Theodicean blame

“Seeking Justice, of Gods or the Politicians” considers the changing nature of theodicy—justice of the gods. Theodicy was invoked as an explanation for disasters like Katrina (and still is, cf. PZ Myers’s record of theodicy in action!). But now we are more likely to blame the environment or our leaders.

[W]ith the prospect of thousands of dead becoming plausible with reports from New Orleans, other forms of theodicy also taking shape. [sic] Much debate is taking place about the scale of human tragedy, about procedures and planning and responsibility. And none of that should be ignored. But it is remarkable how this natural disaster has almost imperceptibly come to seem the result of human agency. … There is a theodicy at work here, in the ways in which the reaction to natural catastrophe so readily becomes political. Nature becomes something to be managed or mismanaged; it lies within the political order, not outside it.

The overarching metaphysical framework (God vs. the government) is different, yet the underlying behavioral proclivity is the same: to blame higher agencies that are out of your control.