The demise of civilisation in New Orleans

[Deavon 10]

My father always maintained that 'Society was 3 missed meals away from anarchy'.

[Mathom 10]

Originally posted by Deavon

My father always maintained that 'Society was 3 missed meals away from anarchy'.

 

Too true from what's been on the TV news.

 

I suppose if you wanted to compare then imagine the whole of South Yorkshire struck by an immense storm and around 50,000 people were left in their towns while it happened. The whole area is cut off, but some have sheletered in places like the Arena, Meadowhall etc. They have no food, no water and only the clothes they stand up in, they have no toilets, and no privacy. These are the poorest people, from the estates. It wouldn't take very long for it to descend into anarchy.

 

I could see things going this way during the petrol blockades a few years ago. I saw women fighting over some veg in a supermarket, people had the fuel stolen from their cars and everyone went into a frenzy if anywhere sold petrol. I once waited five hours to get some, and when I did it was rationed to a tenner's worth each. One guy filled up regardless and when challenged he threatened to spray petrol over the attendant. We were only a few days from running out of goods in the shops because they run on the 'just in time' system.

 

Then you have to look at how people behave when they are determined to do something, such as shopping at christmas, nabbing the last parking space, getting kids into the 'right' school. We live in a country where people are quite happy to vandalise other people's property over something as small as a parking space! Everyone's been there and had the red mist, so being prepared to steal for water isn't too great a step to take.

 

With NO, there were also a lot of people out there who were lacking their drugs, cigs, beer, whatever kept them sane, and also a lot of mentally unstable people will have lacked their medication. Put into a traumatic situation like they were it isn't surprising (though of course, not excusable) that horrible things happened.

[Pipine 10]

I think I can understand the looting - normal law and order had gone out of the window and the world around them looked rather apocalyptic.. it seemed like no-one was coming to help them.. its understandable that you would feel like you could go and take whatever you wanted..

 

Its the rape(s) I don't get - surely survival is foremost in peoples minds not sex??

 

I guess its just opportunism or some wierd end of the world mentality but I found it seriously disturbing. I can't imagine that happening over here if we were in a similar situation.

[Funky Dave 10]

Originally posted by Anne23

I guess its just opportunism or some wierd end of the world mentality but I found it seriously disturbing. I can't imagine that happening over here if we were in a similar situation.

 

Of course it would happen over here. You imagine losing your family, and witnessing the destruction of your home, and all your possessions, and being trapped in a building with no water or sanitation, along with 20,000 angry, desperate people with nothing to do for days on end. I'm willing to bet that a fair proportion of them would take the opportunity to take what they want, whether it involved theft, rape or just using you as a punchbag to relieve the frustration. People are people regardless of nationality or wealth, and you'll find plenty of very good and very nasty characters in a sample of 20,000.

 

And I don't think that the tsunami survivors all pulled together either. Anyone read about the orphaned children who were being targeted by peadophiles for example?

[lizs 10]

Originally posted by Anne23

 

Its the rape(s) I don't get - surely survival is foremost in peoples minds not sex??

 

 

A little off topic, but this was something that I heard in a seminar once...that studies have been done and a surprising number of men would rape if there were no legal repercussions... Just found this in a journal (any distraction from my essay...)

 

'between 25 and 60 percent of male college students reported some likelihood that they would rape a woman if they could get away with it (Briere and Malamuth 1983; Russell 1998

 

A bit scary...not sure of the exact methods used to research, so that would need to be checked out. Anyone else ever read anything similar?

 

I suppose there aren't many repercussions to rape when your stuck in a disaster zone...

[Funky Dave 10]

Originally posted by lizs

'between 25 and 60 percent of male college students reported some likelihood that they would rape a woman if they could get away with it (Briere and Malamuth 1983; Russell 1998

 

That's horrendous. What does that tell you about what goes on in people's heads? That means that the only thing stopping mass rape is not any sort of morality, sense of human decency or understanding, but fear of the consequences of getting caught. Where were these students? Alcatraz library?

[lizs 10]

Well research was carried out in North American colleges...not sure on it exact location or if it would even be included for reasons of anonymity...I've been told that there has been much similar research done however to validate it...

[Pipine 10]

I really hope that statistic is not a true representation of the feelings of the male population... scary.

[ANGELUS 10]

Originally posted by Deavon

My father always maintained that 'Society was 3 missed meals away from anarchy'.

 

I would well agree with that

[Funky Dave 10]

Originally posted by Anne23

I really hope that statistic is not a true representation of the feelings of the male population... scary.

 

 

I've thought hard about how I'd answer that question, imagining myself in a totally lawless, anarchic city, and I can honestly say that I'd never stoop to such a base level. I wouldn't hesitate to loot food and water if me, my friends and/or family needed it to survive (though sadly, I'd probably also feel the need to swipe a crate of budweiser or two), even if it was to the detriment of other survivors. But that's about survival, not opportunism (apart from the beer of course). It'd be interesting to hear more about this study...

[withnail 10]

Originally posted by utah

The evil is out there in full force, but from what I have seen the good has far overpowered the evil.

 

What evil? I thought this was an act of GoOD. This message started as a plea to stop sensationalising the matter and ended up inferring a battle between good and evil. Can't get much more sensational than that.

Perhaps, in addition to requesting that issues of race and politics are left aside for the time being, the author might also consider leaving out references to the supernatural.

[JBee 10]

Originally posted by lizs

A little off topic, but this was something that I heard in a seminar once...that studies have been done and a surprising number of men would rape if there were no legal repercussions... Just found this in a journal (any distraction from my essay...)

 

'between 25 and 60 percent of male college students reported some likelihood that they would rape a woman if they could get away with it (Briere and Malamuth 1983; Russell 1998

 

A bit scary...not sure of the exact methods used to research, so that would need to be checked out. Anyone else ever read anything similar?

 

I suppose there aren't many repercussions to rape when your stuck in a disaster zone...

 

That's very scarey, but almost logical if you think about it. Underneath it all we're still all just animals, and a lot of the sexual encounters in the animal kingdom happen via aggression or force.

 

I'm not condoning this behaviour at all - I think it's terrifying that so many of our menfolk (fathers, boyfriends ect.) could be involved in this if the world was a different place.

 

But biologically it does make sense.