This essay on the relationship between disasters, authority, and our understanding of human nature went to press as Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The excerpt below is followed by a postscript, available only on the Web, that specifically addresses
the disaster in New Orleans.
This looks worth a close read. The notion that a disaster exposes the weakness of authority which begets an increase in authority’s efforts to assert itself bears some examination.
[composed and posted with ecto]