Malabo,
Do you speak from personal experience when you say that disasters bring out the worst in people? I have been lucky enough to avoid serious disasters, but I have read anecdotal accounts, including Sebastian Junger's great read Tribe, which documents the opposite: people under sniper fire in Sarajevo, survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and even back to the Blitz in London all quoted as saying that they actually miss the sense of community, camaraderie, and care that those fraught times inspired in ordinary humans. It is the mundane days of ordinary, easy existence that create the distance and strife between us, selon moi. I can say from personal experience that the hardest days with my friends, colleagues, or family have been the best, and I've never been more alive nor more willing to help those around me that when mortars are dropping or a vehicle is about to go up in flames. I don't have the hubris to assume that I am alone in this experience.
--Matt