Johann Hari – Reliably Wrong About Everything…

Gosh, where to start?

The same predictions are made about every disaster – that once the lid of a tightly policed civilization is knocked off for a second, humans will become beasts. But the opposite is the case.

Really?

When the social scientist Enrico Quarantelli tried to write a thesis on how people descend into chaos and panic after disasters, he concluded: "My God! I can't find any instances of it." On the contrary, he wrote, in disasters "the social order does not break down... Co-operative rather than selfish behaviour predominates". The Blitz Spirit wasn't unique to London: it is universal.

It’s a myth that there was no looting in the Blitz. You do know that, don’t you, Hari?

You have done some research, haven’t you?

From this disaster, we can learn something fundamental about our species. It should guide how the Japanese authorities behave today – and kill off right-wing ideologies based on the belief that humans are inherently selfish tomorrow.

Right-wing ideologies?

I thought it was the left that believed in the need for a huge State apparatus to ensure that no sparrow fell without the benevolent hands of someone else’s money cushioning its fall?

Remember the gangs "marauding" through New Orleans, raping and even cannibalising people in the Super-Dome after Hurricane Katrina?

I remember the reports, yes.

It turns out they didn't exist. Years of journalistic investigations showed them to be racist rumours with no factual basis.

But not from right-wing journalists, eh, Hari? You do remember it was some left-wing race-hustling lunatic in the ‘Huffington Post’, don’t you?

Yes, there was some "looting" – which consisted of starving people breaking into closed and abandoned shops for food.

Oh, right. Like these guys. Maybe all the fishing rods were so they could catch their own food, eh Johann?

And obviously, these residential houses were cunningly disguised food warehouses, rather than places filled with electrical goods and personal belongings?

Still, you can always count on Hari to push his new-found ecolunacy whenever he gets the chance:

This is likely to be a century of ecological disasters, since each year we destabilize our climate more, in the face of plain scientific warnings.

So called ‘climate change’ isn’t causing tsunamis, you idiot.

Normally, in northern Japan, the night sky is blocked out by the yellow-orange haze of light pollution. Tonight, huddled together, the people there can see the stars.

Oh. Wow. Talk about a silver lining. There’s not really much one can add to that last, is there?

Wait. Yes there is. People have died in their thousands, and you’re happy that the survivors can see the stars without light pollution?

You, sir, are a fourteen-caret scumbag.