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cyranoThe anniversary of 9/11 approaches. I have had a lot of caffeine, and so I open my mouth when perhaps more prudent people would simply drop their heads and observe a moment of silence. I put my thoughts behind a cut so that anybody who wants to rant about my thoughts has to work just a little bit harder.
I don't have profound thoughts about this day. I probably will never have profound thoughts about it. I mostly remember it as the anniversary of two deplorable assaults on freedom and democracy. And if that's profound then I need to get into the Buddha business so people will rub my tummy for a buck.
However, I'm getting really irritable reading reports from people who keep saying "Five years ago, we didn't have to worry about this, it wasn't a problem."
I call bullshit. Terrorism *is* something we had to worry about, we just didn't. Ireland, England, France, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Indonesia, Hungary... the entire rest of the world had been worrying about terrorism for at least fifty years. And it was really convenient when we could pretend that it was Somebody Else's Problem. We'd occasionally have somebody stand up and make a stirring speech, we'd occasionally pay somebody to stop it from happening, we'd occasionally pay somebody to make it happen.
But most terrorism not sponsored by a nation was perpetrated by poor people, because terrorism is generally a tool of people who have decided that the game is rigged and breaking the rules is the only way to win. That means poor people. And poor people had a hard time getting across the ocean, so we felt pretty safe. There were very few McVeighs and Nichols, so the plan worked pretty well. People who left the country--members of the armed forces, tourists, businesspeople--bore the brunt of what little terrorism was aimed directly at us. And many of those people were rich, so they could stay in well armored and protected areas, contemporary Green Zones, and feel safe. The attack on Oklahoma City was a bad thing, but an isolated occurrence and one unlikely to ever be repeated.
And then there was the first attempt on the World Trade Center. Which was a bad thing, but an isolated occurrence and one unlikely to ever be repeated. We *did* believe in fairies, and besides, Seinfeld was on. Could we please change the channel, could we move on now?
And in classic style, when something came along that was too big to be ignored, when even changing the channel couldn't get us respite, we decided that the only way to be safe was to blow up everything, to tear down all privacy, to throw away any due process or civic protection, to over-react like nobody's business.
And, like the new converts to the Church of Terrorism==Bad, we went forth to evangelize, to tell the rest of the world that Terrorism was indeed bad, and we could tell them how to deal with this new evil.
Which is why I brindle every time I hear passengers say "Gee, it's inconvenient but as long as it keeps us safe...." Because, for the most part, it doesn't. For the most part, it's in place to make us *feel* safe, to *feel* like we're accomplishing something, something akin to the Victory Gardens. And it makes people feel better. Which is a fine thing. But don't confuse motion with progress.
Here endeth the disjointed and unedited mumbling.
I don't have profound thoughts about this day. I probably will never have profound thoughts about it. I mostly remember it as the anniversary of two deplorable assaults on freedom and democracy. And if that's profound then I need to get into the Buddha business so people will rub my tummy for a buck.
However, I'm getting really irritable reading reports from people who keep saying "Five years ago, we didn't have to worry about this, it wasn't a problem."
I call bullshit. Terrorism *is* something we had to worry about, we just didn't. Ireland, England, France, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Indonesia, Hungary... the entire rest of the world had been worrying about terrorism for at least fifty years. And it was really convenient when we could pretend that it was Somebody Else's Problem. We'd occasionally have somebody stand up and make a stirring speech, we'd occasionally pay somebody to stop it from happening, we'd occasionally pay somebody to make it happen.
But most terrorism not sponsored by a nation was perpetrated by poor people, because terrorism is generally a tool of people who have decided that the game is rigged and breaking the rules is the only way to win. That means poor people. And poor people had a hard time getting across the ocean, so we felt pretty safe. There were very few McVeighs and Nichols, so the plan worked pretty well. People who left the country--members of the armed forces, tourists, businesspeople--bore the brunt of what little terrorism was aimed directly at us. And many of those people were rich, so they could stay in well armored and protected areas, contemporary Green Zones, and feel safe. The attack on Oklahoma City was a bad thing, but an isolated occurrence and one unlikely to ever be repeated.
And then there was the first attempt on the World Trade Center. Which was a bad thing, but an isolated occurrence and one unlikely to ever be repeated. We *did* believe in fairies, and besides, Seinfeld was on. Could we please change the channel, could we move on now?
And in classic style, when something came along that was too big to be ignored, when even changing the channel couldn't get us respite, we decided that the only way to be safe was to blow up everything, to tear down all privacy, to throw away any due process or civic protection, to over-react like nobody's business.
And, like the new converts to the Church of Terrorism==Bad, we went forth to evangelize, to tell the rest of the world that Terrorism was indeed bad, and we could tell them how to deal with this new evil.
Which is why I brindle every time I hear passengers say "Gee, it's inconvenient but as long as it keeps us safe...." Because, for the most part, it doesn't. For the most part, it's in place to make us *feel* safe, to *feel* like we're accomplishing something, something akin to the Victory Gardens. And it makes people feel better. Which is a fine thing. But don't confuse motion with progress.
Here endeth the disjointed and unedited mumbling.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 04:20 pm (UTC)We perhaps make a little too much about being an older nation, and America being a younger. But there's a lot to be said for having gone through a particular emotion/ hardship before for a) taking it in your stride, b) having the practical methods for dealing with it.
As you so rightly said, we've been dealing with terror threats for... {checks memory briefly}... well over a century, in all parts of the British Isles and it's only lately we've become just... stupid about it. Profiling air travellers? What?! What in the name of...?
And I'm pretty sure that this paranoia (or, rather, paranoid behaviour leading to paranoid feelings) is due to the "we must tag along with America or they just might crush us like bugs).
I don't think it does. Look at the simplest, most common form of OCD: hand-washing. I used to have a mild form of that thanks to my parents' own OCD, so I'm pretty sure here's how it works - you're worried about germs, afraid of what will happen. You take control of the fear by washing your hands.
So far so healthy, right? Well, then it, as I'm sure you're aware, starts spiralling. The more you wash your hands, the more you remind yourself that there's something to be afraid of. So you wash your hands more frequently. With stronger soap. Your hands start to crack, you can't stop thinking about your hands, drying from overapplication of soap. You use a moisturising, which gives you more reason to be worried about your hands.
Washing, moisturising, washing, moisturising. And you can't control germs. Because no-one else sterilises things enough. Germs can be transferred from anywhere to anything around you.
I know people who won't touch toilet doors on the way out. I've read about people who wear surgical gloves as often as they dare. And every phobia, every obsessive-compulsion, unchecked leads to agoraphobia. We spiral into social phobia and fortress mentality, closing ourselves off into smaller and smaller, less flexible spaces.
Because here's the thing: fear begets more fear. And every bloody palliative approach to controlling fear just makes things worse because you know deep down you're not making any change to the thing that's hurting you, you're not stopping the fear, you're not actually solving the big, unknown, uncontrollable thing that might hurt you. You have to either cure the actual root fucking problem or learn how not to be afraid.
/rant