Something I read today...
"But the Hollywood notion of an overnight collapse is just as much of a fantasy; it makes for great screenplays but has nothing to do with the realities of how civilizations fall. The disintegration of a complex society takes decades, not days. Since fossil fuel production will decline gradually, not simply come to a screeching halt, the likely course of things is gradual descent rather than freefall. Civilizations go under in a rolling collapse punctuated by localized disasters, taking anything from one to four centuries to complete the process. It's not a steady decline, either; between sudden crises come intervals of relative stability, even moderate improvement; different regions decline at different paces; existing social, economic and political structures are replaced, not with complete chaos, but with transitional structures that may develop pretty fair institutional strength themselves."
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4 comments:
So is the 'hooey' that civilzation will collapse, or is the 'hooey' that such a collapse will happen gradually.
By the way, watch your language. Children may be reading this web blog and they don't need to be exposed to vulgarities such as 'hooey' or 'fooey'. Just a warning.
Andy, I have to disagree with you. This crisis says a great deal about the state of our nation. It is becoming increasingly divided into a nation of haves and have nots, and you are witnessing what the lower class is capable of. What other civilized nation, in the midst of a natural disaster, would have mobs of armed thugs roaming the streets, shooting at doctors and police, stealing precious food from hospitals? In what other civilized nation would you expect to have 5 murders and over 20 rapes over the course of 36 hours in an emergency shelter? These are things you expect to happen in sub-Saharan Africa in the midst of famine. This is what you expect to hear the Red Cross complain about when they try to feed refugees in The Sudan...Armed gangs stealing from the weak...Nonexistent law enforcement, overwhelmed by citizens, or worse yet, stealing for themselves.
This event has exposed the crumbling core of our nation.
The events in New Orleans show what the poor are capable of when they get really desperate, or when there is no law enforcement to keep them at bay. It's absolutely sick. You have hundreds, if not thousands of people showing total disregard for their fellow man. Stealing food and water from a flooded out 7-Eleven for survival is one thing. Stealing food from a hospital full of patients, or 15 pairs of shoes and a plasma TV from the local Wal-Mart another.
Worse off, the local and state governments are abandoning the second class citizens, preferentially evacuating the more fortunate. More fortunate families are individually organizing rescues of their own through local and state officials. Those with means and influence are getting out. Those with no means are being left behind.
Harry Connick, Jr. was on TV last night, saying that he personally made it from Baton Rouge to the convention center area in about an hour. His question was simple: Why can't FEMA or the National Guard at least get water to those people?? Or why won't they??
Worse yet, many of those who have received precious food and water are ungrateful. I've seen interviews with people complaining that their water was warm, or their food wasn't hot. They feel that they are entitled to something better, when in fact, they don't realize how fortunate they are.
Anyway, if you don't think that the behavior of the citizens and the government is indicative of the state of our culture and society, you are blind. This is, in its simplest form, a sad, sad commentary on the unraveling of the social fabric of our nation. Our once great country is very, very sick, Andy.
Not only that, but you are also careful to repeat yourself.
Somehow I completely misunderstood your "hooey fooey." Or what it just "hooey?" Or "fooey?" Well, nevermind my catharsis above.
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