I wonder whether the difference in public reaction between 9/11 and hurricane Katrina had to do with the lack of an agent that caused the hurricane. An agent is an organism that acts under its own willpower like an animal. Toddlers will pay special attention to objects on a screen that move like agents. The dangers of not recognizing an agent are more serious than recognizing something as an agent that is not one, so our minds are more prone to assume things are agents when they aren't. The agency explanation is our instinctive predisposition.

In the 9/11 incident, we had obvious agents: the terrorists who flew the planes. Everyone had an instant target to blame. Maybe the government could have done more to prevent the bombing, but our immediate need for an agent was satisfied by the presence of the terrorists. By contrast, Katrina was caused by nature. Not something you can get angry at.

Of course, I think a lot of the blame game could have been avoided if Bush had made very quick phone calls to the mayor of New Orleans, and to the governors of Lousiana and Mississippi, and made it clear that he wanted to coordinate things with them.