Maybe people are just reacting to the hints of partisanship in Wolcott's post
Yes, I think that's the heart of the matter.
Y'know, here in North Carolina, we end up in the path of plenty of big, destructive hurricanes, and they are always exciting. Most NCers I know have a perverse love (or at least a complicated love/hate relationship) for our giant storms. Hell, even our NHL team here is called the Hurricanes.
Of course you don't want anybody hurt or anybody to have their lives upturned by floods or falling trees, but when you live in Hurricane Alley, you take a certain fatalistic attitude toward them. You know they're coming (plenty of warning every time), you know they're gonna f*** s*** up, you know you're going to get a couple of days off of work, you know to go stock up on beer. Shrug.
My mother went down to Florida just before Frances hit to help my grandmother, who lives about 20 miles from Orlando, and had just gotten through Charley. Everybody's okay and they even have electricity, but the water systems are not functioning, which is a pretty unpleasant state of affairs. Now Hurricane Ivan is on its way to Florida for next weekend. Maybe the gods really aren't pleased.
Well, Dave Barry's thread devolved into booger flicking, so I guess they can't handle this one. Jeez, is it difficult? If you live in hurricane-land and don't root for, or at least expect hurricanes, what does that say about your intelligence? So, weak intelligence may be the first strike against them reddish non-rooters.
It appears that many of the non-rooters are fear-based, which is, as we know, is a solid core of the Righty decision process. But wait, couldn't one could argue that a religious person should welcome yet another display of God's natural might, judgment and possible mercy (mood dependant), peaceful and confident in God's will, whether or not the roof blows off? Hmmm, perhaps they're confused too.
What about the core American cultural values of fearless exploration, prevailing against odds, strength in adversity, bootstrap recovery from devastation and stuff. What about standing in the wind and proclaiming ‘cain't no damn female hurricane whup me!'? They're wimps too.
But wait...they always go back after the evacuations don't they. And then they get paid big bucks by insurance companies--again, to modernize and update the decor. Could it be they're actually disingenuous criminals, secretly hoping for the next hurricane, yet complaining to put the insurance investigators off track. Ha!! Criminals!
My first thought while reading this post was, "man, now you're just trying to piss people off!"
Anyway, I'll go ahead and admit I root for hurricanes, for three reasons. First, I do live near the Gulf, so hurricanes mean hurricane parties, and those are fun. Second, when they do hit, it's a forced encounter with nature, and I think encounters with nature are too uncommon. Can't go to work because the road's flooded? Your patterm of having everything conveniently available has broken down? And the world didn't end? Third, they're just sexy, in that bad-boy wild nature sort of way.
If Wolcott's post were about "humanity" being powerless in the grip of an enraged Mother Nature, then Ogged might be justified in viewing the ability to appreciate the joke as a sign of sophistication. But Wolcott's post was merely about rednecks, them rather than us, being in that predicament.
And even if they are a bunch of dumbshits who are capable of finding Katherine Harris glamorous, it seems a little churlish to take pleasure in the destruction of their homes.
That is incredibly shallow and cynical. Do you want to tell a mother who has lost all her children in Sri Lanka, that yeah, I was rooting for this? Are you crazy?
What you are rooting for is for other people to die, not yourself. I prefer to have as many people as possible survive natural disasters. That is the only humane approach to this. You disgust me.
Another entry into the "most subtle distinction ever made" contest. One can "root" for a hurricane in the sense that one finds it salutary to be reminded of the awesomeness of nature, and also in the sense that one finds awesome natural phenonmena aesthetically pleasing--and one can root for it in those ways without actually wishing that people die, although people dying is almost surely a consequence of any hurricane worth rooting for.
Still rooting for those force[s] majeur that you were so enamored with when they were slamming into hicks in the South? Where are the cheeky comments now? Being myopically asinine is one thing, but I hope that hindsight at least helps you sort this one out for yourself.
Come on folks. There is a separation between rooting for the forces of nature in the way I describe in comment 9, and wishing anyone ill. And before you start throwing around accusations of racism, or regionalism, or whatever, note that my friend's wedding was all but wiped out by one of those hurricanes, so I don't think the victims are stupid people I'll never meet.
Oh come down off your high horses, mf, ss, and KH (if indeed you are different people). I'm one of those southern hicks that gets slammed regularly by hurricanes and I still root for them. As Ogged says, there's a difference between admiring the awesome power of nature and wishing harm to others.
You are the ones making partisan hay of a natural disaster here.
Maybe people are just reacting to the hints of partisanship in Wolcott's post
Yes, I think that's the heart of the matter.
Y'know, here in North Carolina, we end up in the path of plenty of big, destructive hurricanes, and they are always exciting. Most NCers I know have a perverse love (or at least a complicated love/hate relationship) for our giant storms. Hell, even our NHL team here is called the Hurricanes.
Of course you don't want anybody hurt or anybody to have their lives upturned by floods or falling trees, but when you live in Hurricane Alley, you take a certain fatalistic attitude toward them. You know they're coming (plenty of warning every time), you know they're gonna f*** s*** up, you know you're going to get a couple of days off of work, you know to go stock up on beer. Shrug.
