From the Chronicle of Higher Education: Watching the Tsunami Destroy Civilization

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From the Chronicle of Higher Education, Wednesday, March 30, 2011. See http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/watching-the-tsunami-destroy-civilization/33769?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

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Watching the Tsunami Destroy Civilization

By Laurie Fendrich

Watching this video [see http://freevideocoding.com/flvplayer.swf?file=http://flash.vx.roo.com/streamingVX/63056/1458/20110311_japan_wave_successions_sky_1000k.mp4&autostart=true ] of the March 11th tsunami hit Japan takes a good five minutes, and the experience of watching it is a little gruesome-but only in a  conceptual way. Because much of it's shot from a moving helicopter, we get enough distance on the power of the wave to feel the strong illusion that we are detached observers with no stake in what's going on. The terror and horror that must have been felt by people on the ground is calmly replaced by our fascination and speculation. What will this wave grab next? Will it take that truck? Will that bridge go down with it?

Yet because we ought to know what these things do, we ought to watch it. Nature blithely takes down, in only a few minutes, whole cities that required centuries to build. Absorbing this knowledge without succumbing to depression requires a certain amount of stoicism. Marcus Aurelius put it well:

"Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good" (Meditations, Book Four).

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