Blame is obviously the name of the game surrounding the plight of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and it is a superb example of two sociological developments that had not, to date, been manifested with such intensity and such clarity.

The ferocity of the blame game and its effects will only worsen in the coming weeks. The idiotic assertion that the Bush administration's weak energy and environmental policies or classified black ops technology actually caused Katrina to strike notwithstanding, I doubt there are many Americans who don't agree that there is plenty of blame to go around on the part of local, state and federal authorities. The efficiency with which the political-media complex came to bear, however, and the reactions of many Americans illustrate the developments of which I speak.

The first aspect of recent sociological change this event demonstrates is how secularized we've become. Sooner than in any event in recent history - including September 11, 2001 - everyone was looking for someone to blame. An interesting observation considering that 9/11 was a man-made disaster and Katrina, a natural one. Again, I grant that there were failures to follow set protocols by the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana, and the immensity of the Federal bureaucracy itself likely prevented its responding with the appropriate alacrity; the aged and infirm were not considered prior to the event, the ignorant and paranoid elected to stay, and the criminal element looked toward opportunities.

But that "someone" had to be "to blame" was an imperative from the start - not only for the hurricane's aftermath, but also for each and every circumstance that led to people being stranded, savaged, or displaced. It was someone else's fault that those who stayed or did not evacuate in time were poor, ignorant, paranoid or of criminal intent.

With respect to our increased secularization, I believe all this speaks to a new mindset in action: If there is no God, there are no "Acts of God." It seems to have occurred to very few that even if "they" had done everything "right", the Category 5 hurricane still may have breached the levees and caused the disaster. In other words, a few thousand more may have evacuated, but New Orleans would still have just as much fetid water in its streets right now, and people would still have faced looting, rape, murder and stranding.

With no God, nor the free will it was once alleged He gave us (which requires personal accountability, of course), there must be a human agency to blame somewhere, somehow. It is a curious and dangerous singularity.

The second phenomenon, also evidenced by the reactions and statements of people at large was their somnambulistic lapse into stock political dogma. This was to be expected by the high-profile Left, despite the cravenness it demonstrates in the face of such a tragedy, but the fact that victims, rescuers and onlookers also subscribed demonstrates that lack of critical thinking has become epidemic amongst Americans.

Back in the U.S.S.R., when Pravda or Izvestia said something was so, it was so - and you'd damn well better believe it was so. Here, the indoctrination has been more insidious. Certain educational professionals, past and present, have asserted for quite some time that our educational system has eradicated critical thinking by design in order to produce a more pliant populace.

And it appears to be working. The race-baiters and poverty pimps seem to have a significant number of Americans absolutely convinced that the slow response to the predicament of New Orleans residents was a race issue. When rapper Kanye West blasted President Bush at the Concert For Hurricane Relief, he and the looters were defended by prominent people who ought to know better. For my part, I have to say that I am beginning to find Black millionaires who continue to grouse and carp about how lousy America is quite tedious. Giving a rapper - of all things - a forum to speak on civic responsibility (which he was ostensibly supposed to do) makes about as much sense as having Madonna lecture junior high school students on the virtues of chastity.

The inconsistency with respect to the public outcry was also disturbing. Police and the National Guard were derided for lack of response, then derided again for too forceful a response. The efforts of many individuals and organizations that did respond with due speed were curiously overlooked. It was surrealistically Orwellian.

My conclusion here is that the Left's social engineering is indeed working - and working well. Activists and politicos jabber, and the proletariat take to the streets to keep the lie alive. Forget that New Orleans is below sea level, or that their mayor is a Black man, or that the city has an inimitable nefarious underbelly to its culture which almost certainly led some of the populace to their actions, or even the simple fact that hurricanes are dangerous and unpredictable.

And, like in Iraq, let's forget the ongoing instances of heroism, charity and generosity that are uniquely American. Let us focus instead on what stinks - like standing water in the Big Easy's streets - about America.

And if we can't find enough that's going wrong, we'll just make some stuff up.