The price of the free market is eternal vigilantism

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The point where my jaw first dropped in disbelief and outrage with the Katrina disaster wasn't the 'white forager/black looter' divide; it was the fact that the police were called away from disaster relief duties in order to fight looting. Hell, it was the fact that looting was being discouraged, when in any kind of sane world the police would be ramming trucks through the windows of stores and then distributing the contents to those in need. The remaining goods and food in these places would be destroyed anyway, thanks to rising waters and no refrigeration; why on earth shouldn't the homeless and needy take what cannot be salvaged?

But the true point of that sank in after a while, and I think that point is one that will stick in the American psyche even after New Orleans falls off the front page:

Capitalism dictates that it is better that an item of value be destroyed rather than be used for free.

Allowing people in need to take what they need for free is abhorrent to capitalism. If an item is ruined, it still had value, it can be reclaimed on insurance; hell, it's enough that the system of payment for services be respected. But if people just took what they needed and faced no repercussions, it shows the whole system as a sham; the monetary 'value' of those items suddenly vanishes, and we realize that things only have a price tag because someone else put it there.

...and economic arguments aside, the other part of the no-looting policy is one of institutionalized class struggle. These things belong to better people than you, and they may want them back, so hands off. And maybe even a touch of if you let these people just take what they need, they won't stop doing it once Whitey is back in power.

There are no humanitarian or sane reasons to prevent looting in New Orleans, whether of food or vehicles or DVD players. Just the desire to maintain the gap between have and have-not; just the unstated social code that you don't deserve something unless you pay for it, even if the alternative is death.

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The New Orleans disaster has pulled the cover off the American social engine, and people are actually looking at the assumptions and mechanisms that have kept their society operating for 200 years. And many of them are not liking what they see - and many of them are African-Americans.

Traditionally, the African-American community in the United States is more Democrat than Republican - and traditionally, Republicans have move to neutralize the African-American community come voting time, discouraging voting through various means including outright fraud (I remember a number of cases and accusations from last year's elections, which somehow never got followed up once Bush was back in office). Voter apathy and voter ignorance are potent tool in societies with non-compulsory voting, and both sides of American politics have used those tools when it's been useful for them.

But this time, people may remember. This time, Republicans may find a community united against a system that marginalizes them - because, finally, that marginalization is front and centre; finally it's more work to ignore it than it is to see it. Not that it will matter to Bush, who can't stay in power past this term. But the fallout from New Orleans could be enough to kick the wheels off the Republican machine - if, fingers crossed, the Democrats grow spines and balls and fight for a fucking change.

Or it could keep going on the same way it always has. After all, I expected Bush to be ousted on a tide of public rage last year, and I was as wrong as it was possible to be. But I think this is different. I hope this is different.

I hope.

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Yep, that was me with my political commentary hat back on, after leaving it packed into a crate for nearly two months.

It's not a perfect fit anymore, it's gotta be said. But it'll change shape. Or my head will. Either works.