Does nature seem as if it's out of control?
Is it just me, or does that seem to imply that nature has, at one time or another, actually been under control by human beings? Have agriculture and the internal combustion engine really made us that full of hubris as a species?
One of the central themes of Germanic cosmology is that the forces of nature are those of chaos, embodied by the Jotuns. They can, on a selective and temporary basis, be tamed by the forces of the Aesir, either by slaying specific Jotuns (as does Thor) or by marrying into the tribe of the Aesir (as we see with several Jotun-wives). But in the end, the forces of order contest at the Ragnarok with the forces of chaos, and at best the outcome can be said to be a draw.
Is nature spinning out of control? Of course! And it always has been. Nothing new about that, earthquakes or no.
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