WEBVTT - The Good Side of the Second American Civil War 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.080 One day the state was there, and the next it wasn't. 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.000 The cops and soldiers those who were left all pulled 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:12.720 out in the night. Even now, months later, you weren't 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.640 really sure why they left. The rumor mill called it 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.840 a strategic retreat, brought on by heavy losses from insurgent 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.080 attacks in the hills and the fighting in the capital. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.360 For whatever reason, the government considered your city dispensable. You 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.120 heard their trucks that night, armored vehicles and tanks rolling 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.000 out towards the highway. Most of the police evacuated with 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.400 their families, scared of reprisals. You assume they'll be rehomed 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.879 somewhere in regime controlled territory. The first morning after the 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.599 government left was weird and kind of scary. You and 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.000 your surviving neighbors all gathered together on the roof of 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.400 your building to see if anything was burning down. You 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.800 expected looting, mass of violence, some form of chaos. But 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.400 that first day was quiet, and so was the second 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.520 day and the third. It wasn't until the fourth day 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:56.920 that representatives from the separatist side of town made it 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:00.000 to your neighborhood. Some of them looked like the private military. Contrast, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.920 actors that the government had hired before, burly bearded dudes 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.920 with huge black rifles and tattooed arms, but most of 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.000 them just looked like regular civilians. They brought food with them, 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:11.800 the first fresh produce you'd seen in months. Someone told 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:13.920 you they'd converted a couple of the old bank buildings 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.920 downtown into urban farms. You also heard they'd struck a 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:18.760 deal with some of the separatists out in the country, 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.199 sending them manufactured drone parts in exchange for eggs and potatoes. 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:24.720 The food did a lot to buy your goodwill, but 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.479 it came with strings attached. You were told, rather matter 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.800 of factly that your neighborhood was now part of their 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.480 municipal alliance, and you'd be expected to take part in 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.720 a weekly local council. You figured it'd be boring as hell, 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.319 like a forced PTA meeting, but now a few weeks in, 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.959 you kind of like it. Most of you had been 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.520 technically unemployed for a while, but now everyone had something 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.600 to do, preparing food, keeping the lights on, scavenging equipment 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.320 from abandoned office buildings. For the first time since the 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.639 fighting started, some semblance of normal life returned. The power 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.520 was more regular. Some of the cafes and restaurants reopened. 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.120 A few people with projectors set up regular movie and 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.080 TV nits. Now folks gather to watch old episodes of 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.400 the Office or Marvel movies, rather than doing it alone 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.160 in their apartments. There's less food than there was before 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:08.680 the war, of course, but no one's starving anymore. Coffee 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:10.120 is still a distant memory, but a few of your 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.000 neighbors busted into an old energy drink factory and liberated 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:14.920 several crates of the stuff, so at least you have 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.160 caffeine again, And right as you start to feel optimistic 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:20.760 about the world, once more, mortars start landing just a 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.359 few blocks from your door. You and your neighbors take 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.320 to the rooftops again. As the angry chatter of gunfire 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.320 pops up once more, you're able to spot the culprits, 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.239 not the government forces as you'd expected. It appears to 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.280 be another militia driving up armored pickup trucks and captured 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:38.119 police vehicles. You don't know who they are, but they're 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.360 pushing into your town from the suburbs. With your neighbor's telescope, 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.600 you could just barely make out the logo and blastomed 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:49.119 on their vehicles, a single fiery cross war as health. