Disaster Utopianism: Looking for Paradise in Catastrophic Places

Jesse Walker: Despite Hollywood’s clichés to the contrary, it is very rare for people to panic during an emergency. And the typical natural or technological disaster is followed not by a Mad Max war of all against all but by mutual aid in the rubble. Crime declines. Bottom-up cooperation flowers. Looting is rare, and when it does occur it usually amounts to scavenging, not theft.