But this assumes that people in survival or emergency situations are only going to look for themselves. In fact, in almost every emergency situation where there’s been a breakdown of emergency infrastructure, the exact opposite happens - it just doesn’t get reported on by the big outlets.
After Katrina, for instance, you heard “oh there was a huge rape and murder pit in the Superdome” on several news outlets. The Superdome was actually used by survivors as an ad-hoc camp, and the only armed people there were making sure people DIDN’T get hurt like that. People with boats went on sorties into the flooded city to get people back to the Superdome, where they had food and cots and medical care. The only real “looting” was for medical supplies, food, and things to help people SURVIVE, not luxury goods, and many tried not to scavenge in areas or businesses that couldn’t take it - Walmart could deal with a couple dozen missing sleeping bags, small businesses in the area would definitely miss that medication though.
It turns out humanity, in an emergency situation, left to their own devices, GENERALLY will choose to help other people first rather than hurting them. Research has shown that this will to help is fairly deep-seated in most people, and it tends to fall apart when societal pressure is reapplied - in the case of Katrina, that camp fell apart pretty soon after the National Guard and police started shooting anyone who was “looting”, no matter what they were taking.
But this assumes that people in survival or emergency situations are only going to look for themselves. In fact, in almost every emergency situation where there’s been a breakdown of emergency infrastructure, the exact opposite happens - it just doesn’t get reported on by the big outlets.
After Katrina, for instance, you heard “oh there was a huge rape and murder pit in the Superdome” on several news outlets. The Superdome was actually used by survivors as an ad-hoc camp, and the only armed people there were making sure people DIDN’T get hurt like that. People with boats went on sorties into the flooded city to get people back to the Superdome, where they had food and cots and medical care. The only real “looting” was for medical supplies, food, and things to help people SURVIVE, not luxury goods, and many tried not to scavenge in areas or businesses that couldn’t take it - Walmart could deal with a couple dozen missing sleeping bags, small businesses in the area would definitely miss that medication though.
It turns out humanity, in an emergency situation, left to their own devices, GENERALLY will choose to help other people first rather than hurting them. Research has shown that this will to help is fairly deep-seated in most people, and it tends to fall apart when societal pressure is reapplied - in the case of Katrina, that camp fell apart pretty soon after the National Guard and police started shooting anyone who was “looting”, no matter what they were taking.