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.120 That's obvious, right. We've all seen horrifying videos of air 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.680 strikes and street to street fighting in places like Syria, 0:02:55.800 --> 0:03:00.200 Leveled cities and hollow wide refugees. It's undeniably terrible. Here's 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.640 the thing, though, War doesn't always make everything worse, or 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.240 at least it doesn't make everything worse for everybody. Do 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.560 you struggle with depression, anxiety, overwhelming and almost crippling self loading, 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.600 there is a shockingly good chance that war might actually 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.280 come as a relief. In the years before World War Two, 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.520 military planners all around the world realized that the bombing 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.720 of cities by airplanes was going to be a major 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.760 feature of the next war. As the British government watched 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.120 Nazi Germany rise and rise and boil over its borders 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.119 into Western Europe, they knew the Luftwaffa would soon fly 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.480 over their shores, and that meant that war was coming 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.280 to London. Aside from a few blimp attacks in the 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:40.640 last war, no modern state had ever dealt with the 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:44.080 problem of a dense civilian population being suddenly exposed to 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.720 the inferno of total war. Most planners instantly assumed it 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.880 would be a nightmarish disaster. People would be driven instantly 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.880 mad from the bombing. They expected four million people at 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.400 least would suffer from complete psychiatric breakdown in the face 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.400 of the horrors of war. Instead, literally the opposite happened. 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.720 Roughly two Londoners per week showed up in hospitals with 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.880 cases of bomb neuroses. The people they had worried about 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.040 the most, the chronically ill, and the fragile often reported 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.400 feeling better than ever. According to Sebastian Younger's Tribe quote, 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.280 psychiatrists watched and puzzlement as long standing patients saw their 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.760 symptoms subside during the period of intense air raids. Voluntary 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.760 admissions to psychiatric wards noticeably declined, and even epileptics reported 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.640 having fewer seizures. Chronic neurotics of peacetime now drive ambulances, 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.559 one doctor remarked. Another ventured to suggest that some people 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:36.719 actually did better during wartime. The positive effects of war 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.440 on mental health were first noticed by the great sociologist 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.520 Emil Durkheim, who found that when European countries went to war, 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.479 suicide rates dropped. Psychiatric wards in Paris were strangely empty 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.080 during both World Wars, and that remained true even as 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.560 the German army rolled into the city. In nineteen forty. 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:56.520 Researchers documented a similar phenomenon during the Civil Wars in Spain, Algeria, Lebanon, 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.840 and Northern Ireland. In Germany, where millions of teachers, in 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.040 patricians and bakers and waitresses and children suddenly found themselves 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.240 subjected to the burning hell of daily Allied bombardment, the 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.120 same phenomenon rang true. Normal people with no military experience 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:14.839 held up incredibly well under the horrors of conflict. Charles fitz, 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.400 a captain with the United States Army Air Corps, was 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.960 posted in England during the war. He saw a lot 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:21.960 of this first hand, and it inspired him to put 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.440 together a massive study after the war. By nineteen fifty nine, 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.920 fits in a team of n o RC researchers had 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.920 collected testimonies for more than nine thousand people and studied 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:32.799 every piece of data they could find on the mental 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.279 health impacts of other large scale disasters. He used this 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.839 data to put together a paper in nineteen sixty one, 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.880 Disasters and Mental Health Therapeutic Principles drawn from disaster research. 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.320 It opened with the line why do large scale disasters 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:50.920 produce such mentally healthy conditions? Fits His conclusions, all rooted 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.800 in hard data and impeccable science, found that disasters created 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.920 what he called a community of sufferers. Rather than being 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.080 made worse by the rigors of war, the violence and 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.120 starvation and suffer ring people banded together with their neighbors 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.080 to find food, dig survivors from rubble, and make sure 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.040 everyone had a place to sleep at night. He concluded, 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:12.040 quote as social animals, people perhaps come closer to fulfilling 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.520 their basic human needs and the aftermath of a disaster 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.200 than at any other time, because they develop a form 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.279 of life highly compatible with these needs. This conception of 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.440 the fulfillment of the utopian prototypic image of society helps 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:29.120 to explain many otherwise inexplicable phenomena of disaster behavior. Time 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.440 and time again over the decades, sociologists and disaster researchers 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.080 have come to the same conclusions as Charles fitz In 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.080 his book Tribe, which I can't recommend enough. Sebastian Younger 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.520 quotes from a nineteen seventy nine paper by an Irish 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.120 psychologist named Lands. He found that during the Belfast riots 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.160 in nineteen sixty nine and seventy suicide rates fell by 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.880 and the paper Lions published on his research. He noted, quote, 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.599 when people are actively engaged in a cause, their lives 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.599 have more meaning with resulting improvement in mental health. It 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.120 would be irresponsible to suggest violence as a means of 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.080 improving mental health, but the Belfast findings suggest that people 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.880 will feel better psychologically if they have more involvement in 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.800 their community. Now, this is something you have to talk 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:09.600 carefully about. The last thing I want to do is 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:11.960 suggest second Civil War as treatment for all of our 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.000 ongoing mental health issues. But there is a good chance 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.520 that many people would find life during that conflict to 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.040 be more meaningful than their current day to day existence. 