Not just biker zombies either.
Figure in all the easy to mentally/emotionally tip dads that under normal days will scream at their kids, and other peoples kids too, on ball fields and assault fellow spectators as well as coaches and umpires at games. Those guys won't think twice about trying to strong arm another to survive.
Same goes for females too including the normal days types who with regularity snipe at people and like the above dudes will lose control of their emotions and mentallity over just low item stuff such as being cut off in a parking lot or some lady taking too long at the supermarket to pay because she is paying by check (I witnessed this at my local Whole Foods last winter).
We've all seen these people. Many of us have these people as neighbors, whether we are aware of it now or not.
Some of us live with these types of people and others of us ARE these people.
Add in the pervasive US citizen sense of entitlement.
Add in the seemingly rampant in the US condition of mental illness to which many people are medicated by prescription.
Add in the many people who live daily with physical pain as medicated and moderated through prescription drugs....Which when the power goes out the grocery & drug store closes, and then people lose their ever lovin' mind.
See Katrina. Heck I've seen this first person during snow blizzards that crippled supply chain toward groecers as when I was living in NoVA the decade past. During one storm where the community Food Lion and Giant Food grocers did not get a supply truck for a week due to blocked by blizzard condition snow, I literally saw two women of my neighborhood in the toilet paper aisle get into a screaming match at each other over what was the last packs of TP (one woman had a cart full the other had just one package in hers) and they were on the brink of hitting each other. I walked away and left the store. Similar on going in the parking lot as people were _battling_ for parking spaces. I walked there as my house was just a half mile away and I didn't want to risk getting my car hit by some fool with summer tires (!).
I don't know the answer of what would happen exactly and I hope to never find out.
But I am very strongly supposing that it would be ugly and folk gonna lose their mind if the power doesn't come back up within 72 hrs. max, and as long as they don't see any mushroom clouds in the sky.
Snow Panic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bxg2tR0xgM
Note: This is a somewhat tongue in cheek composite flick of real world news and fictional clips from movies, but it's a good reflection of what I have seen of people first person during just snow storms expected and ongoing that would only put folk out for a day or five max.
- Janq
Edit: I close this screen and bring up my normal homepage of ABCNews.com.
In the top most red banner at that site the following is showing right now:
"U.S. Poverty Rate Jumps to 14.3 Percent, Highest Since 1994"
Time stamp 11:00A EST
It must have just been posted as the item is so new it's not even hyperlinked yet to a page.