Barbarians At The (Flood) Gate
What is it about a natural disaster that brings out the best in some people and the worst in others? People who just last week were presumably honest, law abiding citizens are today brazenly looting stores in New Orleans, often in full view of news cameras. Many of these people are openly granting interviews regarding their behavior and see no moral problem with what they are doing. True, there are several “bad seeds” in the bunch that have stated on camera that this is their “chance to get back at the system,” however these appear to be thankfully in the minority of the looters.
Is the barrier between civilized society and barbaric anarchy as thin as the police force? What could possibly compel normal people to turn into armed thugs, patrolling streets and firing at rescue workers? The latest story is that a hospital has ceased to evacuate patients in need of medical assistance because of snipers outside the building. Earlier, the hoodlums fired at a rescue helicopter actively engaged in airlifting survivors from the rooftops. The helicopter was forced to retreat, quite possibly dooming the survivors. This is insanity.
Although there have been riots sparked by natural disasters, sports victories, and court cases in the past, there has never been to my recollection an incidence of the rioters actively trying to prevent the authorities from conducing rescue operations. Indeed, the wholesale wantonness of the thugs in New Orleans seems beyond precedent. And yet despite the fact that these people obviously do not want to help themselves, rather than leave the city to its own destruction, the rest of the country is mobilizing a relief effort that dwarfs in scale what materialized after hurricane Andrew.
Today, some of the thugs went so far as to justify their actions by saying that they have been abandoned by the relief agencies. Apparently, in their warped minds, they felt that one micro-second after Katrina left, tons of relief supplies should have magically appeared and all of the destruction should have been instantly repaired. As of Wednesday morning, the Red Cross had 60,000 volunteers on the ground operating some 200 shelters. They did this despite the fact that the only truck accessible route into the city has been completely wiped out and only one runway at the airport had been re-opened by Tuesday. This Herculean (and let's face it - heroic) effort is just the beginning. The logistical challenge ahead is mind boggling.
When a state of emergency is declared, governmental agencies are given broad powers to seize private supplies to assist in combating the emergency. The National Guard uses this power to commandeer food and capital equipment in a disaster area which they are then able to employ in the relief effort. If this is what the looters were doing, it would be (almost) understandable. However, their actions are directly impeding the efforts of the authorities, presumably because the thugs believe that there is no authority left to stop them.
In Dostoyevsky’s ‘Crime And Punishment,’ we follow the character Roskolnikov who believes himself not to be bound by the laws and mores of society. Thus, he is free in his own mind to commit crimes because he does not view them as being crimes. The interesting point however, is that he believes certain people are born “superior” to others. They did not become so as a result of a temporary loss of authority. This is what makes understanding the behavior in New Orleans difficult. While many of the thugs may have been predisposed to criminal activity, it defies logic to assume that all or even most of them were. Clearly, many of the current hoodlums have spent their whole lives behaving properly in a civilized society. And yet, as soon as police oversight is removed, they have devolved into ruthless barbarians who don’t even balk at the idea of shooting hospital patients and rescue workers.
It’s not rocket science. The devastation in that part of the country will take months if not years to fix. Many thousands of Americans will ultimately be involved in the relief and rebuilding efforts, along with many billions of dollars. Let’s not make the job any harder than it needs to be.
Is the barrier between civilized society and barbaric anarchy as thin as the police force? What could possibly compel normal people to turn into armed thugs, patrolling streets and firing at rescue workers? The latest story is that a hospital has ceased to evacuate patients in need of medical assistance because of snipers outside the building. Earlier, the hoodlums fired at a rescue helicopter actively engaged in airlifting survivors from the rooftops. The helicopter was forced to retreat, quite possibly dooming the survivors. This is insanity.
Although there have been riots sparked by natural disasters, sports victories, and court cases in the past, there has never been to my recollection an incidence of the rioters actively trying to prevent the authorities from conducing rescue operations. Indeed, the wholesale wantonness of the thugs in New Orleans seems beyond precedent. And yet despite the fact that these people obviously do not want to help themselves, rather than leave the city to its own destruction, the rest of the country is mobilizing a relief effort that dwarfs in scale what materialized after hurricane Andrew.
Today, some of the thugs went so far as to justify their actions by saying that they have been abandoned by the relief agencies. Apparently, in their warped minds, they felt that one micro-second after Katrina left, tons of relief supplies should have magically appeared and all of the destruction should have been instantly repaired. As of Wednesday morning, the Red Cross had 60,000 volunteers on the ground operating some 200 shelters. They did this despite the fact that the only truck accessible route into the city has been completely wiped out and only one runway at the airport had been re-opened by Tuesday. This Herculean (and let's face it - heroic) effort is just the beginning. The logistical challenge ahead is mind boggling.
When a state of emergency is declared, governmental agencies are given broad powers to seize private supplies to assist in combating the emergency. The National Guard uses this power to commandeer food and capital equipment in a disaster area which they are then able to employ in the relief effort. If this is what the looters were doing, it would be (almost) understandable. However, their actions are directly impeding the efforts of the authorities, presumably because the thugs believe that there is no authority left to stop them.
In Dostoyevsky’s ‘Crime And Punishment,’ we follow the character Roskolnikov who believes himself not to be bound by the laws and mores of society. Thus, he is free in his own mind to commit crimes because he does not view them as being crimes. The interesting point however, is that he believes certain people are born “superior” to others. They did not become so as a result of a temporary loss of authority. This is what makes understanding the behavior in New Orleans difficult. While many of the thugs may have been predisposed to criminal activity, it defies logic to assume that all or even most of them were. Clearly, many of the current hoodlums have spent their whole lives behaving properly in a civilized society. And yet, as soon as police oversight is removed, they have devolved into ruthless barbarians who don’t even balk at the idea of shooting hospital patients and rescue workers.
It’s not rocket science. The devastation in that part of the country will take months if not years to fix. Many thousands of Americans will ultimately be involved in the relief and rebuilding efforts, along with many billions of dollars. Let’s not make the job any harder than it needs to be.
posted by exsubdriver at 1:59 PM
2 Comments:
I also agree about the thugs at work in N'awlins, but what about the real culprits? Here in our town, a local station went from 2.53 on Monday pm 8/29 to 3.06 on Wednesday am 8/31.
No way did the cost of gas IN THE GROUND TANKS rise by 20 percent. Not only did the oil companies record record profits for last year (~72Billion) but they are already on course to exceed that. So with the price of gas now any where from ~3.00 to 5.00+ nationwide they will record even higher profits.
And Congress just passed ~14Billion in tax subsidies to this industry. Seems to me that Congress should go back in session and undo this travesty.
Yesterday, the price of oil dropped to pre-Katrina levels, and the wholesale price of gasoline dropped 1.6c. However, at the retail level in CA, the gas prices actually went UP.
The problem is not the oil companies, though, it is the speculators who trade the futures contracts. The oil companies are an unintended beneficiary of the speculator's manipulation of the contract prices.
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