{Written 22 July 2026, backdated to the time of original thought and pertinence.}
Since time immemorial, it has been a human tradition to attribute natural disasters and disease to the wrath of a displeased god. I would suggest this is a dynamic of two primal desires. First, our ego requires we have some social relationship with nature or fate, and therefore at least the hope of having a means of influence or control. Secondly, we need someone to blame, to direct our anger, usually at ourselves or others rather than the metaphysical punisher.
This superstition would seem an anachronism in a modern, civilized society, but human nature doesn’t change just because the human condition has evolved. Far removed from animist tribes without science, American Christian Fundamentalism thrives on these very same theological, or rather psychological, power plays. Many a preacher grabs from under the Bible Belt to brandish not prophecy, but interpretation after-the-fact as to why this flood or that hurricane hit some particular region, America in general, or even all mankind. Connecting AIDS to a lifestyle subject to their moral judgment was easy, simply by avoiding the context of the data. God was punishing “the gays”. In more recent years, we were told certain weather disasters were caused by people having abortions, or again, by society accepting homosexuality as a lawful, non-persecuted lifestyle. When hurricanes devastated “god-fearing” places, there was a forgetful silence — not even an admission that the heavens rain on the just and unjust alike.
(To be fair, the predilection toward accepting an anthropogenic basis for climate change bears a similar psychological mark, though counched in physical, rather than metaphysical constructs. This does not negate the evidence or validity of AGW theories, but may explain the psychological depth of environmentalist fervor in the discussion. That the sky is falling isn’t enough — there is no point unless we can blame, and therefore fix it ourselves. But I digress…)
Sometimes I myself wonder at the machinations of a divine will. But mine is of a less convenient sort toward those false maga-church prophets. When Trump got his ear pierced on the Pennsylvania campaign trail, maybe it was a warning. The hint was given that he should go, and the bullet missed to allow us to be tested — to see if we would take the hint. And there were other signs. Right where his base was the most dense? Floods. What happened after he did a skit where he was swerving McDonald’s? An E. coli outbreak linked to Quarter Pounders resulted in one death and 34 hospitalizations across 14 states. Maybe there were frogs or locusts somewhere – I can’t recall – but then we had the whole bird flu thing driving costs in poultry-related products. Instead of heeding the warning, we used the prices of eggs as an excuse to vote for a savior who promised more than any god and delivered as little as any other conman.
Given his obvious poor health – despite hyperbolic insistence otherwise – many are surprised he didn’t keel over from natural causes. And that’s where Deus ex Machina comes in — or rather, doesn’t. Maybe he will live forever as a punishment that we didn’t get rid of him ourselves. Maybe that’s the answer to most evils in the world, namely that there is no Divine Intervention because we are commanded to work it out and fix things ourselves.
In the end, we know all evil things come to an end. But so do good things. And some evil things don’t come to an end until many, MANY bad things happen until that time. WWII was eventually won, but at what overall cost? What if someone, or rather many people, stopped it before it started? How many chances were squandered? How many more will WE ignore, waiting for lightning or the Second Coming, or another election that, if a sly intention voiced by the main character here is fulfilled, will never happen or matter again?