cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/54239937
During the Great Depression, when banks foreclosed on farms, neighbors often showed up at the auctions together.
They’d bid only a few cents, and return the land to the family that lost it. Sometimes a noose hung nearby as a warning to outsiders not to profit from someone else’s ruin.
It was rough, but it worked, communities protected each other when the system wouldn’t.
If a collapse like that happened today, do you think people would still stand together or has that kind of solidarity disappeared? Could it happen again?
Damn y’all are cynical. I’m on the Hurricane Coast and people come out the woodworks to help one another after storms. It’s an awe inspiring thing to see so many come to mutual aid.
Two minutes after the wind dies down, dudes are roaming the streets with chainsaws, rolling in pickups, dragging trees with chains. Those that didn’t get sniped are actively searching for people to help. After Hurricane Ivan, men were going door to door, cutting trees off houses and cars. Power was out so people were cooking up their food before it went bad, grills hot, signs in the yard, “Come and get it!”
Another great example is NYC after 9/11. I’d visited Manhattan in 1992 and was utterly freaked out by how unfriendly everyone was. (Yes, I know, that was partly culture shock on my part.) After 9/11 they pulled together strong.
I’ve written about what all went on in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Skipping that tonight as I don’t want to cry, but it was awe inspiring.
And all of those events, even in your example, were before we had the organizational abilities and reach of the modern internet.
I don’t think any of this is political, cultural or otherwise dependent on the times. I wouldn’t spit on my MAGA neighbor if he was on fire, but I’d work by his side if shit hit the fan. The vast majority of us jump after disasters, we evolved that way, one of the finest points in our favor.
Did the banks go out roaming the streets helping people?
I don’t question if communities would band together, I question if a community banding together could still pose enough of a threat to a bank or auction to pressure such a sale.
What are a bunch of broke farmers going to do to prevent a foreign REIT from buying the property in an online auction?
You’re answering to the exact situation. I’m answering in more general terms.
True, but I also think that my exact answer likely generalizes to most situations where institutions are capitalizing on the suffering of people.
IMO this post isn’t about the willingness for people to help each other in times of need, it’s about the willingness (and ability) for the community to organize a defense against institutions that are using the situation to exploit the community.
Very well put.