09 Sep 2005
Katrina - The Aftermath

Warning: serious rant ahead. After much consideration I decided to place this in Politics - it could've just as easily fit in 'Musings' or even 'Asatru' - because there's a dimension of this this whole mess that desperately cries out for a more practical spirituality than "God saved us!" or "God punished us!". Whatever ...

There's not going to be a long list of links to the missteps, miscues and outright absurdities of the government's response - others have done that.

If any of my European, Australian or Asian readers have ever wondered about the definition of the American slang term "cluster-fuck", the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina pretty much sums it up.

I agree with Laura Bush on at least one thing: this was not about race. Nor was it about "class", corruption, voting patterns or religion. The effects certainly seemed to break along racial and class divisions, but I really believe that's an accident of geography in this case. OK, so if it's not race, class or politics that slowed governmental response to a crawl over four critical days, what did?

Incompetence. This is about competence, purely and simply. And the United States is seemingly blessed cursed with perhaps the most incompetent set of government officials at all levels of any nation on the planet. We've just managed something that I thought was impossible: we made the Soviet response to the Chernobyl disaster look good.

And while there was certainly no lack of stupidity and incompetence on the part of local and state officials, the Bush Administration really does stand out in this regard: because this is but the latest in a long string of idiocies that seem to be it's hallmark, and will ultimately become it's legacy.

The response to 9/11, especially in New York, was superb. But that was mainly Rudy Giuliani - a competent politician if there ever was one. Just about the last thing the Bush Administration did right was going into Afghanistan and toppling the Taleban: ever since, it's been a long, descending stairway into blundering boobery.

Take a long look at the Iraq fiasco: we had a fine strategy for going in and knocking them out, which we executed almost flawlessly. But, of course, our reason for going in, Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, were non-existent. And we had apparently given no thought whatsoever to the aftermath ... we currently have an Iraqi "government" in place that would fall about two hours after we left, if we were to leave now.

And now, Katrina. I have watched, read and listened with what can only be described as slack-jawed incredulity to the litany of mistakes on the part of government officials. And beyond outright incompetence, there's the political variety: the Administration itself seems to be trying to "spin" the rescue and recovery efforts - there were even allegations that a temporary kitchen was set up as a photo-op for the President and then dismantled after he left with no survivors actually getting fed! They had to know that this would be reported - to try to pull it off anyway betrays either an incredible disdain for public opinion or gross incompetence. I vote for the latter.

The Left is missing all of this: they're still screaming "racist pig" and trying to ignite a class war. Perhaps it's because they realize that they'd have had no better idea of how to handle this morass that the current Right administration. Clinton appointed just as many political hacks to sensitive jobs as Bush has - rewards for raising funds, don't you know, with nary a thought as to potential job performance. It's become the spoils system of Jacksonian democracy all over again.

The dictionary defines competence as " A specific range of skill, knowledge, or ability." This implies a sense of one's own competence, as well as that of others: the first step on the path to wisdom is knowing our own abilities - the second is being able to accurately judge the abilities of others.

I consider competence to be the summation of the Nine Noble Virtues: it's what you get if those virtues are applied correctly. I've known Heathens who are jackasses, heathens who are idiots and even folks professing heathenry who are outright evil. I've never met an incompetent Heathen who lived by the virtues, because if you live them, you naturally develop a sense of your own competence, and you have the courage to admit when you're out of your league, and defer to others without shame or loss of face.

This is something that is sorely lacking in modern American politics. Our leaders are so concerned with perception that they often ignore reality: they're so concerned with winning elections that they're willing to suffer the loss of lives.

This attitude ultimately leads to bureaucracy - all too evident in Louisiana last week. If the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed, and you have all the proper paperwork, you must be competent, and reality be damned. And without the paperwork, well, experience, expertise, knowledge.... they count for nothing.

We have descended as a society to the nether regions of Hel, where all that is known is what is written, and all human judgments are suspended in favor of the proper forms.

Unfortunately this issue goes well beyond government: after all, in a democracy we usually get exactly the government that we deserve, and one that reflects our core values.

The victims of Katrina, especially in the cities and with a few notable exceptions, literally sat around waiting for the government at some level to rescue them, rather than rescuing themselves. If news crews could drive to the Superdome, it follows that people could walk from it. Gurneys could have been improvised to carry away the disabled and injured - but most of the improvisation efforts went into keeping the generators running so the lights wouldn't go out, and the waiting could continue. Not that I'm "blaming the victim" - in some cases people were actually prevented from walking out, on the theory that it was "too dangerous"! What the Hel do you call being trapped in a building with 10,000 other folks for five days with no food and no water? Safe? I call it a colossal failure of leadership!

And then the blaming began, before the waters even receded. I mentioned the Left's efforts to paint the Administration as a bunch of racist pigs - they're no funnier than the Right's attempts to justify the response or shift the blame to local (Democratic) politicians. And best of all is the realization that if Bill Clinton were still in office the roles would be almost exactly reversed!

And while the Left is deadly accurate in it's portrayal of the Bush Administration as a bunch of penny-pinching tightwads who're letting our national infrastructure rot in favor of tax cuts and foreign adventures, they never seem to mention the role that environmental groups have played in the delay or abandonment of critical infrastructure projects, like, oh, say, levees.

It sometimes seems as though we have nothing constructive to say to or about one another: all we can manage is to define the enemy as "Them" and lay the problems of the world at their feet.

It's been nothing short of mind-boggling to watch this disaster unfold, and the rebuilding efforts that are about to ensue promise an even bigger circus of spin, blame and incompetence.

Walt Kelly's classic one-liner was never more appropriate: We have met the enemy, and they is us!

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