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Why Does the U.S. Get All the Tornadoes?
Posted By Daniel W. Drezner
Monday, August 29, 2011 - 3:47 PM
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In the wake of Hurricane Irene, the St. Petersburg Times records an interesting interpretation of recent events from GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. This is a direct quote of Bachmann:
I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending.
An interesting hypothesis!! So, there are three possibilities here. The first is that Bachmann was joking -- in which case, wow, that's a really tasteless joke given the loss of life and probably warrants a pretty big apology.
The second is that Bachmann is simply nuts wrong. Doug Mataconis points out,
I’m not sure how this computes given the fact that the storm largely spared Washington, D.C. and New York, while hammering a red states like North Carolina and a heavily Republican area like Virginia’s Tidewater region.
Well, socialist-supporting Vermont got hit pretty hard too, but still, this is a fair point, and "Bachmann being wrong" seems like another safe bet.
The third possibility is the one I want to explore, however -- what if Bachmann is right? What if God really is using wrath to coerce humanity into implementing a particular set of policy preferences?
A God-fearing person would naturally decide to obey. However, this kind of coercive demand strikes me as a pretty massive intrusion into human sovereignty. The point of a democracy is for majorities of citizens and their elected representatives to decide matters of policy. Recent history suggests that neither sovereign governments nor their populations take kindly to coercive threats from other men. If we acquiesce to Divine demands now, don't we just let God win?
Bachmann's response suggests an obvious bandwagoning approach to the awesome power of deities: When God says jump, you should say, how high? And, indeed, if the Almighty really is omnipotent, this strategy has much to recommend it. Bandwagoning is generally recommended when the targeted actor is comparatively weak, has few natural allies, and believes that the targeting actor can be appeased with concessions. This seems to fit the Old Testament, monotheistic God to a tee.
On the other hand, however, might a balancing approach yield better long-term results? After all, God has a disturbing track record of making demands like this. We know from Genesis the Old Testament that the Almighty has a tendency to, well, you know, smite humans on a semi-regular basis. There's the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, an awful lot of Egyptians, etc. This doesn't even include the number of times God demanded death (the sacrifice of Isaac, Ninevah) only to relent at the last minute. Sure, God has some good reasons in some of these instances, but from a threat assessment perspective, it's veeeeery disturbing.
Maybe the bandwagoning criteria don't apply. If one operates along the monotheistic assumption*, humans should ask if there is a possible ally out there to help resist God's will [Don't go there --ed.], an entity who is God's enduring rival [You're really going there, aren't you?! --ed.] , one who might have the necessary power to make God think twice about all that smiting?
It's time to wonder … would a temporary alliance with Satan really be that bad? [Yes it world!! --ed.] Winston Churchill once said, "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons." Now I'm not sure I would even go that far … the whole selling souls thing sounds like a pretty big demand too. That said, a sober, realpolitik perspective would demand that making a deal with the devil has to be a policy option that stays on the table.
[How about a nice buck-passing strategy instead?--ed. Hey, I'd love to just force other creatures like, say, apes to go toe-to-toe with God, but I just don't see it happening.]
Readers are warmly encouraged to puzzle this out for themselves -- or, instead, to buy the very entertaining Biblical Games by Steven Brams.
*The monotheism assumption is important when thinking about how to cope with a venegeful god. If the universe turns out to be polytheistic, then the question becomes whether us mortals can sow dissension among the gods before someone releases a Kraken.
EXPLORE:INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, THUMBS, HEGEMONY, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY, REALISM, RELIGION 
Or maybe its a warning to take care of our poor and disadvantaged? Or so says the atheist.
sending a message, with an earthquake centered in Eric Cantor's district, Irene hammering Republican districts whilst only brushing Sodom, and setting Texas aflame. We don't seem to be getting the message, so I suppose we better buckle our seatbelts, because it's going to be a bumpy ride....
If it was bad taste for Michele Bachman to joke about the hurricane, is it worse taste to make it an IR exercise?
