Civil Society and Katrina

Here's one of the best pieces I've seen on how the"little platoons" of civil society are out-shining Big Government in responding to the aftermath of Katrina. I think Anne Applebaum gets it just about right. It continues to amaze me that this whole things is read any other way than a massive failure of government, for all the reasons that libertarians have talked about for years. What Applebaum does well here is to point out how civil society has succeeded in responding. Though never said explicitly, it's pretty clear that the ability of smaller, more local institutions to respond in more flexible and less bureaucratic ways, through decentralized coordination, is the reason why.