September 11: an American psychosis

Sept. 11, 2001, (which I refer to as WTF? Day) woke the American people up to the new world order. This “new world order” isn’t some conspiracy theory of clandestine ruling force; it is the inevitable realization of two equally possible futures. In one future, successful nation states build a world economy and use it to take the next step in human advancement. In the other, nation states become failed states, destroy themselves, and drag civilization back into darkness and ignorance. On WTF? Day, the American people realized failed states and the terrorist ideologies that grow within them can threaten the future we all desire.

Last Friday, the eleventh of September, every news station was making a broadcast about what took place eight years ago. CNN Headline News went one step further, re-broadcasting the events of that day as they happened. The New York Times had advertisements from virtually every major retailer, including Chanel and Macy’s that were all white space except for the words “in remembrance” or some other iteration of that message. Over the last eight years, it seems people have not fully forgotten what took place that day, though they seem intent on only re-living the trauma it incurred, instead of the resultant resolve we developed.

Terrorists are not a threat to this country. They are a threat to individuals, buildings, cars, airplanes and things; but they cannot touch what keeps this country together. What they can do is inspire fear, which can shake us. They want to shake us badly enough to cause us to break apart, to cast blame on each other, to fall into the trap of throwing away our liberties for the sake of security. WTF? Day shook us badly, and it threatened us by testing our desire for the future. Our resolve surged for a few months and then fizzled out when we decided to start dropping bombs, taking an eye for an eye.

I am a patriot, insofar as our country behaves in good conscience. Eight years ago our resolve failed us when we refused to question the motives of our enemies. We let our passions consume us and it cost us more lives, money, time and reputation then we could afford. Our only way to survive this psychosis isn’t to continue policing the world, but to use our resolve to improve it, so that police are no longer such a necessity.

There is no place for war in the new world order, and WTF? Day is not a panacea for every question about our future. We must atone for our mistakes and then move on, to the future we want. We must forget the pain, the anguish and the vengeance. We will give the Afghani people back their country, we will give everyone a chance to live in health, we will restore our environment, we will talk with other countries about improving our future and we will recognize that everyone must be free of ignorance. We will do this without violence and coercion, because we deserve life, liberty and the right to pursue happiness. We also have a responsibility however, to every other person’s life and liberty.

That is what we must never

forget.