anarchy
just been watching and reading about the post-hurricane situation in america's south. the way socitety's fabric shreds at such times is amazing, viscious. what do you think though, is the looting, the anarchy more likely to occur, more prevalent in highly-consumerist societies after such natural disasters? from what i've been reading it seems that the disturbances are happening in areas where poor people are concentrated, by (at times armed) gangs. i don't remember such incidents being reported in turkey after those massive quakes, nor in india. it's certainly a fascinating case of social mores being abandoned, of authority being dismantled, of people believing they have a right to dispossess.any thoughts...
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postscript...
just been checking on looting in the turkey earthquake, only 30 people arrested, don't know if that was over the entire emergency period, but there was a quarantine area set up to prevent people coming in to loot - interestingly this was set up by locals, not security forces. also found this quote, from http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/aug1999/turk-a24.shtml, which is a site called 'the world socialist website' (cue josh) ;
"Many press reports have noted the gaping social disparities that were exposed by the quake, with photographs of houses and apartment buildings in poor and working class areas reduced to rubble, while buildings in nearby upper-income and tourist areas suffered little or no damage."
so make of that what you will. are there similarities in new orleans?
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