This is a Disaster — SongDoggy

I recently read with great interest about the word “Disaster”. It turns out that the roots of this word lie in the occult beliefs of the middle ages. Who knew? Also, who knew that a science denying executive branch of the US government would exacerbate and enable such an event to happen by their complete ineptitude and incompetence (big word alert here)? It is Karma, Schadenfreude, and a paradox of global proportions (another big word alert here too) all rolled into one. In any event, I give you the root definition of disaster.

Disaster has its roots in the belief that the positions of stars influence the fate of humans, often in destructive ways; its original meaning in English was “an unfavorable aspect of a planet or star.” The word comes to us through Middle French and the Old Italian word disastro, from the Latin prefix dis- and Latin astro, meaning “star.” Another unfortunate word that comes to us from astrological beliefs is “ill-starred.” Now generally used in the sense of “unlucky” or “having or destined to a hapless fate,” “ill-starred” was originally used literally to describe someone born under or guided by an evil star. We also have star-crossed, meaning “not favored by the stars” or “ill-fated.”

Merriam Webster online

What’s next? A recreation of the Salem Witch Trials? Oh wait, according to Don, that has already happened. He escaped the squishing and hanging by the protections of a crack team of sycophantic enablers AKA Republican Senators.

Originally published at https://songdoggy.com on April 5, 2020.