Hurricane Katrina and Consumer "Culture"

[kmik]

at the same time, would you (slient song) donate the same amount of time and energy to animals caught in the aftermath of an oil spill? seems like you value certain things over others in your little cosmic scheme, such as humans being a more worthwhile creature to save, despite the fact that humans were the ones who thought it a good idea to build a city in that location in the first place.

Why the emphasis on humanism?

Wow, what a hypocrite. You say a person with a high IQ is superior to someone of average intelligence, but at the same time believe that humans are equal (or even inferior) to animals. You talk all the time about caring about your own kind, your people, your culture, etc. yet don't realize that you have more in common with other humans in the world, even of other ethnicity, than you would like to think. Certainly more than a dog, anyway. Changing your principles all the time just so you can disagree with everyone is annoying. I bet you're waiting for another catastrophe to tell everyone how pleased you are about it on a message board...

 

[Lord SteveO]

As far as i'm aware Silent Song said he'd save the people to give them a second chance and he'd save the animals as we should do so becuase we caused the mess they are in.
And it looks to me like he's pretty much in the same train of though we all are rearding this issue.

 

[Griff7272]

the slow rescue attept isn't anything to do with Bush. Do you know what's going on down there? It's turned to total chaos. They are shooting at cops, rescue workers, and even the helicopters. Relief supplies are being stolen, and the vehicles hijacked. Resuce workers are more and more reluctant to go back in there to get more people.

 

[Kenneth R.]

the slow rescue attept isn't anything to do with Bush. Do you know what's going on down there? It's turned to total chaos. They are shooting at cops, rescue workers, and even the helicopters. Relief supplies are being stolen, and the vehicles hijacked. Resuce workers are more and more reluctant to go back in there to get more people.

thus proves the failings of our popular society. no tv? no government? no ORDER, no RESPECT, and no HONOR. people need to think for themselves!

I'm fairly cetain that a result of all this will be that Bush will loose the support of a lot of voters in the south, especially the poor in the areas hit by such disasters.
Who would vote for a guy who seems to be little concerned with the plight of those there. The response has been a joke, there's fire all over the place and they can't do a dammed thing.

its too late! Bush can't be re-elected. but i agree.

 

[Silver Incubus]

Well Bush should be impeached for going to Iraq Illegally, or better yet, not defending the sounthern borders from aliens who will just burden then us tax payers

 

[Silver Incubus]

Apparently they need armed mexican soldiers for relief of the hurricane. I don't see why they need a) mexico's help and b) those soldiers to be armed.

At least Canada was offering help to the States

 

[Hubster]

If my pals were caught in an oil spill it would be impossible to tell which ones were covered in oil.

You b@stard. I am a dark skinned person of ethnic origin. People like you should be caged.

 

[Hubster]

Anyway, back on-topic... THIS:

Hurricane Katrina has signed her name across the face of the Gulf Coast. Thousands are homeless, hundreds are missing and presumed dead, the very trappings of modern existence have been swept away and strewn across the landscape by the wrathful hand of Nature. Fittingly, it is New Orleans, a perfect microcosm of the consumer "culture" gone mad which spawned the disaster in the first place, that the attention of the US and the world is now riveted to.

New Orleans, The Big Easy, City of jazz, miscegenation and the beads-for-boobs barter system. Now, in a delightfully ironic twist of fate, it lies drowning in it's own filth and wracked by chaos as its negro community takes advantage of the storm's aftermath to steal television sets and other talismans of the cult of money.

The horror! People living without electricity, at the mercy of Nature! Of course, the government is rushing to rectify the situation. And, as usual, private charities are cashing in on the parade of sympathy squeezed out of a well trained and socialized populace, ever ready to fork over their cash to a "worth cause" without every stopping to think whether the cause really is worthy.

Inevitably, in the rush to "Save New Orleans," things that should be painfully obvious are overlooked. Namely, that New Orleans and all the places like it, traffic choked cesspools dumping hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, are the reason that hurricanes like Katrina are increasing rapidly both in numbers and in ferocity. The West, as typified by New Orleans, long ago traded in an inheritance of greatness for the easy comfort of the automobile, the microwave and the television set (and through Western military might, this insane lifestyle has been forced upon the entire world).

