Sep 11
We learn nothing
On the 4th anniversary of 9/11, it seems fitting to take a look back at the history of government’s response to chaos. Harpers Magazine just happened to be publishing an article on how modern government handles disaster - in short, using it as a prybar to wrest further control from the people. An excerpt, about the 1985 earthquake in Mexico:
“The initial response made it clear that the government cared a lot more about the material city of buildings and wealth than the social city of human beings. In one notorious case, local sweatshop owners paid the police to salvage equipment from their destroyed factories. No effort was made to search for survivors or retrieve the corpses of the night-shift seamstresses. It was as though the earthquake had ripped away a veil concealing the corruption and callousness of the government. International rescue teams were rebuffed, aid money was spent on other programs, supplies were stolen by the police and army, and, in the end, a huge population of the displaced poor was obliged to go on living in tents for many years.”
Sound familiar?