It's actually more than 700 case studies that show that, especially in times of crisis, we show our best selves. And we get this explosion of altruism and cooperation. This happens again and again after natural disasters, after earthquakes and after floodings.
If hardship brought out the worst in people, the human race wouldn't have survived. Right after 9/11, for instance, the murder rate actually went down in New York City. In World War II during the Blitz, the civilians of London were bombed almost every night for six months, but psychiatric admissions declined.
I will forever be fascinated by how people deal with adversity, how people react in moments of crisis, or how people behave when life gets uncomfortable.
I was caught on the freeway for hours when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The entire city had to be evacuated. I observed lives threatened by catastrophes and a whole range of behaviour. What could people do during a crisis?
Whatever people may say, the fastidious formal manner of the upper classes is preferable to the slovenly easygoing behaviour of the common middle class. In moments of crisis, the former know how to act, the latter become uncouth brutes.
I love people that, in the face of falling off a cliff, still want to fight about something that happened five minutes ago, going, 'Now, you know I'm right about that,' even though they're facing imminent doom.
I broke things to get attention.
Real style is not having a program - it's how one behaves in a crisis.
How do men act on a sinking ship? Do they hold each other? Do they pass around the whisky? Do they cry?
Everyone became brave from excess of terror.
Americans are desperately, here on the West Coast, buying up and hoarding iodine pills... Isn't it great that in a land that is divided between conservative morons and liberal pussies, somehow we have managed to find a way to pull together and behave like moronic pussies?