My mother went down to Florida just before Frances hit to help my grandmother, who lives about 20 miles from Orlando, and had just gotten through Charley. Everybody's okay and they even have electricity, but the water systems are not functioning, which is a pretty unpleasant state of affairs. Now Hurricane Ivan is on its way to Florida for next weekend. Maybe the gods really aren't pleased.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 09- 7-04 9:01 AM
Well, Dave Barry's thread devolved into booger flicking, so I guess they can't handle this one. Jeez, is it difficult? If you live in hurricane-land and don't root for, or at least expect hurricanes, what does that say about your intelligence? So, weak intelligence may be the first strike against them reddish non-rooters.
It appears that many of the non-rooters are fear-based, which is, as we know, is a solid core of the Righty decision process. But wait, couldn't one could argue that a religious person should welcome yet another display of God's natural might, judgment and possible mercy (mood dependant), peaceful and confident in God's will, whether or not the roof blows off? Hmmm, perhaps they're confused too.
What about the core American cultural values of fearless exploration, prevailing against odds, strength in adversity, bootstrap recovery from devastation and stuff. What about standing in the wind and proclaiming ‘cain't no damn female hurricane whup me!'? They're wimps too.
But wait...they always go back after the evacuations don't they. And then they get paid big bucks by insurance companies--again, to modernize and update the decor. Could it be they're actually disingenuous criminals, secretly hoping for the next hurricane, yet complaining to put the insurance investigators off track. Ha!! Criminals!
I'm with Wolcott, let the mother blow.
Posted by kamajii | Link to this comment | 09- 7-04 9:05 AM
My first thought while reading this post was, "man, now you're just trying to piss people off!"
Anyway, I'll go ahead and admit I root for hurricanes, for three reasons. First, I do live near the Gulf, so hurricanes mean hurricane parties, and those are fun. Second, when they do hit, it's a forced encounter with nature, and I think encounters with nature are too uncommon. Can't go to work because the road's flooded? Your patterm of having everything conveniently available has broken down? And the world didn't end? Third, they're just sexy, in that bad-boy wild nature sort of way.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 09- 7-04 9:28 AM
As Keillor would say, "those people never shoulda been there in the first place."
Posted by Nash | Link to this comment | 09- 7-04 3:10 PM
The Blue/Red 'divide' is simple. Easy.
Married women tend to be red. Young in general tend to be blue.
The unelected 'elite' tends to be blue.
Summary, the red types are adults, blue typess, typo intentional, are pre- teens.
Posted by abc123 | Link to this comment | 09- 7-04 5:36 PM
Haiku! That's what you write!
I do think you're a genius, you know.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 09- 7-04 5:38 PM
If Wolcott's post were about "humanity" being powerless in the grip of an enraged Mother Nature, then Ogged might be justified in viewing the ability to appreciate the joke as a sign of sophistication. But Wolcott's post was merely about rednecks, them rather than us, being in that predicament.
And even if they are a bunch of dumbshits who are capable of finding Katherine Harris glamorous, it seems a little churlish to take pleasure in the destruction of their homes.
Posted by son volt | Link to this comment | 09- 7-04 7:19 PM
That is incredibly shallow and cynical. Do you want to tell a mother who has lost all her children in Sri Lanka, that yeah, I was rooting for this? Are you crazy?
What you are rooting for is for other people to die, not yourself. I prefer to have as many people as possible survive natural disasters. That is the only humane approach to this. You disgust me.
Posted by KH | Link to this comment | 12-29-04 8:05 AM
Another entry into the "most subtle distinction ever made" contest. One can "root" for a hurricane in the sense that one finds it salutary to be reminded of the awesomeness of nature, and also in the sense that one finds awesome natural phenonmena aesthetically pleasing--and one can root for it in those ways without actually wishing that people die, although people dying is almost surely a consequence of any hurricane worth rooting for.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 12-29-04 8:52 AM
Agreed. Liberals will root for death and destruction when it suits their partisan interest.
Posted by ss | Link to this comment | 12-29-04 1:45 PM
Says the one named "SS."
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 12-29-04 1:46 PM
Still rooting for those force[s] majeur that you were so enamored with when they were slamming into hicks in the South? Where are the cheeky comments now? Being myopically asinine is one thing, but I hope that hindsight at least helps you sort this one out for yourself.
Posted by mf | Link to this comment | 12-29-04 2:07 PM
Come on folks. There is a separation between rooting for the forces of nature in the way I describe in comment 9, and wishing anyone ill. And before you start throwing around accusations of racism, or regionalism, or whatever, note that my friend's wedding was all but wiped out by one of those hurricanes, so I don't think the victims are stupid people I'll never meet.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 12-29-04 2:11 PM
Oh come down off your high horses, mf, ss, and KH (if indeed you are different people). I'm one of those southern hicks that gets slammed regularly by hurricanes and I still root for them. As Ogged says, there's a difference between admiring the awesome power of nature and wishing harm to others.
You are the ones making partisan hay of a natural disaster here.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-30-04 9:15 AM