The “Animals” & the Moralists

New York After the Summer Looting

The looting that took place during the power blackout in New York last July showed what should never have been forgotten. It showed that the social order in America contains deep segments of disaffection; that despite the rhetoric and occasional achievements of the last few decades, large numbers of blacks continue to lead a miserable, deprived existence; that the seeming social quiet of the last few years can easily be broken by accident or provocation. All the neoconservative talk about our society being essentially well-ordered and healthy turns out to be the merest ideology—and the worst kind: that of people who think they have risen above ideology.

After the looting ...