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.880 On May tenth, two thousand eighteen, NBC published an article 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:26.240 based on Blue Cross Blue Shield data on the reach 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.960 of major depression nationwide. The title pretty accurately sums up 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.640 the information major depression on their rise among everyone. NBC 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.960 interviewed doctor Laurel Williams, chief of psychiatry at Texas Children's Hospital. 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:42.600 Williams explained, quote, many people are worried about how busy 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:44.600 they are. There's a lack of community there's the amount 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.120 of time that we spend in front of screens and 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:47.680 not in front of other people. If you don't have 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.440 a community to reach out to, then your hopelessness doesn't 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.280 have any place to go. Now. I've asked you all 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.560 to imagine quite a lot over the course of this podcast, 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:57.000 but I don't think it will be a struggle for 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:58.840 many of you to imagine working at a job you 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.520 don't really love, living alone in a small apartment and 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.520 feeling disconnected from many of the people around you. If 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:06.440 you've ever gone a few weeks without seeing your friends 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.880 or family socially because you just had so much ship 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.920 to do, you get how easily that can contribute to depression. 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.720 If that's your life, too much time alone at work, 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:16.960 in a pervasive feeling that an awful lot of what 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.960 you do doesn't matter, well, then our hypothetical civil war 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.800 might present you with an opportunity for some meaning. You 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:24.760 don't have to be a fanatic on one side or 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:26.960 the other out of strong political beliefs you're willing to 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.280 die for and Kiev, the Maidan protest camp was kept 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.320 alive by a network of activists who provided food, medical supplies, 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.040 and other perishables to the activists in the camp. I've 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.040 mentioned this before, but I'd like you to imagine what 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.360 it would feel like to be involved in something like that. 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.400 You wouldn't need to support one side or the other 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:44.600 in the civil war. You just need to have friends 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.320 over there, hungry and scared and fighting against the state 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.959 that feels less worth supporting every single day. Sometimes it 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.800 would be terrifying, but it might be fun too. My 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.400 friend Alexander, a young Ukrainian man whose prior relevant experience 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.320 included volunteering to help set up burning Man at night 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.560 after night delivering hot soup to activists manning barricades meant 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.360 to block police from directly assaulting the main camp. He 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.520 described it as immensely satisfying work, a clear and moral 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:11.479 choice he could make in the midst of a confusing 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.520 and frightening conflict. Alexander didn't set out to be a revolutionary, 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:17.640 but on one of those visits out to provide soup 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:19.680 to the troops, he wound up fighting against a line 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.680 of heavily armored riot police. A decision to cook soup 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.120 for his hungry friends led to him taking up arms 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.160 against the state and ultimately helping to overthrow his nation's 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:42.640 head of state. We don't imagine finding yourself gradually, through 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.680 bits and pieces of minor activism, drawn into an armed 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.200 and fortified camp of activists resisting the government. You may 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.800 believe wholeheartedly in their demands, or you might just think 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.559 the violence the police and soldiers have deployed against protesters 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.040 is unconscionable. Regardless of why you'd do it, you probably 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.800 would find it more fulfilling than another day at the office. 