Because he's having trouble seeing the big picture with his head so far up his ***.
In addition, though, to being an opportunity for helping others and fixing systems, Katrina should also be a spur, especially for Jews, to individual introspection.
Although the destruction wrought by Katrina affected a broad swath of the Gulf Coast, the city with which the hurricane has become inextricably coupled is New Orleans. Might the venue of the recent tragedy hold some meaning for us?
What occurs, at least to me, is that the “Big Easy” received its nickname from the lifestyle it exemplified, one of leisure and (in the word’s most literal sense) carelessness. The city is probably best known — or was, at least, until now — for the unbridled partying and debauchery that yearly characterized its annual Mardi Gras celebrations.
I cannot and do not claim to know “why” the hurricane took the terrible toll it did; but our inability to understand should not preclude us — those of us who believe in a God who wants us to reflect on and grow from events around us — from trying to respond to the wind-driven wake-up call by asking “what”: What can I do spiritually as a result?
And one message we might well choose to perceive is the need to recognize how belittling to meaningful life is the contemporary culture of recreation and entertainment.
There is no need to go into the crass detail of what passes for pastime in our age. Even those of us who do not own televisions or frequent movie theaters cannot escape the artifacts of our culture’s decadence; they are ubiquitous. The objectification of human beings, their debasement as mere animals and their reduction to skin and flesh saturate the visual arts and popular music, and have bled into other realms as well. Could we not all benefit from critically confronting that fact, from recognizing the toll such reductionism takes on the deepest meaning of our lives? Could we not benefit, in other words, from pointing our fingers at ourselves, the consumers of the crudeness?
There can be little doubt that we could. And that doing so would be — at least from a traditional Jewish perspective — a most fitting reaction to the maelstrom we have witnessed of late.
Yeah. This is the most fitting reaction, as opposed to trying to help people suffering from this disaster? Focus on the smut in one tiny part of the area that got wiped out. Ignore the other possible lessons of this disaster... like, we ignore the poor and our infrastructure at our own peril! Sanctimonious idiot. Feh.
Updated to add: Here's a parody news story in which Pat Robertson makes a
similar argument. Parody just can't keep up with reality, can it? And
here's another perspective on this essay, far more eloquent
than mine.
