Our Fear-based Way With Nature

This kind of excessive language re: using "violence" and hyperbole is all part of the way to dissociate that we are part of Nature, and always have been. There is no Nature out there trying to be violent toward us. This out-dated consciousness keeps us in fear of Nature (of everything)--as if always waiting for the next thing to advertise ahead of time which triggers unnecessary fear and is itself near-psychotic traumatic reactivity of the kind seen in "post-traumatic stress disorder" illness. The Culture of Fear, has been dramatizing this kind of lanugage and making it part of culture and conditioning for all for too long. Let's ignore and delete this from our language and be aware but not setting up panic at every moment possible, like with strong weather events. It is not about ignoring warnings but we don't need to exaggerate them either to get attention. Remember "fear" gets attention and sells and pre-conditions people, making them susceptible to the worst side of our behavior reactions, like playing victim, stupid, and following authority unquestionably. 

Life-attitude, as a measure of what orientation one has towards life and its exigencies, is one worth reflecting on. Here is what Overstreet (1951/71) wrote, 

"Some people, in brief, are cordial toward life right up to the end. Others are hostile toward it. The difference between the two types is likely to show up with exaggerated clarity under the impact of old age." (p. 83) 

So, if you are noticing yourself, like the people who post weather warnings with terms like "violence" and "monster" to describe nature, you know you are getting old in a grumpy way. I get it, the future is looking bleak on many fronts, with crises of all kinds underway, yet, like with dying that comes regardless, as we age or have bad luck, we can set an attitude of still a gratitude for everything in Nature, or we can grow a negative attitude of resentment, threat, victim, and fear. 

I'm quite sure, most people who obsess on strong weather events, the unpleasant, in life and in Nature, are those who have not found a healthy re-orientation, that is, a way to be in/with Nature in all her ways, not just our favorite ones while trying to exclude the rest. This is the same existential problem of wanting to have life with death/dying. Ernest Becker, the great existentialist thinker wrote, 

"What man [sic] really fears is not extinction, but extinction with insignificance...". 

As we mature and continue to find significance to our lives, then and only then, will we stop seeing Nature (e.g., a stormy weather event) as so frightful and violent. There is a whole other way to live with the tragedy and reality of life, and the existential intelligence we need to mature is there waiting for us to do our homework, especially for those in a society like today that is so cut-off from Nature in general. 

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