It’s Time To Get Over 9-11
September 11, 2012 14 Comments
It’s a beautiful sunny day this morning, much the same as it was eleven years ago today when Islamic terrorists hijacked four planes. We all know the result of their terrorism, the World Trade Center was destroyed and the Pentagon was attacked. Thankfully the fourth plane was forced to crash in a field in Pennsylvania. There is no doubt that the 9-11 attacks have had a profound impact on the American people and on our politics. But the question has to be asked, why are we remembering this event eleven years after it happened? Why can’t we as a nation let 9-11 go to the history books, why must we relive this event every September?
I don’t intend to be callous in asking these questions. Have we stopped to ask ourselves why exactly we need to remember this event year after year as though it is some sort of religious ritual? Maybe we remember it on the 10th, 15th or 25th anniversaries but the 11th? Facebook is full of photos from the attacks, all the news networks have devoted at least some time to the anniversary. No doubt the History Channel will replay their docudrama for the umpteenth time. Perhaps the History Channel is where 9-11 belongs. It is after all history. It isn’t news, its anniversary isn’t news. Nothing about 9-11 is news, except perhaps the endless bickering over what to do with the site.
Why do we allow ourselves to get emotional about a day which happened 11 years ago? We need to have a little bit of perspective here. On December 7th 1952 did anyone in the country obsess over the 11th anniversary of Pearl Harbor? On the 11th anniversary of JFK’s assassination did anyone even acknowledge it? These two events had a profound impact on the people living at those times but those people put these events in their proper place, they allowed them to become history. What is it about Americans today that we cannot let go of 9-11? We cannot allow this event to become what it is: History.
We’ve become a coddled and narcissistic society which is far different than what our nation was like in 1941 and 1963. The end of the Cold War fooled a lot of people into thinking that nothing bad could ever happen to us again. Obviously that wasn’t the case, 9-11 is sufficient evidence of that. We weren’t safe, we’re not safe today and we’ll never be safe from evil. As a nation we foolishly believed otherwise and we continue to foolishly believe that pat downs of grandma’s and infringements on civil liberties will somehow make us safe. We’re coddled.
We’re also a nation of narcissists. Everything that happens to us is special, even evil that happens to us. We’ve turned 9-11 into an annual self absorbed religious festival wherein we all recount what we were doing and what we did on that date. We don’t really mourn those who died, we didn’t know them or care about them. Instead we’re proud to have been alive and doing something when history was made. In 2008 many of us were disturbed by the Obama supporters desire to “make history.” We really shouldn’t have been surprised. As a nation, we’re so proud of ourselves for having been part of history on 9-11. As though major events are what make us important as individuals.
We’ve become a collective, the left has won. Our narcissism is really a collective narcissism. It’s not really about us individually, even though individual experiences play a role. It’s about being part of a collective experience. Very few events can shape us in the form of a collective, a massive terrorist attack can because it’s something we all suffer together. In our 9-11 obsession, we haven’t done the right thing which is to forget about 9-11 and move on with life. Instead, we trot this day out every year and make a big deal over it. But it isn’t a big deal anymore, it didn’t happen last year or even two years ago. This an 11 year old historical event. As a nation we need to get over it, move on and stop remembering it every single year. If the nation won’t do it, then we must do it individually.
About Steven
wow! Steven, no one could have put it better than you have. “Everything that happens to us is special, even evil that happens to us.” That pretty much sums up what the rest of the world thinks about U.S.
Having been in the U.S, though only for a semester, I have immense respect and appreciation for it. There is so much the world can learn from the founding fathers of the U.S. Sadly, I’m not sure if the same can be said about present day U.S.
Unfortunately everyone in the US seems to think they’re a special snowflake. We as a nation are special because of our founding, we started as a grand experiment in self government and freedom. We’ve lost our way as we’ve lost our faith in God. While we remain the strongest nation, I question whether we have anything of substance to offer the rest of the world. Why would anyone point to the US and want to be like us when we’ve given up our freedom and devolved in to a self absorbed collective? Those who love freedom may still point to our founders, but surely they’ll want to chart a different course once freedom is atained.
so true! I find it hard to locate any indexed scale of good living in which the US ranks no.1. Be it education, healthcare or economic growth.
