WE'RE NOT LIKE THAT

I recently saw a decidedly dopey television program which purports to show what would happen if the power suddenly went off everywhere. The government conveniently disappears and something called the militia represents the bad guys, (although in the real world the militia is usually something that maintains order) and people behave violently and selfishly. Younger audiences seem to have bought into this nonsense, but I’ve seen enough disasters to know that people in this country do not revert to savagery.  We don’t inevitably descend into what Thomas Hobbes called a “war of all against all.” 

To be sure there are those who behave badly on gas lines, or when stores are out of necessities. But generally, as we’ve seen in the great storm that just hit the Atlantic coast, people if anything become more cooperative with others and helpful to their neighbors. Indeed when the government failed to come through, volunteers from everywhere did.

However, this is by no means a universal behavioral characteristic, insofar as there are many countries where personal trust is very low and anarchy can indeed arise, but America is not one of them. There may be some communities where such things might happen, but by and large this country is blessed with a very strong civil society. In what is normally the most anonymous place in the country, New York City, people remarkably come together in a crisis. 

It may be possible, at some point, for an enemy to actually disrupt the electric grid unless we shore up our electronic defenses, and we are indeed very reliant upon electricity. However the fallacy is that the government would somehow disappear and chaos would ensue. But the state would not suddenly disappear, and although it might not be able to do a lot of the things it does now,  it could still perform its most basic functions. There was civilized life before electricity, and this country had a well-established democratic government in the 19th century before Edison’s inventions. What we do electronically today was done mechanically, albeit much slower and with greater effort.  Nevertheless everything in our wired world is predicated on the civilization which preceded it, and it is more likely that we would simply revert no further back than that, rather than fall apart. Furthermore human ingenuity would soon enough develop technologies appropriate to the situation, which would improve life before long.

However such a general, nationwide apocalypse is unlikely to happen if basic precautions are taken. There may be disruptions that make it seem like that, such as the terrible storm the east coast just experienced, where after two weeks there are still areas without assistance, due to official ineptitude. People have been on their own, and many are still suffering, but they have not gone crazy. Citizens rise to the occasion, and where they can they assist their neighbors.  It is not inevitable that we would descend into chaos.  I’m not suggesting that human beings are inherently good, but at least most people in this society have been inculcated with the spirit that Tocqueville observed in the 19th century, reflected in free association, spontaneous organization, and cooperative group behavior; and that was long before our electronic age. 

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THE STORM HAS PASSED

The terrible storm has passed and the damage is extensive. Millions are without power, and it may take several days before it is restored. In our part of the city things are fine, while nearby areas have severe problems. It is just a reminder of how much life can often boil down to chance, luck, providence, or whatever you want to call it, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time when disaster strikes. A tree falls and kills people who happen to be in a particular spot at the wrong time. Conversely those more fortunate have been at the right place at the right time, but given the way things actually unfold, they should approach this life with humility. For in truth, much of what happens is beyond our control. 

Natural disasters of this magnitude are unusual in New York; our disasters are usually more of the man-made kind. That makes the site of the streets in downtown Manhattan flooding and an actual river of water flowing through the tunnels all the more incredible. We’ve never seen anything like this before. It has been nearly two hundred years since something comparable happened. We have only been settled where we are for a few hundred years, and most places in this country far less. Thus our longer term experience is very limited. People who sometimes view us critically in places like Europe just don’t realize the extent to which the forces of nature are so much more powerful in America. The temperatures are far more extreme, as is the weather, with hurricanes, tornados, flooding, wildfires, etc. happening frequently. Some places are unusually wet while other places are extremely dry. For there is still a wildness here. In some parts of the country predatory animals still roam, while other wild animals are frequent visitors, even in urban or suburban areas. You can get as close to nature as you want, although up close we often find it less than idyllic. 

The notion that we are masters of this planet is laughable, given how powerless we are before the forces of nature. For all the impact we think we have had on the planet it is miniscule alongside of what occurs naturally. When people abandon spaces it is striking how quickly nature takes over again. The unexpected often happens. In the days leading up to this storm we knew it was coming, but prior to that no one could have foreseen it. All predictions of any kind are only viable for a very short term. Beyond that the future is unknowable. 

We often lament our misfortunes, while forgetting all the times we were lucky enough to avoid the worst. Life by and large has been good enough to instill a sense of comfort, to the point where many of have forgotten the phrase “count your blessings.”  Bad things happen to someone else, somewhere else. Some have even come to believe that they are entitled to be happy all the time, forgetting that life often consists of misery, suffering, and pain. Our ancestors knew this because they lived during times when life was a daily struggle for existence.  They were thankful if they simply managed to get through a day no worse off than before. In modern times we usually have modern problems, which are trivial alongside the havoc the forces of nature can cause. It takes a storm like this to remind us how insignificant we really are in the face of natural forces, which instill in us a sense of stunning awe, and if we are wise, humility. 

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