The bloodshed in revolutions comes less from overthrowing the old regime and more from the process of achieving a consensus for the new regime. It is in the battle to sort out the shape and the leadership of the new order that the great struggle takes place.
The same is true for disasters. It is not the natural catastrophe itself that causes the most injury to the body politic nor is it the immediate aftermath of the disaster; it is in the intermediate aftermath, when the various 'warlords' begin contending with each other for who will rule, that the real damage to the social order actually takes place.
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