APAD: A perfect storm

Meaning:

   A situation, or set of circumstances, where there's an extraordinary

   convergence of multiple factors, such as tensions building up, to create

   several simultaneous and dramatic events. (Usually in the negative sense.)

 

Background:

   The first known use of the phrase dates back to 1850, when the Reverend Lloyd

   Withington describes a meteorological event, and the subsequent rainfall as

   follows: `A perfect storm of thunder and lightning all over England (except

   London) doing fearful and fatal damage'.

 

   There was also a more recent storm in 1991 given the moniker `Perfect storm'

   by the author and journalist Sebastian Junger, in his book The Perfect Storm,

   published in 1997. The book describes how the convergence of weather

   conditions beforehand were `perfect' for the formation of such a cataclysmic

   storm. This was when the phrase truly came into popular use.

 

   Today, the term is not used to refer to meteorological events alone. For

   instance, the outbreak of World War I could be seen as a perfect storm of

   alliances, political assassinations, and nationalism.

 

   Alternative words for this phrase include: catastrophe, disaster, trainwreck,

   fiasco, omnishambles. However, these alternative words don't do as much to

   depict the convergence of multiple factors to produce such a powerful and

   dramatic result.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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I haven't listened to Joe Rogan since Spotify but his first two podcasts with

Sebastian Junger were among my favorites. In his book Tribe: On Homecoming

and Belonging, Junger brought up Ben Franklin's observation that while many white

Americans, men and women, joined the Indian tribes but no Indian chose to live

among the newcomers.

 

Junger grew up in a rich neighborhood, took up journalism, missed the sense of

bond after the wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) in the modern American society, and

hated isolating suburban middle-class McMansions. He got PTSD but never took

depression drugs. In his words: "The depression is mine," or something like that.

 

I haven't read Perfect Storm the book and would like how Junger came up with the

title. At 52 he picked up boxing. Now that's something I can aspire to.