down and out in new orleans

I recently watched a movie, "When the Levees Broke", and it really exposes A great deal about the US and the American people themselves. I'm not sure what Spike Lee's intentions were but it's a very interesting movie.

On the one hand it gives an uncensored glimpse of the abhorred corruption, classicism and over bureaucracy of the united states governement, while on the other it sheds light on the extent to which the people are unable draw an association between their hallowed freedom (to act out of their own self interest) and the very corruption that cost them their houses and lives. Many interviews show people exclaiming that they thought they lived in the land of the free, or that they thought their government was supposed to look out for them. Well their government was doing exactly what everybody else does in an economy based on self interest: maximizing their dollars spent.
Near the end of the movie, there was a focus on how little had been done to clean up the wreckage several months after the storm. Many people were shown complaing that fuck all had been accomplished. I find it interesting that no one was saying they had tried to help clean up or wanted to help cleanup. Everybody just wanted everything done for them. I just think that sums up the inherent flaw in that society: people feel like they should have all these freedoms and services and not have to do anything for any body else.

I also feel that this movie highlighted the degradation of social capital that has taken place in certain parts of that country. Louisiana ranks as one of the lowests states in terms of social capital while New York is average to above average in the social capital department. This is interesting because some parallels were made in "When the Levees Broke" between Katrina, which was a shit show, and 9/11, which saw tons of people flock to support the victims including the mayor of the city. In New York, people were risking their lives to claw people out from under giant slabs of concrete while in Louisiana one town posted armed guards on a birdge to restrict people from fleeing to safety. Whether or not this corelation between social capital and disaster response is any bodies' guess but then isn't there a saying: "the best way to judge a society is how they treat their worst off"? Well I think the Katrina incident gave us a pretty clear indication of how Louisiana treats its worst off.