers only a brief and recent period. Early explorers and settlers were more aware of this than todays city dwellers, most of whom have arrived here and settled, too arrogant to study the past of the place they have occupied. As the continent fills with people, so the death tolls from natural disasters will rise. For this reason, it is pretty futile to expect Government or politicians to be effectively proactive. Some things can be planned for but some things are too big and too unpredictable. There are many who could be reasonably blamed (but won’t be) by the Media for dereliction of duty, including the Mayor of New Orleans. The President comes low on the list of those who have been inept, but we know the Media will strain its collective muscle to put him at the center of blame. This has little, if anything to do with the suffering and death now visiting the people of the region. It has everything to do with a Media agenda pre-occupied with trivia.
Do not expect a sense of perspective in the weeks ahead. The Media will ensure that it is missing. Expect to hear accusations of racism, persecution of the poor, the cost and futility of the Iraq War, global warming and even perhaps, that Halliburton is behind the disaster. As well-fed, manicured reporters gather around apparently starving, desperate African American “victims”, it will be difficult to know which manages to work up the most rage about “Bush”.
Away from the camera teams and reporters there will be people quietly getting on with the rescues and clean-ups and even with their daily lives. Unless they are prepared to fulfil the role that suits the media purpose, they will rarely make it on TV.
There are many questions one could ask about the events in New Orleans.
Here are three.
• Why wasn’t the Mayor holed up with the apparently starving poor who had been left behind during the evacuation? Captains once went down with their ships.
• Why did the able-bodied, of whom there seemed to be many around the camera crews, not hike out along the Highways which were used by the camera crews to get in?
• Did some of the able-bodied who stayed behind think that looting would be easy?
There may be good answers to these questions and I ask them without prejudice.
It is tragic that besides dealing with Nature, we have to waste so much time and effort fighting terrorism, a wholly man-made problem. We should make sure the terrorists really pay for this whenever we catch them.
In the meantime, expect the anti-Bush hysteria in the Media to be ratcheted up with each passing day. In case you missed the other news, US Chief Justice Rehnquist died and there is now another vacancy on the Supreme Court. This is something the Media Class genuinely cares about, as the Courts are the short cut to the social legislation the Media Class is desperate to have enacted. A leftist Supreme Court would bypass the ballot box and give it same-sex marriage and every other libertine freedom it craves. Expect George Soros and every other Media ally and agent to be frantically organising to cripple Bush ahead of the appointments. The Iraq War on terrorism, the Gulf disaster, Cindy Sheehan, Global warming will all be included in the game-plan. Of course, the Media will only be reporting the news!!!