Rebuilding New Orleans

Why did chaos reign in New Orleans after Katrina? Is social order in United States really that fragile? It wasn't always this way.

Colunmist Thomas Sowell points to the strong sense entitlement Americans now feel from the goverment as a big part of the reason.

Fear, grief, desperation or despair would be understandable in people whose lives have been devastated by events beyond their control. Regret might be understandable among those who were warned to evacuate before the hurricane hit but who chose to stay. Yet the word being heard from those on the scene is "angry."

That may be a clue, not only to the breakdown of decency in New Orleans, but to a wider degeneration in American society in recent decades.

Why are people angry? And at whom?

Apparently they are angry at government officials for not having rescued them sooner, or taken care of them better, or for letting law and order break down.

Do we really expect the government to eliminate all the pain and sadness from out lives? Can we require the government to prevent every disaster that befalls us?

When all is said and done, government is ultimately just human beings -- politicians, judges, bureaucrats. Maybe the reason we are so often disappointed with them is that they have over-promised and we have been gullible enough to believe them.

Government cannot solve all our problems, even in normal times, much less during a catastrophe of nature that reminds man how little he is, despite all his big talk.

Read the complete article on Townhall: Rebuilding New Orleans -- and America.