While even the dimmest observer could see the violence that broke out among the crowds of people who waited hours or even days for the Playstation 3 to launch, a deceptively mundane, yet highly complex, phenomena was at work outside a Chicago Best Buy that would make Hans-Hermann proud.
In “Playstation 3 release: Chicago gamers create utopia on a Best Buy sidewalk“, The Methods Reporter accounts of how two men, one a railroad engineer, the other an investment banker, rose to the top as natural aristocrats that facilitated the smooth functioning of a society of people gathered for days to wait for the release of the Playstation 3.
There was friendship and entertainment. Absent any powers of compulsion, engineer Angel Colon and banker Peter Cahill helped people stay warm in the cold, arranged orderly methods of leaving the line, providing food, and the taking of restroom breaks. They arbitrated problems with Best Buy’s management, and in general, “For every problem that arose, we had a quick solution.”
Despite the article title’s claim that such a society was a “utopia” it was a perfectly realizable one. Given the reaches of democracy and government today, perhaps instances like this seem to be aberrations. But those who appreciate markets understand, as Angel Colon notes, “Once we had a little bit of unity and a little bit of rules everybody realized this was the best way to do things.”
