The Civilizing Power of Disaster

[Gregorian]

1. I have such strong feelings about this subject.

Communities form when people need each other. I hear people talking about "community", and it makes me ill. I don't see community anywhere. I see imitation community. And some good neighbors. But true community hasn't existed for a long time in America. I see it in Cuba and Kenya, and places where people are poor and need each other for survival.

There is an opposite situation from that in the article. When civilizations have it too easy, things get ugly.

I was having a discussion on this topic a few days ago, and the consensus was that the human race needs some big disasters. It would certainly shake a few conservatives out of their selfish stupors.