New America

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by castlebravo92

A little farming town of 1,000 people, 20 miles down the road, is going to get overwhelmed by 100,000 people passing through. People on foot will steal vehicles, hungry/starving people will break into homes and kill livestock for food.

This sort of thing will certainly be true in some cases, but it would probably be more exception than rule.

The Hobbesian view of human nature has been belied time and again by real life events. More often than not, in a crisis situation, strangers cooperate and help one another to get through it rather than devolve into self-serving, dog-eat-dog rapaciousness.

In World War II, during the Blitz and, later, the bombing of German and Japanese cities, episodes of urban refugees descending on rural farming communities like locusts were few and far between. Evacuations were largely orderly and peaceful. If anything, farmers gouged evacuees for food and shelter. For a more recent, American example, look at the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. At the time, the media made post-Katrina New Orleans out to be a hell-scape, Mad Max style free for all, but there's little evidence that widespread looting, rape, and murder took place in the days and weeks after the levees broke. Instead, strangers helped one another evacuate to higher ground, and shared the basic necessities of life until FEMA arrived in force.

-