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Fact of the matter is that places like LA and San Diego are not as well prepared either. In both cases (or in the single case of a megalopolis constituted of 20 million) there is no natural water for them to drink. They and Las Vegas exist in deserts, relying on pumps to send them water to drink. Hmmm. Lose the power and you lose the water. Their food is trucked and brought in by ship, most not existing within 500 miles in any state beyond the Imperial Valley or the central valley. The lemon and orange groves have become a thing of the past. All major cities have lifelines that can be cut by the loss of power and roads. The facade of civilization is as fragile or as strong as the infrastructure that upholds it. The size of a community has a large bearing on the willingness of an individual to buck the ethics and mores of the society in which he/she lives. A small society is insular and protective of itself, and sees the loss of an individual as a diminishment to their survival, and to the continuation of their community. In larger communities, losses of individuals become statistics in the eyes of strangers - it affects them less, and for those who buck the mores and lifestyle of that community, they can disappear into a different part of that larger community. Hence, more crime, more acts of individual violence in larger communities. The loss of services and goods in larger communities will tend to higher incidences of violence in them than in say, a small town where all neighbors know each other.
Civilization is what and where you make it. The loss of infrastructure in Alaska would hit bigger cities worse than in subsistance villages, but would create large scale loss of life in cities the size of LA and Vegas.
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09-18-2007, 03:15 PM
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