DECEMBER 12, 2021 – When I saw the photos of destruction in the path of The Great Tornadoes, I wondered if we can find common ground in the wake of such wholesale destruction; ground from which can sow and cultivate a modicum of unity that has eluded us for nearly a generation. Perhaps a nation divided by widespread disinformation, conspiratorial anger, puritanical ideology—(may one be so simplistic as to bunch them together as “the hothouses of social media, cable news, and, God forbid, the First Amendment”?)—political dysfunction, and most lately, an invisible virus . . . perhaps such a country can rally ’round the towns lying broken into matchsticks by funnels clouds that came roaring through the night.
The death toll from Friday’s freakish storms is likely to exceed 100. Yet, every number needs another for meaningful measure. For example, over the past two years, nearly 800,000 Americans have died from Covid. The unity of a nation, however, doesn’t turn on such a comparison. As things roll, the “100” figure is far likelier to seize and hold people’s attention. As Josef Stalin infamously but astutely said, “One death is a tragedy; a million deaths are a statistic.” (See also, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.) And then there are the images.
Whereas free-wielding Americans associate government-imposed mask mandates and vaccine requirements as part of a much larger “Socialist” or “Communist” threat more serious than a mass killer virus, those same individualistic Americans will rise to the occasion, when facing drone views of large-scale, physical wreckage, and individual reports of total, heart-wrenching, personal loss. The weather can’t be blamed on “Socialists,” “Communists,” or, for that matter, even on Democrats, centrist or progressive. There’s nothing like the image of a doll without arms impaled on a spike that used to be a sapling standing in front of a two-story, suburban home that is no more.
Of course, the risk exists that FEMA—that government—won’t move fast enough; that power lines, relay stations, sewage plants, and internet cabling, not to mention emergency services, won’t be operational with the same haste that occurred after the snowstorms in Texas earlier this year. (I’m being facetious here with reference to Texas . . . but STOP! I’ve just gone “political” with the weather, contributing to the disunity that afflicts us.)
So, back to unity. Maybe destruction by weather can induce more people like the Republican governor of Arkansas to mention the cooperation of government—all levels—in responding to the horrific tragedy that ripped through the heart of the nation. Maybe, just maybe, we can use the graphic, large-scale physical havoc wreaked by forces of nature (for the time being any link to climate change being set well aside) to underscore our common vulnerability and therefore, our common interest in looking past our differences.
In the end, whatever our differences—and whatever their causes—extreme weather underscores our need to seek the common good. Our very survival depends on it.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