A lot of those ranking are nonsense in large part because the US is pulled down by illegal aliens. We rank #1 in freedom, though even in that we’re inching closer to socialism.
Steven:
You make an interesting point. The slippery slope that we are on would have us eventually remembering a tragedy every day of the year. I don’t favor that at all. I am perfectly fine with having just normal days.
On an somewhat related tangent, it must suck to have 9/11 as a birthday, anniversary, etc. Terrorists ruined it in 2001, but now I feel like society would almost indict someone for celebrating on 9/11.
I understand the press doing things for 9-11 on, say, the 10th anniversary or the 15th. But not all of the anniversaries in between. At what point do we remember without turning the day into a remembering obcession?
It’s hard for us NYC metro people to forget about this horrific day, though I do see your point. I already made the decision to not watch any of the tv coverage or the replays of it this year as it is too upsetting. I can probably never forget it due to my proximity of it, though I am trying to diminish the effect it has on me each year.
I’m glad you see my point. It isn’t that we should outright forget what happened. But we cannot allow this event to consume us year after year. We’re never going to forget that day but we can put it in its proper place, which is in the history books.
There are many, many people alive and suffering greatly from the effects of that day. And the civilized world is still under daily attack from religious and political fanatics of all stripes. This attack is not over yet-unlike Pearl Harbor or the assassination of JFK.
I do not believe that we as a nation are consumed by the 911 attack but are rightly giving it the attention it deserves. We must not forget that the fanatics of this world, religious, political, left or right place the value of the individual as something less than their longed for ideological or religious fantasy world. The ideologues hate the majority who can live tolerantly in a pluralistic democracy-with all of it defects, divisions and derision.
Just today In Egypt the religious fanatics burned the an American flag in response to the American religious fanatic, Christian pastor Terry Jones. Jones was scheduled to take part in an event on Tuesday that called International Judge Muhammad Day in Florida in which it would symbolically put the prophet on trial and play it live over the Internet.
Thus you have one group of intolerant religious fanatics responding to another group of intolerant religious fanatics.
P.S. Many of the founding fathers actually did not have much use for religion. Some were even atheists. Thomas Jefferson actually rewrote the New Testament to remove all of the supernatural events surrounding Jesus’ life. I don’t think that Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton or Franklin would attribute the success of this Country to religion. In fact, they were appalled at the destruction that religious wars had brought to Europe. They believed in tolerance above all.
I think the events in Egypt, which I plan to discuss tomorrow, are a little different than 9-11. I understand that 9-11 is an important event in American history, I don’t want that to be up for debate. I question however the endless public remembrances 11 years after the event. At this point, it should be a largely private thing. Must we read all 3,000 names every single year? To me, that sounds a lot like a religious rite.
We have a problem in this country recognizing the dangers of Islam. That is manifested each 9-11 when we pretend that only radicals were responsible. But that’s a different topic and it gets away from the point I was trying to make.
Steve, What happened to you? Why so cynical? Why celebrate the 4th of July? Why remember D-day? Patriot’s Day? Why remember Pearl Harbor Day? Why fly the flag and have parades on Memorial Day? We were attacked on our own homeland soil, Steven, and that was unique in our lifetimes. I don’t remember the War of 1812 or the Civil War or the Revolutionary War. It wasn’t televised. 99.9999999% of the people saw it happen live in the flesh! Little wonder we can’t get it out of our minds.
If we’re not going to even acknowledge what 9-11 really was then I just see no point in the whole thing. But really, the issue isn’t so much a personal remembrance of what happened. After all, history is the act of remembering the past. It’s the endless media coverage, personal anecdotes and the pretending like this event just happened when it’s 11 years old now. At what point do we stop reading 3,000 names at ground zero? At what point does this become like any other major turning point in history? Perhaps my complaint is really with 24-7 news coverage of everything. I’m just sick to death of the overkill.
I believe one reason why we relive 9/11 is because of the ease of access to the media and news surrounding the attacks. Everyone was able to see and hear what was going on. It felt much closer to us because of that, in my opinion.
That is likely quite true. The question then is whether it’s good or wise for us to relive the event year after year. My take is that it isn’t, apparently I’m in the minority though.