The force of nature - The old question

YESTERDAY’S weather, hard and wild, reminded us in so many ways we are at the mercy of forces beyond our control and probably beyond our rational comprehension too.

It also reminds us that the disagreement, deep and seemingly intractable, about what or who those forces are is the defining question of the Zeitgeist and probably every other Zeitgeist for thousands of years; a question that brought such terrible, divisive violence to the streets of Paris just last week.

If the rain doesn’t fall the crops don’t grow; if too much falls fields are flooded and crops may be destroyed. All the while we struggle to live between those extremes unable to influence the weather — or the forces controlling the weather — in either direction.

As the millions who marched last weekend may realise, influencing even relatively small things is a huge challenge. Shakespeare gave Hamlet a line: “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” — and even if you deny a divinity, it is impossible to ignore the great force nature brought to bear yesterday.