An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

[Tired_O_Lurking]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 10:40am

An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State
by Robert Tracinski
Sep 02, 2005

It took four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it also took me four long days to figure out what was going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster.

If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild.

Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists—myself included—did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.

But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.

The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.

The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over four days last week. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.

The man-made disaster is the welfare state.

For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency—indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.

When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New Yorkers to September 11).

So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?

To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington Times story:

"Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.

"The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire....

"Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders.

" 'These troops are...under my orders to restore order in the streets,' she said. 'They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.' "

The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this article shows a SWAT team with rifles and armored vests riding on an armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them. It looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad.

What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to speed away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Superdome?

Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them?

My wife, Sherri, figured it out first, and she figured it out on a sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage one night on Fox News Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She studied architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, which is located in the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime and irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.)

What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"—the informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most news channels—gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of the residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane, and of those who remained, a large number were from the city's public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then told me that early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city had no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails—so they just let many of them loose. [Update: I have been searching for news reports on this last story, but I have not been able to confirm it. Instead, I have found numerous reports about the collapse of the corrupt and incompetent New Orleans Police Department; see here and here.]

There is no doubt a significant overlap between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in the jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa.

There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit—but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals—and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep—on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.

All of this is related, incidentally, to the incompetence of the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of the city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. In a city corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to ensure the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political supporters—not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of emergency.

No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact, some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the truth is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of individualism.

What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. And they don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.

But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.

People living in piles of their own trash, while petulantly complaining that other people aren't doing enough to take care of them and then shooting at those who come to rescue them—this is not just a description of the chaos at the Superdome. It is a perfect summary of the 40-year history of the welfare state and its public housing projects.

The welfare state—and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages—is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting.

Source: TIA Daily -- September 2, 2005
________
Robert Tracinski is the editor of TIADaily.com and The Intellectual Activist magazine.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 10:41am

one might suggest something a bit shorter next time for a first post

[Tired_O_Lurking]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:36am

I guess when people read something that they don't want to agree with, but can't contradict, they say nothing.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:41am

He makes some valid points, but he lost me at "welfare parasites." Just a bit too judgmental and prejudiced to be taken seriously, and it really diminishes his credibility.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:42am

TOL - the thing that bothered me about this perspective is that it didn't address at all the fact that there was a deterioration into the 'lawlessness'. It comes across as if everything just exploded into anarchy. As I understood things, the real negative reactions became more pronounced as more and more time went by with no help in sight. That's kind of a different scenario.

I'm sure there were some who were geared toward that kind of reaction from the outset, but to suggest that everyone was in that state of mind initially doesn't seem to match what I observed. And to take that a step further and deduce that it points to an obvious breakdown in a particular sociological philosophy is somewhat of a stretch.

[Tired_O_Lurking]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:47am

"doesn't seem to match what I observed."

"Observed" on TV, or in person?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:51am

TOL - observed through the media, which admittedly gives only the perspective that they want you to have. However, there seemed to be some feeling, for the first time in quite awhile, that the media was actually showing pretty much the truth. The reality was just too overwhelming to step back and formulate any kind of reaction to it - so they could only open up the cameras and the microphones and let us see what they saw.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:55am

Interesting point of view. Albeit a bit racist. However it doesn't seem to take into account the 40 or 50 thousand people that were in the shelters...who may also have been on welfare that didn't riot, loot, rape or rob. How do you explain that?

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:56am

morals

[Tired_O_Lurking]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:59am

"Albeit a bit racist."

An edit-find search of the article returned no results for "African-American", "black", or "racial."

there's a LOT of welfare people who are as white as Adolph Hitler.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 12:05pm

It doesn't take a search for the words..black, african american or racial to recognize what the author is saying. Let's not be coy.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 12:18pm

" wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness"

This is the ridiculous bunk that has perpetuated the myth that all people in this country have some knid of equal footing. The "wards of the welfare state" are also a diverse group, some of whom may have had the chance to move on, however all of them become trapped by the lack of resources alvailable to people of lower incomes. They are not taught well by the schools, degraded and demeaned by this type of attitude, and left to fight for the meager allowances of the system.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 12:33pm

I love you, Smartpenguin.

