Not made for us

Bertrand Russell once wrote: "We must learn that the world was not made for us." I think the fact that natural disasters hurt the poor more than the rich is one piece of evidence in favor of that view. Without realizing that the world is not made for our benefit it's all too easy to blame the victim when a disaster strikes. Note: I don't treat this observation as evidence of the fact Russell was pointing out. I do understand that that would be a fallacious appeal to consequences. But the ethical consequences of not realizing it are I think clear enough: if you're working from the assumption that nature is benevolent, or at least just, then you must think whatever happens is what ought to happen; thus you must also think that, for example, victims of the earthquake in Haiti were somehow at least partly at fault for what happened to them.

Nature is neither benevolent nor malevolent--but it's not overly friendly, either. A great majority of things that make our lives worth living were obtained through our conspiring against the forces of nature. I may be wrong, of course, but I do think that the utilitarian quality of our legislation, for example, would improve greatly if legislators fully understood just how profoundly nature doesn't give a shit about things people give a shit about.