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:03.280 But what if you're further from the action, in a 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:05.360 town or city that doesn't wind up an open rebellion 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.280 against the state. For a while, your life might not change, 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.120 at least not for the better. Food would grow more expensive, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.480 of course, law enforcement would become more authoritarian. But if 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.120 this thing keeps going, if separatist succeed in choking the 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.640 food supply, if the economy collapses, if the state is 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.280 pushed to the brink, you might actually see the government 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.240 retreat from your life. There are only so many cops 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.680 and soldiers, and only so much money in the government 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.920 store box. After two or three years of escalating conflict, 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.720 perhaps even less, you and your neighbors might find yourselves 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.800 sitting outside the state's protection. That probably sounds terrifying to you. 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.840 During the Blitz, Londoners still had the government functioning, trying 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:43.760 its best to protect them. What would happen without that? 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:46.880 We have relatively few examples that might tell us how 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.439 a large group of modern day Americans would react to 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.440 the temporary collapse of organized government. One of the few 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.959 clear case studies would have to be Hurricane Katrina. If 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:58.040 you just followed the mainstream news during that whole mess, 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.680 you probably know it wasn't exactly the state's finest hour. 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.160 Most reports at the time described the city after the 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:07.160 hurricane as a lawless waste land. On September one, two five, 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:11.120 the Associated Press wrote, quote, storm victims were raped and beaten, 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.800 fights and fires broke out, corpses lay out in the open, 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.840 and rescue helicopters and law enforcement officers were shot at. 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.640 As flooded out New Orleans descended into anarchy. Today, news 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:24.079 anchors described hotels is overrun with gangs. New Orleans police 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.199 chief at a compass, stood before the cameras and told 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.080 lurid stories of desperate gunfights between overwhelmed cops, dangerous gangsters, 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.920 and mad snipers. For a very long time, it was 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.200 taken as a given that Hurricane Katrina had brought anarchy 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.439 in its wake, and actually that is sort of true, 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.160 But the reality of the situation is that anarchy isn't 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.560 always terrible. Louisiana National Guard Colonel Thomas Barron showed up 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.800 at the Superdome five days after Katrina made landfall. He'd 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.920 been primed by dozens of horrifying headlines to expect piles 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.360 and piles of corpses. His convoy included a refrigerated eighteen 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.160 wheeler and three doctors to work as a makeshift Morgan 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:03.280 process the dead. He arrived expecting at least two hundred bodies. 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.000 He found six. Four had died of natural causes, one 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.840 from an overdose and the other from a suicide. No 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.400 one had been killed inside the Superdome. There was very 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.079 little evidence of any violence there at all. I found 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.000 this in a great rite up by NOLA dot com. 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.360 They interviewed a National Guard sergeant who commented on the 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.240 stories of nightmarish violence in the wake of Katrina. Quote, 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.480 I think it is bullshit. Don't get me wrong. Bad 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.560 things happened, but I didn't see any killing and raping 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.400 and cutting of throats or anything of the people in 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.839 the dome were very well behaved. Orleans Parish d a 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.640 Eddie Jordan confirmed four murders in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.240 This meant that nightmarish week was no more violent than 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.920 normal week in the city. Those stories the police chief 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.319 told about cops getting into multiple gunfights with gangsters that 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.640 never happened either. Quote. Security was non existent at the 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.560 convention Center, which was never designated as a shelter. Authorities 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.400 provided no food, water, or medical care until troops secured 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:57.800 the building a Friday after the storm. While the convention 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.160 Center saw plenty of mischief, including massive loot in an 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.360 isolated gunfire, and many inside coward and fear, the hordes 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.520 of evacuees, for the most part, did not resort to 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.320 violence as legend has it. There was quite a lot 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.760 of looting, of course, both of food and alcohol, but 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.240 Jimmy four, one of the few government employees who stayed 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.240 in the Superdome, did not see a single violent crime committed. 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:18.760 There was one report of a man trying to sexually 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.400 assault a young girl one report, but he was beaten 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.920 up by civilians and turned into the police. There were 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.280 a number of gangsters at the Superdome, of course, but 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.800 according to Major David Baldwin, they tended to help rather 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.240 than hinder the rescue work. He noted that once the 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.400 convoy arrived and started treating people and handing out supplies, quote, 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:37.840 some of these guys look like thugs with pants hanging 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.120 down around their asses, but they were working their asses off, 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.559 grabbing litters, and running with people to the New Orleans Arena. 