September 02, 2005

As I write this, New Orleans is rapidly devolving into a level of society somewhat on the back side of “barbarism,” where at least customs and tribal fealty play some role, even if it just limits who you can eat.

Looting, like rape, is an example of “works of the flesh” that virtually all societies and religious systems reject as being irredeemably evil, an example of the most base greed, cruelty, and complete breakdown of morality. It is, in fact, associated with riots, rape, and murder, usually in wholesale lots. It was for many centuries, a military offense with an automatic death penalty. Looting was (and is) a feature of tyranny, of the kind of government and society that far too many millions for far too many centuries were forced to endure. Looting is part of the brutal piracy and invasions and genocide associated with the Northmen raiding Ireland and England, the Mongol conquest of Russia, the “ethnic cleansing of Bosnia,” the Soviet “rape” of Berlin. It is evil, despicable, beyond the pale of humanity.

But as always, there is seemingly always something worse: the looting we are seeing in New Orleans is worse than what we looked at in history. It is being perpetrated against their own neighbors, their own neighborhood, their own city, their own fellow-citizens (if indeed I dare use the word “citizen” even indirectly to describe this subhuman scum). Looting, although related to theft (does anyone remember that parents and schools once taught “thou shalt not steal”?), is far worse for it destroys what it cannot take, contaminates what it cannot destroy, prevents succor of those injured or in danger, and actively seeks to ruin what is good, for even the smallest kindness or good deed makes it look far, far blacker by the great contrast. Looting is to normal stealing what a terrorist bomb is to a killer’s shot.

Looting is one of the things, like torture and sexual abuse, that show us that man cannot be evolved from animals, because we are, in our base human nature, LOWER than the animals. In time of disaster, whether flood or forest fire or whatever, animals do not turn on each other and rend and tear, but humans do. Sadly, looting is always a problem - but usually it is a minor problem because it is kept under draconian controls, usually in the form of a pistol in the hands of a homeowner or a business-owner.

As I said, it is accompanied, at a near 100% rate, by rape, murder, slavery (even if of a very informal nature), physical and sexual abuse, and arson. We are seeing all of these things in New Orleans. Now. In the 21st Century. In the “most advanced” nation on earth. In a city: by definition, a center of “civilization.” And it is being practiced by all types, all classes, all professions, all sexes and ages and races. Reports have broadcast today of looting by police officers, looting by doctors and advertising executives, by gangbangers, by children, by elderly, by every type of formerly-human scum that now inhabit the stricken city. And it is accompanied by the most inexplicable and hideous of events: of snipers firing at helicopters attempting to rescue people from rooftops, of people being thrown into the water to drown, of multiple rapes on the playing field of the SuperBowl, of arson burning buildings to the water-level, and probably worse.

I suppose that some supremely-self-deluded people who believe in the goodness of human nature would argue that it might be “acceptable” for a looter to do so under certain circumstances: that “human needs” must be met, that payback is a “right” (I can hear the cries that my moral standard is too high, that in the crisis of the moment there is no need for “technicalities,” that lives are more important than being a stickler for “proper procedures” so let me reply here: my moral standards are not too high - yours are too low. Technicalities, and proper conduct even under the most trying of circumstances, are a mark of civilized behavior.)

Shooting is, indeed, the only reasonable action that a citizen or a true peace-officer can take against looters - the squeamish might give a warning first, but their carting away of looted goods is adequate evidence. These looters (I don’t want to call them people, and as I’ve pointed out, it would be an insult to call them animals) have already resigned their humanity: they deserve no more mercy than a rabid dog or a striking snake. They have already begun to destroy the trust, confidence, and regard people should have for one another, and for their neighbors - and their survival will tempt even their moral former fellow-citizens to join in. Like mob violence, looting has a distressing habit of spreading and expanding: a few dead scum at the right time and place (as did the mayor of Philadelphia a few years ago) can cauterize the wound and stop the draining away of humanity and civilization.

Why? Why has this ancient evil exploded in our midst? New Orleans is, despite its wickedness, hardly the worst of cities on this planet, or even on this continent. Two larger and far more vulnerable cities come to mind. Nor is the culture of New Orleans such that most people would expect this kind of viciousness to arise: it shares little of the general old Southern Celtic culture, is cosmopolitan and “enlightened.” It has more racial and class harmony than most northern cities, and despite (or perhaps because of) Mardi Gras, less “kooky” than most West Coast cities. One fears that this could happen in ANY American city, if it happened in New Orleans.

