Are We to Blame for Natural Disasters?

There is a scene in the TV show "Mad Men" where the family goes for a picnic portraying the picture-perfect image of the 60's.

You know the one, that one which the advertising world would have us believe back then:  the big new car on the background the two cute children playing around, the beautiful January Jones resting on her husband's belly. Nevermind what was really happening on that marriage.

At the end of the picnic, Betty shakes everything out on the grass (including the coke cans, the chips' plastic containers, et all), and they go home.

I have been paying close attention to what the spiritual leaders of our times say regarding the tragedies the world has been undergoing, specifically the earthy catastrophes: Japan, Haitti, Chile.  I seem to pick up a certain sense of "we are to blame",  "we failed as a spieces", or "we could have done more".  And I question this.

Take for example Deepak Chopra's Tweet a few days ago:

"We all the damage and mayhem we've caused, nature may be considering that the human species was an interesting experiment that did not work"

This one shakes me a bit, I usually look up to Deepak for faith in human kind. But somewhat it seems as if the tweet was pointint to the dark side being the wrath of the earth over us having done badly. So bad so, all of us as a spieces, that we are to be destroyed.

Here is Marianne Williamson Tweeting:

Commune with the spirits of earth and ask what is demanded of us in order to soothe the forces of nature

This one seems to have a more positive twist, it invites my female intuition and nurturing inclination to come up front. It awakens my intuition into asking for wisdom, what can I do?

When I look at me, and I get honest I see that yes, perhaps I can be more careful when I recyle. I can put an intention that the next house I move to will have gas instead of oil for heating, I can do little things.

But appease the forces of nature? that sounds like a big weight to carry on my shoulders. I am even scared to confront what can I do to help avoid the next scale 8 earthquake, or a tsunami, calm the forces of the earth.

Then there is Sharat in his latest conference:

"It is very sad what is happening in Japan right now. So many people have lost their lives. But we cannot go against nature. We have destroyed nature. We have no respect for nature"

Looking back at that scene from Mad Men, I remember cringing when I saw it.  We would not consider doing such thing in a park these days, at least not in North America.

We have however no second thoughts about using our cars for long trips if gas is cheap. There is room for improvement, but I believe that as a whole we are now more educated, more conscious.

Are the forces of nature connected to the forces of what happens within us? Is the tumultuousity of our current world (wars everywhere, hunger) a direct representation of what then happens in the earth?

Are we all to blame?


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