This trade off has not been without catastrophic costs. Biodiversity is sacrificed at every turn to fill empty souls with plastic dreams. Human cultural diversity has likewise declined in the face of the spread of the consumerist money culture. Everywhere we are fouling our own nest, turning our water to sewage and the air we breathe into a carcinogenic misama.

And, the hydrocarbons from our automobiles and the power plants that light our homes and keep the boob tube running are turning the planet into a sauna. Global warming means just that, global warming. And this includes warming the waters at the surface of the ocean, which, as any idiot who has taken an intro atmospheric sciences course should be able to tell you, means more hurricanes.

But, of course, in our rush to pat ourselves on the back for our admirable pity and empathy, this truth will be lost. Money will pour in and New Orleans will be rebuilt. The city's cars and refineries will once again spew toxic sludge into the air, and the next hurricane will just be that much bigger (and come that much sooner). And we'll only have ourselves to blame.

... is a fantastic post. I couldn't agree more.

The Day After Tomorrow is a reality now. The oceans are warming up, so really should this hurricane and all the other natural disasters seem like a shock? Personally, I think all the idiotic governments on this planet should fucking WAKE UP and face the real battle, that of fixing up this planet. The longer we keep going this way, the worse these occurrances will be.

Katrina is NOTHING compared to what could happen in another few decades. At the rate this planet is warming up, Katrina is a drop in the ocean.

 

[Kenneth R.]

i was trying to describe the effect of the Hurricane to someone overseas, and "The Day After Tomorrow" was my best fit. i doubt we will see an ice age any time soon, though it is coming, yet we are fools who still covet petroleum.

 

[infoterror]

Please don't donate to save any of those "victims of Hurricane Katrina" idiots. People who cannot get out of the way of a hurricane when given two days advance - they literally had time to walk out of its path, as it only affected a few miles inland - are genetically inferior and, whether white or black or otherwise, should be eliminated by natural selection. Not to mention the fact that these same people showed great intelligence by looting, raping, burning, stealing, and shooting at those who came to rescue them. Don't donate - just fucking kill them.

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4043883

 

[Hubster]

i was trying to describe the effect of the Hurricane to someone overseas, and "The Day After Tomorrow" was my best fit. i doubt we will see an ice age any time soon, though it is coming, yet we are fools who still covet petroleum.

I couldn't agree with you more.

It's coming alright, hopefully not in our lifetime though.

I can't believe no comments by governments have been made regarding the massive increase of ecological disasters in the last decade alone.

The Tsunami, various earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina, the list goes on. Couple these with shelves breaking off Antarctica and also icebergs that have been sighted off NZ!!! Who in Sydney remembers that day in summer when the temp dropped from the late 20's to 15 in ONE DAY, and also it practically SNOWED in Bondi in the middle of summer!

HELLO. Can anyone not see the patterns here?

 

[infoterror]

To see the patterns means to admit the problem: TOO MANY PEOPLE USING TOO MANY RESOURCES.

To see that means to see the obvious solution: YOU WILL HAVE TO TELL SOMEONE THEY CANNOT.

That's at least one voter lost

FUCK DEMOCRACY

 

[Hubster]

It would appear that Bush has turned the idea of democracy into oppression. Or more bluntly put:

Country: "We want freedom from oppressive and corruptive rule"
Bush Administration: "Sure thing. We'll come in, level your country, kill your civilians and get you to live American values beause its the RIGHT way. Oh - and can we scab some oil off you?"

 

[Voice of God]

The Tsunami, various earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina, the list goes on. Couple these with shelves breaking off Antarctica and also icebergs that have been sighted off NZ!!! Who in Sydney remembers that day in summer when the temp dropped from the late 20's to 15 in ONE DAY, and also it practically SNOWED in Bondi in the middle of summer!

HELLO. Can anyone not see the patterns here?

Well first of all, if there even is a pattern there, the tsunami and earthquakes definitely are not part of it. Or are you saying the climate change is affecting the tectonic plates too? And for the rest of it, few cases of weird weather does not mean there's a pattern. What kind of pattern comes from shelves breaking off Antartica (it's getting hotter) with those other examples (where it got colder)? Also I don't see what odd is in temperature dropping from high 20's to 15 in one day. It's warm, cold front comes in, a little rain and it's cool.

