☆ NEW ORLEANS IN A "STATE OF NATURE"
if anything, the horrific aftermath of hurrican katrina proves one thing: law is nothing but a fiction, something contructed to keep people controlled.
it is reported that water breached two levee banks. fuel from industrial run off from chemical and petroleum refineries and refuse from the destroyed sewarage system have mixed and flow through the streets. houses, lives and infrastructure are gone. thousands of people remain stranded and homeless. and all this within the superpower.
rouge gunmen are firing at rescue helicopters and buses, at doctors and nurses who attempt to evacuate seriously ill people, at law enforcement officers and randomly into the crowd of regugees. gangs loot stores forcing store owners to arm themselves to defend their property. the sick and dead are left untended to. disease is spreading. rape, abuse and murder are rife.
tourists, now viewed as outsiders, have to stick together to avoid being murdered over fears of preferential treatment. in the weekend sydney morning herald it is quoted that "The 60 foreigners...had to huddle together at night for saftey. "If they integrated they were dead."
new orleans has returned to what thomas hobbes called the state of nature; a world in which government, order and law do not exist. traditionally thought of as existing before the formation of the rule of law, katrina has proved that law's fragile hold can be smashed, and an otherwise civil society returned to a state of nature.
hobbes first examined the idea of the state of nature, or bellum omnium contra omnes meaning "the war of all against all", in leviathan. it exists as a lawless society in which persons can do anything to preserve thier life, liberty and/or safety. as such it lies on the 'human's are inheriently evil' side of the moral/immoral philosophical divide. everyone acts entirely self-interestedly (a rightly so i guess in an environment where others can do anything they like, you have a right to preserve your life).
his argument was premised on a social contract theory, in which all people 'agree' to sucumb to the control and authority of a government in order to create a civil society (what he called leviathan). once a civil government is formed and all people agree on a common morality the state of nature ceases to exist. it would seem new orleans has returned to that state of nature. as one australian tourist is quoted in the sydney morning hearld as saying, "There's no law. It's absolute, total chaos."
x-posted on vibewire blog
it is reported that water breached two levee banks. fuel from industrial run off from chemical and petroleum refineries and refuse from the destroyed sewarage system have mixed and flow through the streets. houses, lives and infrastructure are gone. thousands of people remain stranded and homeless. and all this within the superpower.
rouge gunmen are firing at rescue helicopters and buses, at doctors and nurses who attempt to evacuate seriously ill people, at law enforcement officers and randomly into the crowd of regugees. gangs loot stores forcing store owners to arm themselves to defend their property. the sick and dead are left untended to. disease is spreading. rape, abuse and murder are rife.
tourists, now viewed as outsiders, have to stick together to avoid being murdered over fears of preferential treatment. in the weekend sydney morning herald it is quoted that "The 60 foreigners...had to huddle together at night for saftey. "If they integrated they were dead."
new orleans has returned to what thomas hobbes called the state of nature; a world in which government, order and law do not exist. traditionally thought of as existing before the formation of the rule of law, katrina has proved that law's fragile hold can be smashed, and an otherwise civil society returned to a state of nature.
hobbes first examined the idea of the state of nature, or bellum omnium contra omnes meaning "the war of all against all", in leviathan. it exists as a lawless society in which persons can do anything to preserve thier life, liberty and/or safety. as such it lies on the 'human's are inheriently evil' side of the moral/immoral philosophical divide. everyone acts entirely self-interestedly (a rightly so i guess in an environment where others can do anything they like, you have a right to preserve your life).
his argument was premised on a social contract theory, in which all people 'agree' to sucumb to the control and authority of a government in order to create a civil society (what he called leviathan). once a civil government is formed and all people agree on a common morality the state of nature ceases to exist. it would seem new orleans has returned to that state of nature. as one australian tourist is quoted in the sydney morning hearld as saying, "There's no law. It's absolute, total chaos."
x-posted on vibewire blog