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:46.200 That reality is very much out of line with what 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.440 the mainstream media might lead you to expect. But the 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:50.680 simple fact of the matter is that most people in 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.000 most situations want things to be nice and reasonable. Even 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.840 when resources are strained, when danger lurks at every corner, 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.520 and when all familiar forms of order collapse, the majority 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:01.880 of human beings are more likely to work together than 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.040 turn into shrieking, violent madmen raping their way through post 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.680 apocalyptic ruins. There is an extraordinary amount of data on 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.480 this phenomenon. I found a study published by the International 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.520 Institute for Environment and Development back in two thousand seventeen. 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.080 It gathered data from disasters all around the world and 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.880 showed Fitz's findings have not gotten any less relevant over 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.040 the years. Most current research suggests that if you find 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.440 yourself in the wake of a calamity, spontaneously organized civilian 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:28.600 groups won't be more likely to help you out than 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.520 the state, local, or federal government. Here's a quote from 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.320 that two thousand seventeen report quote. In Kathmandu, after the 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.760 April two thousand fifteen earthquake, local residents were the first responders, 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.200 rescuing family members and neighbors from collapsed buildings, erecting temporary 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:44.480 tent shelters for those who had lost their homes, providing 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.800 food to survivors, distributing relief packages when these arrived, and 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.640 raising funds online. In the first days after the nineteen 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.120 Marmor earthquake in Turkey, which killed more than seventeen thousand 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.200 people and caused widespread damage and disruption, state and other 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.240 official agencies were initially unable to deliver or core innate 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.160 humanitarian assistance. Relief and rescue activities were carried out mainly 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:08.640 by neighbors, relatives, spontaneously formed volunteer groups, and some NGOs. 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.600 In one survey, thirty four percent of earthquake victims interviewed 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.320 said that they received most help immediately after the earthquake 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:16.640 from family members and neighbors, as well as through their 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:19.600 own efforts. Only ten point three percent mentioned help from 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.480 state authorities. There is also evidence of such emergent activity 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.520 in several countries after the two thousand four Indian Ocean tsunami, 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.680 Surveys in Indonesia and Sri Lanka showed the predominant influence 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.560 of private citizens and local communities and relief assistants such 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.400 as rescue, burying of the dead, and provision of food, water, 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.280 and clothing. In Sri Lanka and Thailand, almost all life 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.960 saving and immediate relief activity in the first one two 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:45.120 days after the tsunami was by local people from neighboring areas. Now. 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.320 This report also noted that while media tends to focus 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:49.560 on panic and looting in the wake of disasters, and 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.680 emergency planners generally assumed that's how folks will react, that 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.480 kind of behavior, while not unknown, is not typical. Quote 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.760 groups and individuals typically become more unified, cohesive, and ultru 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:01.600 whist dick in such events. It is also a myth 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:05.120 that affected communities essentially are passive in disasters, waiting for 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.440 help from emergency organizations and are unwilling to become involved 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.320 in response work. Disasters put enormous strain on societies and organizations, 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.760 but they also stimulate civilians to halt their everyday activities 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.720 and take on new roles and responsibilities in relief and recovery. 