calamities

The shift in political consciousness to focus on dealing with specific disasters and calamities — fires, floods, wars, economic upheavals — means there is no longer the scope for a deep dialogue about cultural transformation.

It’s only our distance from so many of the calamities we contribute to that allows so many candidates for public office to adapt gaslighting as an effective political strategy.

But while those events often spawn wildfires, floods and other calamities, they are discrete phenomena that generally puncture otherwise pleasant times.

Rohit Magotra, deputy director of Integrated Research and Action for Development, called on national election officials to reschedule elections in the future to avoid such calamities.

The Dali container ship experienced a near-perfect storm of calamities before it struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, killing six people.