...but it's not as dumb as the zombie thing, and not as boring as Marc Lynch's bit about Jay-Z and Kenya West. I started on that, really, and briefly had the thought that Kenya is really East. This might have merited a comment on Abu A. But I gave up, because I don't believe that IR is boring, the best efforts of some academics in the field notwithstanding.
Would it be in bad taste to offer the possibility that Irene might have been a divine signal not to build in floodplains or on barrier islands in the eastern United States? The idea has the virtue of suggesting a connection between an act of God and the works of men much less obscure than Rep. Bachmann's apparent view that Irene had something to do with excessive spending on Medicare and discretionary domestic accounts. Also, Irene was clearly a signal, not a judgement: the storm didn't hit as hard or in exactly the right place to trash mansions built too close to the ocean, though it easily could have.
On the other hand, Irene did cause a lot of flooding in Vermont. My understanding is that state is far from the worst offender in terms of putting houses, gas stations and restaurants in floodplains. So I don't know what to make of that one.
Do I smell an "International Relations Theories and God" coming up in the near future?
Does God want us to rein in the spending?
I don't see why she thinks that's his message. Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!
Ah yes, Cthulhu. Its depictions do suggest a rather mortal view of things. Going to war with other powerful groups for control over Earth, encouraging subversive groups when it's too weak to rise on it's own etc.
Sound analysis, but a lit review is needed
We shouldn't forget that eminent scholars have long studied the relationship between deities and nation states. If we want to take this argument further we ought to take into account the debates that have already been had. While we could take this back to the ancient world, we should start elsewhere if we're accepting that the relevant deity is Abrahamic.
I submit for consideration the writings of King James I, specifically his True Law of Free Monarchies.
Here is a conclusive passage: "I grant, indeed, that a wicked king is sent by God for a curse to his people and a plague for their sins; but that it is lawful to them to shake off that curse at their own hand, which God hath laid on them, that I deny and may do so justly. Will any deny that the king of Babel was a curse to the people of God, as was plainly forespoken and threatened unto them in the prophesy of their captivity? And what was Nero to the Christian church in his time? And yet Jeremiah and Paul (as ye have else heard) commanded them not only to obey them but heartily to pray for their welfare.
It is certain, then (as I have already by the law of God sufficiently proved), that patience, earnest prayers to God, and amendment of their lives are the only lawful means to move God to relieve them of their heavy curse."
We see conclusively that the proper response to heavenly censure is not further rebellion against the authorities God has installed but patient submission and repentance. Rebels like the woman Bachmann may think that they can do better in governing than the authority God has chosen, but as King James tells us that "in place of relieving the commonwealth out of distress (which is their only excuse and color), they shall heap double distress and desolation upon it; and so their rebellion shall procure the contrary effects that they pretend it for."
It is a grave danger that our leaders are so lacking in theological education that they call Godly things which are only hateful treasons. I propose that all such malignants be sent to monasteries, so that they might learn and contemplate quietly the true meaning of the Scriptures.
Latinate English can be a bitch.
"I grant, indeed, that a wicked king is sent by God for a curse to his people and a plague for their sins; but that it is lawful to them to shake off that curse at their own hand, which God hath laid on them, that I deny and may do so justly"
The proposition after the semicolon is awkwardly constructed, but it terminates by denying the idea that it "is lawful [...] to shake off that curse"
It's also worth asking which God in particular is punishing us and for what?
The God of Wahhabist Islam might be angry that our women are allowed outside without burquas, while Warren Jeff's God might be angry that they are still virgins at 13.
How can we tell which one we need to appease? Seems tough to get all of them.
My friends and I had an interesting time debating that; if this was indeed God's punishment, how were we supposed to know what we were being punished for? God doesn't have a record of sending thunderous messages about why a punishment is happening. Was the punishment for all of those inefficient cars? Maybe New Jersey was being punished for permitting Jersey Shore to be created. Or maybe North Carolina was hit for being so popular for vacations. Seriously God, if you want us to stop you're going to have to be a bit more clear about this.
As for the Devil I'm afraid you'll have no luck there. All that stuff about being an eternal rival is mostly Biblical fanfiction from a few centuries ago. The early depictions make Satan sound more like God's prosecutor. Of course that doesn't preclude the possibility that the two could have had a falling out at some point.
