Human nature.

So when I finally got a chance to watch some TV news about Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, MSNBC was interviewing Harry Connick Jr. (I would hope this is because they ran out of officials, but considering America’s over-fascination with celebrities, it’s more likely because it was Harry Connick Jr.)

The newsreader was asking him what he thought of the looting. He replied that he was in no condition to judge. He stated that if he had been desperately poor, and had seen his opportunity, he’d be stealing plasma TVs along with them.

So I guess it's a good thing Harry has a career. Otherwise he'd be looting in New Orleans.

It’s pretty to figure out what the deal is: The respectable people left town in the disaster, and the only people who stayed behind are the gang members and hoodlums who figured this was a great opportunity to go Visigoth. So they’ll be looting, sacking, raping, pillaging, and murdering until the National Guard swarms in and shoots them.

The rest of the country will look on in horror because “civilized” people don’t do this—forgetting how the Romans, Germans, and every so-called civilization indulged in this sort of behavior at least once in their history. Those of us who know our history understand: This is human nature. Not the noble self-sacrifice that we've seen after other hurricanes or terrorist attacks. That’s how we’d prefer to see human nature, and that is what we must aspire to. We can be that way when we put effort into it. But when we don’t—well, if you want to see human nature at its most grasping, thieving, and self-centered—as history testifies to, time and again—there it is, in Louisiana, stealing plasma TVs.