Many people have already claimed the reasons: the most popular seems to be (on the left) the idea that this is the natural result of denying the underclass the American dream; that this is “payback” on a grand scale, that people who are discriminated against and have lost in the great race of life are getting back their own; and (on the right) the idea that we are reaping the results of decades of amoral public education and a permissive society in which anything goes.

But when you look at the faces and the dress and the attitude of these looters, you can see that neither of those are right. Oh, it may be that a few people were affected in some way by these factors are down there in the flooded streets of New Orleans with trashbags over their backs like Santa Claus, filled with goodies. But neither of these explains everyone.

Some would blame it on the circumstances: an entire city in chaos and virtually destroyed. And I admit this is far, far worse for New Orleans than Bloody Tuesday (9/11) was for New York. Despite the sheer size, “Ground Zero” was really a point target, and it happened, and then there was only the extremely difficult cleanup: it wasn’t a long and continuing event that lasted for days. Around it, for the most part, the rest of the city functioned. New Orleans, on the other hand, IS the Ground Zero: and the storm’s effects, thanks to the failure of the levees, are continuing, probably for weeks. Certainly, I agree that the opportunity is better now than four years ago, but that is opportunity and NOT motive. And remember, this looting is not limited to New Orleans - a recent newscast reported that rescue teams in a Mississippi town were afraid to enter some areas of town and some buildings because of looters, even when bodies or living victims were known to be in them.

I fear that the reason that looting has so quickly surfaced, and been so widespread, and crossed so many “lines” is far worse than a lack of moral teaching in the schools, or class and race differences, or even the scale of the disaster. It is a significant milestone in the collapse, not just of our nation, but of the entire structure we call “Western Civilization.” The point is rapidly approaching where the trend cannot be stopped, but rather, the collapse will be accelerating. The civilization, not an “American empire” nor a “European Union,” will fall; some remnant (like the Byzantine east at the fall of Rome) will probably remain (although the tightly-knit world of today makes that more problematic).

It is the decay of our culture, of our civilization that we are staring in the face: these other “reasons” are just evidences of that decay, not the causes of it. Looting is, indeed, endemic in our society today - but perhaps not quite as recognizable as the thug who picks up a newspaper stand and crashes it through the plateglass of a shopfront before stepping in and sweeping the jewelry and silverware into a bag. Not only that, but the controls are being eliminated as well: the measures that keep the thugs from having their “pleasure.”

What decay? What looting? It was not without thought that Ayn Rand uses the term “looters” in her book, “Atlas Shrugged” to describe the unions, the bureaucrats, the politicians, and the “dependents” who fought against her protagonists. We have created a worldwide civilization built on theft: no matter how we pretty it up with words like “eminent domain” or “contributions” or “taxes” or “fees” - we have turned morality into a “majority rules” game in which morals apply only to individuals and not to “The People.” “The People” can take your land, take your wealth, take your wages, take your labor, take your very lives; legally. And give it to other people in exchange for something they have: votes, campaign contributions, voices of anger, whatever. And people, not just in this nation, but around the world, have come, deep in their souls, to believe that they DESERVE those stolen goods.

You can see it in the faces and voices of those in Katrina’s domain who are NOT looting: they expect, no, they DEMAND that the buses stop to pick them up, that water and food and clothing and sleeping places be GIVEN to them, that they be allowed to stay in their comfortable surroundings until they are no longer comfortable, then be whisked to a NEW comfortable place, with all their possessions restored. It even applies to those who lived in New Orleans and DID evacuate in near-blind obedience to “the authorities” but who expect that the Federal and state governments will pay out, through the phony flood and disaster insurance programs, for their homes to be again built below sea level, next to restored and strengthened levees, and they can resume their lives as looters: no, not the heave-a-rock-in-the-door kind, but still, looters: benefiting from stealing, and not just stealing, but stealing and destroying and contaminating and wrecking faith and confidence and wrecking their civilization.

We have been taught that it is proper to steal, and that if our deserved benefits are not instantly available, that we have the right to go out and demand them: by protest, by riot, by looting. We have been taught that if we need something, it must be provided or we have the right to take it. We have learned, through bitter experience, that those who contribute to our society, our civilization, our nation, are nothing but suckers to be drained dry and cast away, much as the looter scans the looted house as she lifts the bulging bag onto her shoulder and then figuratively shakes the mud off her shoes as she steps out the shattered window.

So look at the images of looting in New Orleans and Mississippi and elsewhere and shake with fury and fear: you are looking at the end of Western Civilization, as the clock ticks down its last few units of time. And you are looking, sadly, at a mirror.

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