It's an intrusion into human sovereignty?
Here is a conclusive passage: "I grant, indeed, that a wicked king is sent by God for a curse to his people and a plague for their sins; but that it is lawful to them to shake off that curse at their own hand, which God hath laid on them, that I deny and may do so justly. Will any deny that the king of Babel was a curse to the people of God, as was plainly forespoken and threatened unto them in the prophesy of their captivity? And what was Nero to the Christian church in his time? And yet Jeremiah and Paul (as ye have else heard) commanded them not only to obey them but heartily to pray for their welfare.
It is certain, then (as I have already by the law of God sufficiently proved), that patience, earnest prayers to God, and amendment of their lives are the only lawful means to move God to relieve them of their heavy curse."
We see conclusively that the proper response to heavenly censure is not further rebellion against the authorities God has installed but patient submission and repentance. www onsale7 com authentic nike shoes online Stores Rebels like the woman Bachmann may think that they can do better in governing than the authority God has chosen, but as King James tells us that "in place of relieving the commonwealth out of distress (which is their only excuse and color), they shall heap double distress and desolation upon it; and so their rebellion shall procure the contrary effects that they pretend it for."
It's pretty much the same language we got from the global warming folks, no?
I bet making fun of those types wouldn't go over quite so well in academia, though....
Dear Dan, the fake cross out editing thing, it was old when it
started, and is now just royally annoying. If you want to say that Michelle Bachman is nuts, then say it and say it like you mean it. The cross out thing makes you, a college professor, sound like a high-school drop-out.
If you are trying for wit, go for wit, don't go for grade school level erratas.
I love the strike throughs. I frequently laugh while reading them.
The substance of the column was funny, but as an atheist I have to go with the hypothesis that Bachmann raving mad.
There really should be a way to edit ones posts.
until it actually sinks in that THIS WOMAN IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.
Speaking of divine retribution...
The earthquake that hit Japan earlier this year was about thirty THOUSAND times more powerful than the one that hit you guys. I'd love to hear Michele explain exactly what they did to get the Almighty so p1$$ed. Or is God just a racist?
I am so going to hell too and the drinks are on me!
If god wants us to take him more seriously, why does he only speak to crazy people?
Drezner writes: The third possibility is the one I want to explore, however -- what if Bachmann is right? What if God really is using wrath to coerce humanity into implementing a particular set of policy preferences?
Well, if God allowed the creation of fountains of intellectual greatness like FP where he is the constant subject of lampooning, then it proves only one thing - he is still infinitely naive, benevolent, and ultimately forgiving even when he inflicts terrible disasters like plagues, earthquakes, political science professors, or socialist Obamaniacs on wretched humankind.
The dialectics of Evil in this world requires also exploring the positive side of Devil. Churchill, obviously was very close to join Satan in a coalition. Since Drezner considers Bachmann as a kind of Devil's Servant, he should show us his advocacy skills and prove she is actually good for America.
After all, political science, is exactly what Devil held in his back pocket for millenia until he eventually invented and released it to the world. Now, let us ask about God's opinion on this subject.
Either way, Bachmann is seriously wrong
Most attacks on her weather reports come from people who don't take religion seriously, and who find them ludicrous. Serious Christians, of course, would charitably accept her claim that these reports were just a joke ... in which case, they have good reason to ask why Mrs Bachmann is making blasphemous jokes.
This is a reasonable way. "I make sure that the evil king who is sent by God to curse people and cause a disaster for their sins of his; But that it is legitimate for them to shake off the curse in their own hands. Which God has placed on them and I refused to do justice to. Or to deny that the king of Babel was a curse to the people of God as forespoken plainly, and threatened them in the prophets, they were arrested or not, and what is right. Nero, go to church in his time? And Jeremiah and Paul. (As you hear someone else) ordered them not only to follow them. But very hard to pray for their welfare.black friday playstation3
God doesn't have a record of sending thunderous messages about why a punishment is happening. Was the punishment for all of those inefficient cars? Maybe New Jersey was being microwave ratings punished for permitting Jersey Shore to be created.
Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
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