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January 14, 2010

THE PEOPLE SPEAK: When disaster comes, men turn into wolves

You don’t need to look very far to see firsthand evidence of the fragility of our culture — our species. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the government turned to martial law, mercenary security forces and even gun confiscation to ebb the tide of violence and theft that had arisen to replace the storm itself — to say nothing of the sexual assaults in the provided “shelter.”

It is clear that civilization relies on an interdependent system of modern conveniences like electricity, running water, grocery stores, sanitation, health care, police, fire protection, and increasingly, the Internet, to maintain the “civilized” facade that our culture so desperately needs to separate itself from the rest of the animal kingdom.

We have neighborhoods full of lawns, trees and gardens that produce nothing edible. We rely on monitored alarm systems and electronically notified police officers to keep us safe and respond, with paramedics, to our calls for help. We keep a week’s worth of food on hand, because we know we can get what we want at any number of grocery stores by merely handing over the green paper or numbered plastic that we spend eight or more hours a day working to earn and validate. We bag our waste and set it by the curb, or we flush it, and it disappears, never to be seen again.

At this very moment, you are not freezing to death or dying of thirst, only because your utility companies are keeping you from doing so.

What happens if these systems suddenly fail? What happens when your life, or your children’s lives, depend on things you can no longer provide? How quickly men will become wolves, and who can blame them?

If you doubt me, go now and turn off the main-breaker and waterline to your home. Put your car keys away. How long can you last? What would you do if this were not self-imposed? Do you even know the first step?

Homo homini lupus est.

Eric Dean

Tulsa

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