William Marvel: Land of the Safe

As some insightful person once observed, winter is just Nature’s way of trying to kill us. There’s nothing unusual or evil about that. The survival of a habitable planet depends heavily on attrition, after all, and if this one is going to last much longer the rate had better start escalating sharply — and especially among certain populations. Judging from driving habits alone, at least during recent snowstorms, Massachusetts and Rhode Island would appear to be prime candidates for enhanced attention in this regard.

It is equally natural for individual members of a species to rage against this dying of the light, and to struggle for survival against the elements. At least that’s the way among most species, but lately that trend has fallen off among homo sapiens. As evidence, look again at recent snowstorms, and all the cars skittering around at summer speeds on summer tires: personal survival seems not only to have fallen out of favor, but to have been replaced by an inclination to take along as many fellow beings as possible as one departs this vale of tears. Perhaps this emanates from sheer guilt, as the more upright of the apes assume collective responsibility for the environmental havoc of overpopulation, and try to combine expiation with corrective culling.