I’d planned a post on the fearful neo-paganism on display since the tragic events in Japan, but Simon nailed it:
Whenever there is a natural disaster, people seem to rush to blame Earth gods for “punishing humanity” for its sins against the planet, rather than analysing the situation rationally, and understanding that we live on a dynamic and dangerous planet, comprising tectonic plates moving relative to one another, resulting in earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
First came the earthquake, then the tsunami and now there’s a storm of speculation, myth and rumour.
If you believe everything you hear or read, the natural disaster in Japan is linked to climate change and was a “sign from nature”, while some even believe it’s a sign of the beginning of the end of the world.
Social networking sites are riddled with theories that the earthquake was a prophecy written in the gospel of Luke and people should prepare for “the end”.
Some are linking the September 11 terrorist attacks to the Haiti earthquake on January 11 last year to the latest disaster on March 11.
On 2UE talkback radio yesterday morning, callers were also talking about apocalypse theories.
“[There will be] thunderbolts like you’ve never heard and the whole earth will shake,” one caller said.
“19th of March, this month, is the one we have look out for.”
We are rapidly regressing into a frightening new Dark Age, an age of ignorance, scientific illiteracy, witchcraft and superstition, when such nonsense should have remained firmly in the dustbin of history. It is the same forces that drive the notion of Gaia - Earth as an organism - with enough “consciousness” to punish humanity for its wickedness.
There’s a lot more, please click through to read it all.
Round-up tomorrow.
With respect to DauntlessRV comments,
I am not going to waste a lot of energy attempting to rebut your reply. You obviously have not been listening to the experts like I have. As I wrote if you are taking your info from the MSM forget it. But hey this can’t be right. Not after all the screaming headlines about a new Chernoby, nuclear explosions, feeling workers, panic at airports, clouds of radioactivity and more:
The World Health Organisation believes the spread of radiation from a quake-crippled nuclear plant in Japan remains localised and does not pose an immediate risk to human health, Michael O’Leary, the China representative of WHO said on Friday
We will need to make some people accountable for this monstrous scaremongering once the truth becomes undeniable.
Oh by the way I don’t agree with you on the hotties!
With respect to Mark’s comments on the Fukashima Nuclear plant, I find his first few sentences to contain propositions that range from dubious to nonsensical, TO WIT: (i)”not a single death has been reported from the plant” (ii)”there has been no leakage of harmful radiation”, (iii) “as the days go, the reactors are cooling”.
I am not going to waste a lot of energy attempting to rebut these three assertions…but in short, item (i) may be true at the moment, item (ii) is nonsensical, item (iii) is an interesting and unique spin. And I am not even flat-out against nuclear power, not by a long shot. But how can you have a discourse like this? I might as well be talking to the hippies.
One might conclude that decisions about nuclear power should not be made based upon what happens when a Richter-scale 9.0 quake occurs within 100 miles of a nuclear plant, followed by a huge tsunami. But there must be lessons to learn and you can not learn much by putting a spin on everything and refusing to deal with reality. Perhaps we can agree on the quality of the ‘Hotties” that are posted on this site?
The first recorded incident of flagellants was in Perugia in 1259, the year after severe crop damage and famine throughout Europe. It spread from there across Northern Italy and thence into Austria. Other incidents are recorded in 1296, 1333-34, notably at the time of the Black Death (1349), and 1399.
Thousands of people gathered in great processions, singing and with crosses and banners, they marched throughout the cities whipping themselves. One chronicler noted that anyone who did not join in the flagellation was accused of being in league with the devil.
Eco-Flagellation in the 21st Century
http://www.glebedigital.co.uk/blog/?p=1394
DauntlessRV,
So far not a single death has been reported from the nuclear plant. There has been no leakage of harmful radiation, the area has been evacuated as a precaution. As the days go the reactors are cooling, so good news.
Don’t believe the Media and the exaggerated rubbish they write. If a nuclear plant can survive a 8.9 earthquake and a tsunami then I think that is a safe prospect for building more nuclear plants.
What everyone should be concentrating their attention is on helping the survivors, finding the dead, and rebuilding. Stop all the rubbish meltdown crap!
I sometimes get the feeling doom and gloom is what people really want. Please don’t believe everything the news tells you - they just want your attention, time and money. They are not about reporting things in an informative and unbiased way. Be discerning.
The old Mayan legend was that the world was formed from a wound in the side of one of their goddesses. The human sacrifices were intended to provide her with the blood and strength she needed to continue. Seems like our current crop of hysterics are revisiting the legend. Human sacrifices? Well, denying cheap, reliable energy to third world nations HAS resulted in human deaths.
Well…. certainly that is a lot of nonsense and really doesn’t deserve a lot of discussion. Here are some things that DO deserve discussion: You put the control rods into a nuclear core and you reduce heat output from 100% (core at full operation) to 6% of that heat level at full operation. That 6% residual heat still requires massive amounts of circulating water or you have a partial to full meltdown on your hands. You put “spent” fuel rods into a huge tank of water. If you can’t replenish the water and the rods are exposed you have a huge hydrogen-driven fire and radiation pouring into the atmosphere.
Whether you are a hippie, a bippie, or of sound mind, these are serious problems as we have just seen. This much is not invented by eco-freaks, gaia-freaks or whatever. So, let’s deal with this reality. A reactor apparently does NOT turn off when you shut it down. I had not before fully realized this reality. So that IS a bit disconcerting! Blanketing Northern Japan and God knows where else with radioactive Cesium with a thirty year half-life is a real issue… yes? Anyone concerned?
Well, I for one will happily risk being punished - I want to live as comfortably as possible, and strongly resent these econutterfascist greenies telling me how I should conduct my life, particularly as THEY appear to be capable of extreme hypocrisy.