Taking Comfort from Blame

It is terrifying to us to think that Nature, in the form of hurricanes and earthquakes, can, at a stroke, disdainfully sweep away our perfect scientific grasp on reality and disabuse us of the idea of perfect human control. That's why our immediate reaction post-disaster is to find someone, anyone, usually government, to recriminate because recrimination maintains the illusion that everything is under our control or should have been. The prospect that Nature holds the cards and we don't is just too terrifying a prospect to contemplate. Added to this of course, in the case of the UK, is the means such events give to bash a hapless government even more.