It is easier to grumble than to get off one’s backside and do something if a disaster hits and the supposed emergency systems of the state prove to be a joke, as was the case when Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast over a year ago. In catching up on some reading, I came across this terrific and highly encouraging story of how assorted groups of volunteers, many of whom had a refreshingly dim view of officialdom, swung into action to help the people of New Orleans and others in the surrounding area. The article also reinforced my view of how the internet is helping fuel voluntarism in a way that feeds into the “Army of Davids” perspective of Glenn Reynolds recently.
The article contains this line:
“Here is a place where government failed absolutely, and as such it could be the perfect place to argue that government itself is a failure.”
I agree. I think the energy and neighbourliness of ordinary Americans as shown in this article are a welcome corrective to the cynicism many people may have felt when reading stories about looting or disorder in the aftermath of the disaster. (Some of these stories were questioned). I recall reading about the blackouts in New York a year or so ago and about how people banded together to ensure that folk got home safely. American civil society, precisely because of the still-strong ethos of voluntarism that so struck Alexis de Tocqueville 160 years ago, is in many ways in much better shape than here. I was particularly struck when I read the latest reports tonight of how looters scrambled to grab what they could from the cargo washed up on the English coast from the grounded container ship. I wonder how many ordinary people ever bothered to wonder how they could help protect the beach from pollution or ensure that no-one got hurt? Yes, I know that looting goes on after disasters around the world, but there seemed to be no countervailing examples over the past few days of people volunteering to help recover items for their rightful owners, for example. The idea of volunteers helping owners to sort out their property from the wreckage is just too bizarre for we Britons to contemplate.
Generalisations are always risky, but I get the feeling that if I was in a natural disaster, I would rather be in America than in Britain. It is a sad thing for a proud Briton like me to say, but I think that in this respect at least, the sort of neighbourliness and willingness to lend a hand has more or less died, although I may be a bit too gloomy here. To describe what might have killed that spirit would take me longer than a blog posting, so I will leave it to the commenters.
I was particularly taken by the local government imbecile accusing the public not so much of widespread looting but of causing ‘excessive littering’ at the site of the shipwreck. My immediate reaction to that was that the bureaucrat should be relieved that the local population did not deliberately lure the ship onto the rocks, as their forebears undoubtedly used to do.
Mind you those same forebears also had a rather handy way of dealing with meddlesome bureaucrats … usually involving anchor chain and a one way trip out into the Channel.
I don’t think it’s so much where I’d rather be in a disaster, but with whom.
Don’t forget that, aside from some appalling profiteering by hoteliers, the July 7th bombings saw some thoughtful neighbourliness, as well as the Boxing Day tsunami, which, aside from financial donations, we gave significant aid assistance, evidence of which could be found in the most unexpected of places.
So, rather than be stuck in a disaster in the US, I’d rather be stuck amongst people of a thoughtful and selfless disposition. That ideal is transcended by those dependents of our welfare state. After all, where you have lead a life where personal responsibility has been removed from your moral obligations to your fellow beings, you aren’t going to know otherwise, are you?
I think that the ‘rats at the feeder bar’ mentality is pervading our greater sense of national identity, including our instinct to protect others from danger, natural or otherwise. It is not something ingrained into the nation itself, but manifested by our numerous post-war governments.
I recall reading about the blackouts in New York a year or so ago and about how people banded together to ensure that folk got home safely.
As someone who lived in Manhattan for 7 years (including on 9/11), and had many friends still in the city during the blackouts, I don’t recall stories from other cities such as Boston. I’d be curious to find if they were as helpful to each other.
The reason I ask this is that New York is, in a very strange way, a small town. For all its colossal size and population (and terrible reputation for rudeness), New Yorkers and their neighborhoods tend to be very tight-knit and helpful. Especially if things go really south. On an average day, you have the normal impersonality that people in such close proximity display, but on a bad day, that goes out the window and a surprising unity manifests itself.
That was my experience, at least. Others may have different perspectives. But there is something about New York, especially Manhattan, that makes it completely unsurprising to run into someone you know in a totally different part of the island. Like running into your neighbor while you’re in Bloomingdales or into your friend’s sister while at a theater in Chelsea. The fact that you just ran into someone you know out of 8 million people doesn’t even register.
I’ve been on trains in both New York (the NJ Transit) and London where passengers have started behaving agggressively.
In the US, everyone in the carriage helped out to calm the situation down. In London, only I did, while everyone else suddenly took a huge interest in their Sudokus and swiftly left at the next stop, leaving me, the woman being harassed, and a scary drunk angry bloke.
So I tend to agree. I’m not convinced it’s recent either; I think it’s a deeply ingrained dislike of confrontation (at least, outside football matches and similar specific social arena), as well as perhaps the handout spinelessness which I assume you blame.
manuel, thanks for the observation. I don’t actually blame it on the “handout spinelessness”, although that may be a contributing factor. I think another part of it has to do with America’s greater reliance in its history on voluntary networks, its greater size, etc.
I disagree. Almost all people are basically helpful when things go pear-shaped. I’ve never been involved in a natural disaster as serious as the hurricane that hit New Orleans, but in the serious flooding that hit southern and western England a few years ago, I saw plenty of neighbourliness and co-operation.
As for the looting, it was upsetting to hear of the woman whose case of clearly addressed personal belongings were stolen. As for the rest of it, I’m finding it hard to get worked up. If shipping companies are so concerned about their property, they should try transporting it in something that isn’t a wreck. I didn’t notice the shipping company volunteering to clear up junk that they spread around the place, so I can’t say I mind too much when some people volunteer to take it off their hands for nothing….
I find the notion of police barring access to public land (the beach) simply because someone has carelessly dropped their belongings on it rather strange.
I grew up in Brighton, and every morning in summer, lonely metal detectorists would scour the beach for jewelry dropped by careless tourists the day before. Perhaps the police should have closed the beach every night, and forced any items found to be recorded at the local station, for later claim…
The shipping companies don’t own the contents of the containers, any more than the Post Office – or DHL if you want a private sector example – own the letters and packages they deliver.
I am not sure I buy this argument. If I am driving a lorry, have an accident and the produce falls out of the back, and you and your mates come along and steal it, that’s theft. Period. The company conveying the property is responsible for it’s safe transit from A to B.
The creeps who helped themselves to items on the beach should be treated in the manner suggested by Julian Taylor.
J: well, I probably was quite harsh. It may be a bit of a media thing: I tend not to read very much of actions involving Britons banding together to help others, whereas I seem to come across it quite a lot in the States.
How do you get from a statement that the shipping companies don’t own the contents of the containers to an assumption I agree with breaking them open and stealing the contents? That’s rather strange logic to say the least.
Try reading the comment immediately above mine.
Ian, I am not suggesting that you defend the idea that is okay for people to grab the contents of the containers.
I did read the content immediately above yours. I have no idea whether the companies who have lost cargo are trying to recover the stuff or not. I have not checked the latest stories. There are hundreds of large containers on the vessel and I understand there are moves afoot to get salvage ships to take the cargo off and pass it on its way if possible, which is what a responsible shipping company should do.
So what does ‘I’m not sure I buy this argument‘ mean? You think the shipping companies do own the contents? You think they should? It makes no sense in the context of your ‘explanation’
Of course the shipping firms do not own the contents. (Maybe we are talking at cross-purposes) They are, however, responsible for their safe transit and it is therefore a problem for them if people steal stuff that happens to fall off a vessel during a storm or whatever.
Like I said and going back to my original post, it would be nice to think, if naive, that people might actually do something to ensure that the rightful owners of stuff that gets dumped in an accident get to keep their property.