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.520 The desire to help any crisis is very strong. It 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:25.560 is often a compelling need to do something. When do 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.840 you think you'd feel compelled to do something? The answer 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.400 to that question is different for everyone listening. Some of 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:32.920 you would take to the streets as soon as the 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:36.280 protests started. Others would be like my friend Alexander, sympathetic 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:38.280 to one side or the other at the beginning, but 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.880 only gradually dragged from providing moral support to actively resisting 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.800 the state. It's hard to predict when any given individual 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:46.840 will do when chaos and war up into the routines 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.280 of daily life. I'm going to guess that most of 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.160 you would not choose to take up arms, one way 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.640 or the other. Most people in most countries during most 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.160 civil wars do not take it upon themselves to fight, 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:58.760 But past a certain point, there would be no staying 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.600 truly neutral either, especially if you happen to reside in 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.120 a part of the country where government control collapsed and 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.560 or a rebel group took control. Millions of Syrians have 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.560 already found themselves in that exact situation. Some group, like 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.080 the Free Syrian Army or job At al Nusra would 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.159 wind up in control of their neighborhood. Generally, constellations of 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.399 loosely allied and often conflicting groups wound up running a 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.240 city or a province, roughly equivalent to a state. Being 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.440 militant groups, the rebels sort of had their hands full 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.320 fighting against their dictator and against each other. In many 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.080 parts of Syria, this left the responsibility for governing in 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.560 the hands of the area's civilians. Enter the local councils 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.960 next time. Going to quote from an International Review article 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.800 on this phenomenon, quote, individuals have sought to provide basic 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.640 needs and stability to their communities by creating local councils. 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.440 Local councils mostly exist in rural towns, but have also 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.240 formed around neighborhoods, in cities and at the governorate level. 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.760 Estimates for the number of local councils in Syria vary 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.120 from four hundred sixteen in late two thousand fifteen to 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.680 four d twenty seven in early two thousand sixteen to 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.520 four hundred four following the fall of Aleppo. According to 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.760 a two thousand sixteen survey by the Omran Center for 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.200 Strategic Studies of a hundred and five local councils and 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.720 opposition held territory, fifty seven percent of local councils were 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.640 formed through consensus and thirty eight percent were formed through elections, 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.439 with lack of security and legal expertise cited as the 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.240 major reasons why more elections were not held. This claim 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:18.440 is supported by other surveys as well. The majority of 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:20.600 these councils were created in two thousand, twelve and thirteen 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.720 and go through restructuring on average once a year now. 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:25.959 These local councils handled most of the day to day 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.960 work necessary for keeping an area livable. Big of US 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.800 an idea of how American communities might handle the retreat 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.360 of the state. In some cases, councils and their work 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.760 were funded by wealthy expats and foreign aid organizations. In 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.520 other areas, councils became dominated or heavily influenced by elected 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.560 officials who represented various rebel groups, from extremest Islamist organizations 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.000 like r R al Sham to more secular groups like 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.520 the f s A. Obviously Islamist Shura councils aren't the 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:53.639 sort of thing we'd likely see in the United States, 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.120 but in many communities, the most powerful non governmental organizations 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:01.000 are churches. In urban areas, churches are often own the largest, 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.920 most solid legal real estate in the area. They also 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.119 tend to be the sort of buildings that military forces 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.359 and extremists would be less likely to target from an 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.840 optics point of view. On the benevolent end of things, 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.440 it's not hard to imagine many churches and local religious 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.600 organizations taking the responsibility for helping to feed and provide 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.240 basic medical care to people in their area of influence. 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.359 I can picture churches, particularly large networks of cash rich churches, 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.320 as able to provide potential islands of sanity and compassion 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.639 through the food shortages, electrical outages, and people hit are 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.879 made homeless in the crossfire. But I can also picture 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.600 things getting darker in some parts of the country we don't. 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.920 Christian dominionists believe that the entire nation should be run 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.520 by and according to the rules of a very specific 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:55.840 subset of Christian Pentecostalism. Raphael Cruz, father of Ted Cruz, 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.600 is one prominent American dominionist, according to a political research 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.600 Associal Each report on the dominionist movement. Quote during a 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:04.960 sermon at the New Beginnings Church in Bedford, Texas in 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.000 two thousand twelve, Rafael had described his son senate campaign 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.200