People panic because of one bad storm.... I too believe that the climate's changing but not every anomaly is result of that. I would like to see some statistics that there has been more ecological disasters in the last 10 years than before that.... Nature is weird and unpredictable, live with it.

 

[Hubster]

Right. Voice of God my ass. More like Voice of George W Bush: "there's nothing wrong with our planet! What ARE you talking about? Everything's fiiiiine"

Where do you live, in a cave? Have you seen NOTHING which has occurred in the last number of years and overall increases in weather anomolies? I need need statistics for these, like any other person, I see some of these things in my own country and everyday life!

 

[Lord SteveO]

Well V o' G is rright that the tsunami was not caused by climate change. Neither are earthquakes or volcanoes. So global warming will not result in more earthquakes.

However if sea levels rise then a tsunami will be worse, obviously the water will be higher and cause more damage.

On the subject of global warming though, seriously, have a good read through the scientific reports done on the subject and you will understand how the earth can get colder and hotter at the same time.
For example the heating melts ice caps, fresh cool water enters the sea, alters ocean currents eg: gulf stream, stream dissappears/moves, europe get colder and looses it's temperate climate.
A warming in one area can easily affect the other side of the planet and make it cooler becuase all the ocean currents and air movements on the globe are linked, if you alter one significantly you will likely cause a domino effect and alter them all or at least some.

 

[Voice of God]

Right. Voice of God my ass. More like Voice of George W Bush: "there's nothing wrong with our planet! What ARE you talking about? Everything's fiiiiine"

You're absolutely right. That's exactly what I said and meant.

If you'd actually read my post I did state that "I too believe the climate's changing". Which means I do believe that the ecology of this planet is eventually fucked, but I hate when people freak about natural things when they happen in a bad place and lot of people die, and blame things on cause X without real proof. After the Tsunami some guy claimed it was caused by a nuclear explosion... If Katrina had cleaned out a small island with less than 100 people, nobody would give a damn. I'm not saying that Katrina wasn't caused by climate change, I don't know if it was or not, but claiming that without good proof is just bullshit. The area has hurricanes all the time, when one is big and happens to hit a bad area that's in a hole between a lake and a river, it doesn't make the storm automatically somehow extraordinary.

Also basing your opinions on what you see in your everyday life and your own country... it doesn't mean it's GLOBAL, maybe it's regional "weird weather". That's why I want to see statistics, and actual research results.

And really, mixing my nick with GWB is just low. You're ruining a perfectly good name of a song.

@LordSteveO: yeah, you're right about the cold/hot thing. I didn't quite think that through.

 

[Hubster]

hehe

... I'd like to think I'm not looking at this stupidly, I agree with you saying that "I hate when people freak about natural things when they happen in a bad place and lot of people die, and blame things on cause X without real proof."

I agree on this 100%, but that's not the angle I was taking myself (it might have appeared this way, apologies for that).

My correlations are based on weather changes I'm seeing every few months or weeks in my own country... plus combined with aforementioned ecological disasters and a host of other ocurrances. I'm stating my comments by trying to look at it more broadly.

I really feel there is an "acceleration" of ecological occurrances, and I feel that none of us have to be specialists in geological sciences to notice this...

 

[infoterror]

Right. Voice of God my ass. More like Voice of George W Bush: "there's nothing wrong with our planet! What ARE you talking about? Everything's fiiiiine"

What's distressing is how many on the right and left alike think this way. I know most leftists are lunatics, but I would expect rightists, especially far rightists, to grasp the obvious. Instead, some like Alex Linder at www.vnnforum.com suggest we are not running out of gasoline and our planet is not in trouble.

I am contemplating ways to change this outlook. After all, a Nationalist leader was the only world power to ever formalize a comprehensive environmental plan!

 

[Birkenau]

Please don't donate to save any of those "victims of Hurricane Katrina" idiots. People who cannot get out of the way of a hurricane when given two days advance - they literally had time to walk out of its path, as it only affected a few miles inland - are genetically inferior and, whether white or black or otherwise, should be eliminated by natural selection. Not to mention the fact that these same people showed great intelligence by looting, raping, burning, stealing, and shooting at those who came to rescue them. Don't donate - just fucking kill them.

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4043883

Thank you, having less living capitalist Americans is great, and having less African-American capitalists is even better.