[extropy-chat] Any city is three days away from barbarism?

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Sat Sep 3 22:03:11 UTC 2005


On 9/2/05, Dan Clemmensen wrote:
> I cannot find the exact quote or attribution. I remember the quote as:
>   "Any city is three days away from barbarism."
> Does anyone know the actual quote?


I could only find one reference, a comment piece about the New Orleans flood.
<http://thetinear.com/>

Friday, September 02, 2005
Hurricane Katrina: Granting a Grim Insight into the American Society of Excuses

It's not pretty, it's pretty grim. American society is only three days
from barbarism.

Today we are seeing heroism and villainy in New Orleans. Hurricane
Katrina is giving us a rare view into the psyche of our people. It is
a view of sacrifice, voluntarism, charity, helpful neighbors, and
tireless rescuers. But it is also a view of looting, assault, killing,
anger, hatred, and, ultimately, anarchy. Today we see what happens
when this "thin veneer of civilization" is stripped away from our
society.

---------------

But the "three days" thing seems to be almost a built-in assumption in
many of the disaster planning articles, so I wouldn't be surprised to
find many similar quotes using slightly different words.

e.g.
Most city households have three days supplies of food and water.
If there is a permanent power blackout, after three days everything stops.
If a city section riots, the police generally wait three days for the
rioters to calm down, get hungry and thirsty, then they move in to
clean up.

BillK



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