Remember how New Orleans seemed to have been completely taken over by gangs and crazies in the days after the hurricane and flood? Turns out the reports of chaos and anarchy were greatly exaggerated:
Edit: More details from The Times-Picayune.
- "A team of paramedics was barred from entering Slidell, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, for nearly 10 hours based on a state trooper's report that a mob of armed, marauding people had commandeered boats. It turned out to be two men escaping from their flooded streets, said Farol Champlin, a paramedic with the Acadian Ambulance Company."
- "During six days when the Superdome was used as a shelter, the head of the New Orleans Police Department's sex crimes unit, Lt. David Benelli, said he and his officers lived inside the dome and ran down every rumor of rape or atrocity. In the end, they made two arrests for attempted sexual assault, and concluded that the other attacks had not happened."
- "For military officials, who flew rescue missions around the city, the reports that people were shooting at helicopters turned out to be mistaken. 'We investigated one incident and it turned out to have been shooting on the ground, not at the helicopter,' said Maj. Mike Young of the Air Force."
Edit: More details from The Times-Picayune.
From:
no subject
The people who scream that without order society would crumble and fall into kantian short, brutish, and ugly, have little idea what they're talking about than the fact that they want people to do what they say.
and i'm coming at this from the pov of someone who's definitely in favor of gov't. control. just in different ways. force a bit of taxation so we can have roads? i'm all for it. getting the gov't in so it can get people food and water? great. but i also think the NOLA story shows just how much people can do on their own, without gov't help. just look at all of the ways people have pitched in to help, from individuals giving to the red cross to the webcomic athon to boobs4buronstreeet to the NOLA highway commune. (did you read that article? really good stuff.)
Civilization is so ingrained in us that we act civilized even when the infrastructure has crumbled. even when the government has become an active detriment to civilization, all the while screaming about anarchy and violence...