WhatFinger


Protecting us from Nature

Outsourcing self-reliance



”Worst Snowstorm in 60 years”, the Toronto Sun’s headline screamed in its Sunday edition. “Crippling storm!” exclaimed the Weather Network; “travelers stymied”, said the National Post. “Women, visible minorities and gays hit hardest!” the Toronto Star exclaimed.

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Okay, I made that last one up, but you get the drift. A little weather event such as this weekend’s snowstorm and the media fall all over themselves in efforts to outdo one another over the severity of that event. Since we live in a latitude where snowstorms aren’t unheard of, it should come as no surprise to anyone that occasionally we’ll get an unusually heavy snowfall, particularly in light of the fact that Environment Canada meteorologists actually got it right last month by predicting a particularly severe winter. As a people we have gotten so accustomed to the unchanging blandness of our lives that any natural event slightly out of the usual is greeted in catastrophic terms. It’s not just that way with unusual snowstorms; it applies to most natural phenomena that befall us on a day-to-day basis. In summer we are warned of extreme heat alerts; then there are humidex advisories; we get wind warnings, thunderstorm alerts and a myriad of other warnings and advisories, all designed to titillate our fears. But in truth, these warnings are specious in that any danger is minimal and one would have to be devoid of all one’s senses not to know that it’s hot or raining or snowing. Treating common everyday events as if they were Hurricane Hazel or the Boxing Day Tsunami regretfully has become our stock in trade, which conveys the impression that the world is a much more dangerous place than it is in reality. By exaggerating the impact of common weather events, such as a heat wave or heavy rains, we create a conceit that we are much more vulnerable than we really are, which plays into the idea that we need to be protected from nature, if not from ourselves, as we are too stupid to stay in during a snowstorm or turn on the air conditioning during a heat wave. This heightened concern over presumed “dangers” presented by everyday mundanities is representative of an erosion of self-reliance within our culture. It is an affirmation of the need for the nanny state to take care of us and to protect us from the myriad perils we face on a daily basis. These include second-hand smoke, trans fats, falling off bicycles, being bitten by pit bulls as well as other inanities. The media’s preoccupation with the dangers posed by relatively benign weather events serves merely to confirm that we are in a free fall which will result in total dependence on officialdom to ensure our safety. And once we embrace that pig in a poke, we will have outsourced our self-reliance and with it any control over our own lives.


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Klaus Rohrich -- Bio and Archives

Klaus Rohrich is senior columnist for Canada Free Press. Klaus also writes topical articles for numerous magazines. He has a regular column on RetirementHomes and is currently working on his first book dealing with the toxicity of liberalism.  His work has been featured on the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, among others.  He lives and works in a small town outside of Toronto.

Older articles by Klaus Rohrich


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