state of nature

"an atmosphere without rules or infrastructure, where the needs are so great that anything goes."

Why are people so surprised by the looting of New Orleans, of the violence from the remaining residents, from the descension into chaos? It is survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten and most of all it has leveled the playing ground of the classes.

Cause see, for those of us who have visited New Orleans staying in the confines of the tourist attractions, the pre-packaged sanitized danger of the swamps and the cemetaries. Walking the streets of the French Quarter with your commerative Pat O Brien's Hurricane, surreptiously lifting your shirt for the thrill of adding another string of beads, throwing our diets and our money out thi windows. The food, the buildings, the sounds, god the music is awesome.

But we don't see the real New Orleans. Or maybe we just don't want to see cause on vacation who wants to deal with the realities of home. I don't think many realize just how poor that state is and how poor the poor are. And being poor in the Deep South has historically been a combination of racism, violence, demoralization, fear and anger. 30% of the population are living in poverty, many far below. Gangs, drugs, sex, money. A society where the law is often times as corrupt.

Then add into the worst national disaster to hit that area, if not the nation. People, it is not a refugee camp there. Refugee camps have basic necessities, refugee camps have some sense or order. Instead people are being plucked off their rooftops and being deposited on I-10, no water, no food, no shelter from the sun. No oxygen for those who need it, no drugs, no anything. No red cross vans. Social behaviors are dictated by the predicament and response. Social behaviors are learned not inherent. People turn ugly when desperate. You think you would act better, you would be decent, that you are not an animal. In the end though, we are all animals.

All of which is no excuse for the recent lawlessness. But lets put the blame on every parties shoulders and lets do something about restoring law and order. Its time for a military clamp down to contain looters. Will this take away from search and rescue? Yes. Desperate people for so long will fend for themselves the same way the person next to them is.

I love New Orleans, then and now. I will never lose my fascination with it even now that the facade has been swept away.