Anarchy and the Aftermath

Now that Hurricane Sandy has passed on to Midwestern climes, the rats are crawling out of the woodwork — and writing me. Incredibly, they believe the mainstream media needs their help defending Leviathan, and they excoriate those of us questioning Our Rulers’ reaction to the storm. Several demanded that I apologize for denouncing New York City’s decision to close the subways, given that some of the track and stations flooded, while others gloated that the storm proves me — and by extension, anarchy, or at least hatred of the State — definitively wrong. Again, they cited the subways’ flooding as my Waterloo, so to speak.

I’m kinda baffled that the failure of a State-built, State-controlled monopoly testifies to the idiocy of anarchism and the wisdom of Our Rulers, but rats seldom reason well (especially when they’re swimming through flood-waters. Yes, Leviathan’s subway is overrun with rats, as all New Yorkers know. I have amused myself many a time, in many stations, watching these vermin scavenge for garbage on the tracks. Meanwhile, imagine an anarchic world, with private companies transporting us and competing for our business: how many rats would entertain customers then?). And I remind those who applaud the closing of the subways that none of New York’s previous potentates ever so responded over the 108 years of the system’s existence, despite a century’s worth of hurricanes, blizzards, torrential rains, and floods. Yet Nanny Bloomberg et al. have shut them down twice in 14 months.

I suspect most of my critics have little experience with hurricanes. Two readers who live in Florida independently wrote me to cheer my skepticism; one of them, DJ, said, “I’m a lifelong resident of the Miami area so I’ve been through a few hurricanes before. We always go outside and go to local businesses during the storm. We never stay in or think of evacuation for anything less than a category 4 [Sandy was a Cat 1]. I always get some good laughs when weak hurricanes make their way up the coast and the northeastern government goons get their panties in a bunch.” Bingo.

But this debate about Our Rulers’ judgment begs larger questions than the subways. For starters, there’s something of a “broken-window” fallacy here: the two-legged rodents assume Our Rulers mitigated the storm’s danger, damage, and inconvenience. And that is demonstrably false. Rather, they exponentially increased all of them.

First, some of the areas that suffered the worst flooding here are built on landfill, out into the ocean, courtesy of our taxes and the State. Battery Park City is a good example. The State conceived this boondoggle and executed it; to this day, it still controls this “reclaimed” acreage. Would a private company, on the hook for the billions this project cost, have gambled its own money that the water wouldn’t re-reclaim it? Nope: only politicians risking our resources are that reckless.

Second, the State’s stranglehold on the city’s infrastructure and its fascist running of various industries such as transportation horrifically worsens a bad situation — especially for the poorest and most vulnerable among us. My husband is a partner in his firm: He can work at home if he has to, and he earns enough for us to live in Manhattan. But the porters and other staff in his office building can do neither. We walked to his office today to find that these folks had been there, in the building, since Saturday. With the subways and buses idled, they cannot travel between their homes in Brooklyn and Queens and work in Manhattan — and with licensing and the State’s other restrictions on hiring, jobs are scarce. These guys know that hundreds of unemployed workers covet their jobs, so they’re living in the building until Our Rulers resume service on the subways and buses.

Our walk showed us other examples of the State’s exacerbating troubles. We were still some blocks from the 59th Street Bridge when we saw traffic at a standstill. In fact, the cars had been stalled in the jam for so long that one man had turned off his ignition; he turned it on again as we crossed the street in front of him. Nor was the storm causing this: there were still some clouds this morning, but the weather was fine. Rather, Our Rulers had closed the bridge despite the hundreds of vehicles needing to cross this link between Manhattan and Long Islands.

The bridge has no trees on it that could have toppled and blocked it, so why was it closed? Actually, I misuse “closed”: when we reached 59th Street and the bridge’s entrance, I watched thugs — sorry, cops — standing there allowing their buddies and “officials” access while waving everyone else on — regardless of how long those drivers had waited.

Millions of New Yorkers tonight are agonizing. One of my husband’s colleagues fled her home near Coney Island when ocean water burst through her door. She had time to grab her cell phone but nothing else: no wallet or ID (a necessity as essential as money in the police-state). She’s staying with her daughter but fears for neighbors she cannot find or contact. The last thing this poor woman needs is more grief from exploitative tyrants constricting her options and choices, ordering her to obey, forcing her to consider their dictates ahead of her own emergencies.

Far from feeling chagrined at castigating Our Rulers, I am completely vindicated. The State has once again exceeded any anarchist’s lowest expectations.

 

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8:45 pm on October 30, 2012