How Do We Prevent Another Moral Disaster Like New Orleans

There is no easy or simple solution. It seems whatever is most important is often complex and confusing. The problems of New Orleans have been played over time and time again in small ways and in other major disasters. The hints of the process are outlined in this article from WebMD:
Enlightenment Bulletin Board

Television images of panicked crowds mobbing evacuation buses are vivid reminders that deteriorating mental health is an enormous issue in New Orleans. The situation is an ugly reminder that disasters bring out both the best and worst sides of human nature, says University of Miami psychiatry professor Jon A. Shaw, MD. Shaw is a consultant on terrorism and disaster for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. He was, and is, closely involved in the Hurricane Andrew relief effort.


"The initial response to disaster is coming together as a group, as you saw after 9/11," Shaw tells WebMD. "Then, with increasing awareness of lack of resources, there is fragmentation. That is when you see the absolute worst of human nature. People compete for resources. You see looting, violence, exploitation, and opportunistic crime."


Shaw notes that in most disasters, there is a heroic phase in which people feel a strong sense of community with other survivors. This is followed by a terrific sense of expectation as people rush in to help. As time goes by, people generally become frustrated with the pace and incompleteness of the relief process. But even this is part of a slow process of recovery.


That's not the case in New Orleans.


"Here there are all these secondary events more traumatic than the original one -- all these continuing threats to health and vulnerability to disease," Shaw says. "People get a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. They have no confident expectation that anything good is going to happen. It is kind of like the death of a city. It is a very sad, very tragic scene."

Trauma, breakdown of support systems, followed by hopelessness and helplessness brings about a disparate transformation in people. Their values are put aside as a means to better able survivor. In this way, isolated survivors of an airliner crash or shipwreck survivors can resort to cannibalism.
In this case stealing food and water is certainly appropriate. But one possible rationalization for stealing TVs and other expensive items I mentioned in the previous post, these people aren't going to see a paycheck from a job or the welfare system anytime soon. Nor have they any reason to expect their losses will be compensated in anyway. Stealing a TV and fencing it might pay for food in coming months. There are certainly as many other rationalization as there are creative minds.
We can prevent future such moral decompensation by providing expectations of hope. People have done so spiritually for thousands of years. But, the disenfranchised are often disinclined to accept simple reassurance in the face of constant threats to survival.
Hope and a sense of control over one's lives is what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity. If we can create a national sense of hope and control, we may well prevent the next human disaster after a natural disaster.
We've thrown lots of money and resources at this problem before. AFDC was LBJs attempt to end poverty in our life times. AFDC failed because it didn't offer hope, it offered protection from homelessness and starvation. Protection from death is not the same as hope. Stagnation just gives people the opportunity only to contemplate their destiny and reinforces no risk taking. Thus we witness a whole generation of disenfranchised people choose to stay on the dole.
The American Dream used to drive a lot of hope. But if thats to have an effect, many more people of all socio-economic levels must see progress. Currently, in the Republican dominated government we have, the chances for the American Dream have narrowed. Only the super rich have ready access. Even the upper middle class is locked into the current stagnation of wages and salaries and loss of purchasing power. And fewer and fewer people, as we drop in income, see a chance at the American Dream of affluence. Republican policies serve only to limit access to the American Dream to the select few. They seek a classed society where the super rich rule, and the underclass approach the conditions of the third world, as has what is happening in New Orleans.
We need a new vision for America, a return to American values, and real opportunities for the American Dream for everyone. We can't accomplish this by handouts, but we can by stopping the stratification of our country, creating opportunities for education and jobs for everyone willing to make an effort. While it won't solve all problems, creating hope will re-energize our population and remake America into the role model for the world.