Joho the Blog: 9/11 + 5: Fear and pride

We’re more than halfway through 9/11/06 and I’m feeling like we’ve fetishized it.Thousands of innocent citizens were murdered, and they deserve remembrance. But listening to the public voices chattering without pause, today seems to have become about something else: Justifying the sacrifice of American ideals and values in the name of our fear.

On 9/10/01, if someone had told you that in response to a terrorist attack, a majority of Americans would back preemptive war and torture, would you have believed it?

For five minutes forget whether or not we’re safer now, five years after the attacks. The question I wish they’d talk about is: Are you proud of how our country has responded? I’m not. Our soldiers are brave and our fire fighters are heroes. We’ve done some things right. But, overall I’m not proud. And if the authorities weren’t out whipping up fear, I think most Americans would answer the same way.

One cannot view an event in a vacuum, out of context of the actions that have been undertaking in its very name. The uglier the actions (torture, illegitimate war, the loss of civil liberties through the Patriot Act etc), the more the need to increase the polarization between what is Good (us) and Bad (them), hence the timely appearance of a movie like World Trade Center (which I admittedly haven’t seen, except for the trailer).