O falhanço do "Estado social"

Os efeitos do Katrina resultam de duas catástrofes: uma, o furacão, é de origem natural mas a outra, o carácter perverso e anti-social do chamado "Estado social", é infelizmente de origem bem humana. Independentemente das fantasias de quem imagina a existência de um hipotético "Estado mínimo" nos EUA, não há furacão que tenha efeitos tão dissolutivos sobre a civilização como o Welfare State.

Leitura recomendada: A Tale of Two Hurricanes, por Rocco DiPippo:

The loss of life and property caused by Hurricane Katrina is unprecedented in American history. But it is what happened to the social fabric of New Orleans after Katrina passed that is the real story, the real tragedy of the thing.###

After major disasters strike, wreckage can be cleared, homes and businesses rebuilt and infrastructure brought back on line - that is the easy part of recovering from such disasters. What is not so easy is to restore the sense of community and civility that existed before a place was ravaged by nature or man.

The ease of such social restoration is directly proportional to the sense of community and the level of civility that existed in a place before it was physically damaged or destroyed. New Orleans’ pre-disaster crime rate was ten times the national average. Given this and the fact that, during the recent crisis there, many of its citizens chose the law of the jungle over the rule of law, it is easy to conclude that the restoration of New Orleans’ social fabric will be an impossible task.

I have never lived in nor have I ever visited New Orleans. I don't first-hand know its sights, sounds or people. I must ask: What was it in that city that, after the storm had passed, quickly made men embrace savagery? What caused people there to rape and to murder, to steal from the desperate, to loot things unconnected to survival? What caused organized groups of people to attempt murder on those coming to save them? Why didn't their neighbors - the good people- band together to stop them from doing those things? The answer is simple: For the last forty years they had been taught by the creators of the Welfare State that they were permanently absolved from the responsibility of tending to their lives.

(...)

There are, no doubt, many brave and righteous individuals in the City of New Orleans. But there is also a widespread sickening savagery afoot there, as there is in every major urban center in America. A dysfunctional helpless class of people has been created by having been taught to despise the things that bring true satisfaction in life, the things that made the doomed passengers on the S.S. Central America care for each other; the things that propelled this country to prominence and its people to greatness.

(obrigado ao leitor gpn pela sugestão)