Holy crap

Speaking of cities, the images coming out of New Orleans are nigh-unbelievable. Thomas Hobbes was right. It's disconcerting to see how close barbarism lies beneath a thin veneer of civilization. I wish I could say I thought this was an isolated incident. But somehow I have a sinking feeling that this is only the beginning: that in the years to come we will see today's events repeated over and over again, whether through terrorist attack, natural disaster, or simple social panic. It turns out we had no idea in the '90s that we were living in an oasis of calm and prosperity. This decade could have been our finest hour, and instead we are presented with a pretty pathetic state of affairs. Every generation of mankind tends to succumb to millenial ravings: when the barbarians overran the Western Roman Empire, the Romans thought the end of the world was upon them, with considerably better justification than we have now. But what are the consequences of a Visigoth with an atom bomb? I'm afraid we may find out, and sooner than we think.