The Natural Unnatural

The natural disaster that befell Haiti lead me to take another look at Jared Diamond What’s Your Consumption Factor?, in the New York Times:

People in the third world are aware of this difference in per capita consumption, although most of them couldn’t specify that it’s by a factor of 32. When they believe their chances of catching up to be hopeless, they sometimes get frustrated and angry, and some become terrorists, or tolerate or support terrorists. Since Sept. 11, 2001, it has become clear that the oceans that once protected the United States no longer do so. There will be more terrorist attacks against us and Europe, and perhaps against Japan and Australia, as long as that factorial difference of 32 in consumption rates persists.

While the the above can hardly be ascribed to the same chthonic rage that hit Haiti, and may not be deemed natural — if we take heed to Goethe, The unnatural, that too is natural.

Credits: Image by Oliver Munday from New York Times.