Wwen wrote:
If you believe people are generally ****. I think people are generally good. YMMV.
I don't.
I ask myself this question: "If the world were to suddenly suffer an enormous catastrophe.... something akin to where there is absolutely no electricity anywhere, commerce was brought to a halt, government facilities and protection were shot to hell, and all you had to live on were your emergency stockpiles... what would happen?" I believe, with every fibre of my being, that even a regular, average, decent person will devolve when faced with a life that affects his comfort and potentially his survival. I believe that your average decent Joe will turn into a "It's either me or you!" type of person, and will do whatever he can to survive; consequences, courtesies, and ethics be damned.
I see flashes of this in people every day, especially when doing something simple like shopping or driving a car. Discourtesies to other people that are seemingly minor, to me, paint me a much larger picture of who a person truly is beneath it all.
I live in a state who's dominant religion teaches (over and over) that all of it's members should have at least a year's supply-worth of emergency necessities such as food, water, toiletries, etc. So while maybe 1 house in 20 may have something like that, I ask myself "If all of the neighbors know Mr. Jones has food while they themselves don't.... what would they do?" If a person didn't give a **** enough to think about you when he cut you off while driving, if he's forced with a choice of survival and comfort, what is stopping him from coming in and taking what he wants by force? I think a lot of people think that those are two unrelated behaviors, but again... when it comes down to survival, life itself, I don't think they're that different and an extreme life-changing condition will bring out an extreme behavior.
In my mind, no emergency food storage is complete unless it contains shotguns and a year's supply of ammunition.
But, as you said, YMMV. And again, this is all my personal and likely unchangeable beliefs and I am very well-aware that they are not in sync with others'.
Anyway, back to the topic on-hand.