This kind of article is the exact kind of reactionary journalism I would expect now that people are tossing the "Blame Bush" invectives.
Counterstrike by blaming it on the po folk.
They're suggesting this wouldn't have happened anywhere else but a welfare city.
There's no way to back this up, there's nothing you can truly look at except to back it up with circumstantial evidence and a feeling of your own "moral" and righteous superiority.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 12:47pm

I love...
Molly Ivins

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 12:56pm

To me this long-winded piece is particularly dangerous, because it's developed as a sociological treatise, presented as an objective reflection based on hard data rather than using subjective perceptions to justify idealogy.

Other posts have already landed on the most damning wording. But I was more baldy alerted by two phrases, "Fox News" and "values..." This regime has co-opted the term "values" to mean, narrowly, one world view, one concept of "doing the right thing," with no room for variance. And as of last night, Fox News has turned much of the discussion of the Katrina aftermath into a predictable 24/7 propaganda machine to make sure the innocent, "tough but compassionate" Bush takes no wrap for the apparently unforgivable crimes of the Louisiana Governor and New Orleans mayor. No sense of sharing the responsibility. It's about saving Bush's rep as a humanitarian, and ensuring that Democrats are perceived as bleeding- heart incompetents. Open-minded investigation has already been abandoned there (and among others).

What's clearer that ever: analysis of Katrina will contribute to the ("red/blue") divide in this country, not actively help to heal it. A week later, people pretty much are evaluating the errors in the response along predictable party and ideological lines. I believe those who saw in this tragedy a wake-up call to the unchecked ills of a colder society will have to wait. Look no further than the reaction to the FEMA debit cards. At AOL, almost 60% of the people polled opposed giving the hurricane survivors any immediate money. Even if they aren't the most equitable solution, it's startling to think people begrudge a few poor people huddled in the Astrodome a chance to buys a change of clothing at the GAP.

Updated On: 9/8/05 at 12:56 PM

[gymman]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 3:27pm

Auggie--Thanks so much for saying what needs to be said here; this is more "blame the victim" propaganda. The poor want to be poor, deserve to be poor. As O'Reilly said, "expect nothing from the federal government" (unless you are a corporation that wants to pollute the air, or a billionaire who needs tax breaks, or own a mansion on the ocean the the government will pay to rebuild after a storm--cf. John Stossel). Poor people are the victims, and now they are the cause. Their plight has nothing to do with racism or capitalism, damn it--it's their own fault.
Updated On: 9/8/05 at 03:27 PM

[gymman]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 3:30pm

And by the way--why is no one investigating the looting at the gas pumps, which will bring untold windfall profits to the oil companies (oh--that's legal, right.)

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 4:09pm

"The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong."

So I suppose what this article is suggesting is that there is nothing wrong with the fact that no relief was provided to the thousands of people in the Convention Center for four days? In spite of the fact that journalists and people driving compact cars got there with no problem. And that's just one example.
Don't blame the director of FEMA...who admitted on National Television that he didn't even know there were people at the Convention Center until Thursday.
No let's blame it on the welfare parasites. I wonder how you explain the behavior of those parasites who lacked individualism at the convention center. The same individuals who policed themselves until Friday because no one came to help. The same unarmed individuals who were surrounding people with guns and kicking them out. And doing this without food and water. Yes...blame them.
Updated On: 9/8/05 at 04:09 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 6:15pm

Who was Tired-O-Lurking last week, pre-emptory screen name notwithstanding?

I don't know a single true progressive who thought welfare was a good system, giving people a little bit less than they needed to get by and not doing anything to train or create jobs for them. Imagine if people were assisted with REASONABLE amounts of money and true assistance?

So, listening to the old welfare bugaboo (and HEY, wasn't welfare radically altered a few years back so that people get even less money for a shorter period of time?) is just kinda tedious. Nobody was IN FAVOR of welfare or thought it was a good thing. Any real analysis of it shows that it is both a tool of the system to keep poor people down AND the perfect target when the need arises to defend the status quo (which is, after all, the real purpose of that treatise).

Sherri with-an-i is one classy name, however.