What I've been seeing is people with nothing more than their hands pulling concrete off of people.
In the spirit in which Martin originally started this thread, let me contribute an article by a sociologist who has studied this topic that also echoes that sentiment.
Nightmare in New Orleans: Do disasters destroy social cooperation? Here's the main gist of the article:
More than a half-century of investigation has established a fairly firm pattern: After the cataclysm, social bonds will strengthen, volunteerism will explode, violence will be rare, looting will appear only under exceptional circumstances, and the vast majority of the rescues will be accomplished by the real first responders—the victims themselves.
When looting does occur, most of it is done covertly by individuals or small groups snatching something when they think no one's looking, not by mobs acting openly.
Of course, there are exceptions, and we'll just have to wait and see how Haiti goes in the next days and weeks.
The sociologist does distinguish between the consequences of "pure" looting and looting associated with rioting. When anger boils over and a mob mentality takes over, I guess all the rules and instincts for social cooperation can go out the window even by otherwise upstanding folks. The angrier and more desperate the situation, the greater the risk of that breaking point being reached. If you can at least minimally meet the needs of the people, or at least give them hope, then a cooperative spirit tends to win out over the violent kind.
Previous Topic
Index
