Thursday, September 8, 2011

Hyperbole & 9/11

Hyperbole seems to have triumphed in the fight to tell the story of 9/11 … narrowly drawn hyperbole. We were attacked because we were free. We were attacked by crazy cowards. We are the light in the world, and were attacked by the forces of darkness. 9/11 was an attack on our nation. We are the greatest nation in the world, which is why we were the target of such a heinous attack. We have lived under the cloud of war for ten years.

We’ve all heard these statements or others like them. Statements that are remarkable in their narrowness and self focus. It’s as if we are the only ones ever attacked by terrorists … actually as if we should have been the only ones never attacked by terrorists. It’s as if we are above and beyond the pettiness of the rest of the world and any culpability in or for it. It’s also as if the killing ended on 9/11. If a soldier went to war and died in order to avenge the victims of 9/11, well that might count. But that’s the extent of our imagination on the issue. We just can’t make the connections.

The story of 9/11 isn’t just narrow, it’s overstated. We need to leave out the “greatest” and “evils” and the talk of “freedom” and “jealousy.” There was an attack. About 3,000 people died. The people who perpetrated these attacks blamed the United States for some of the troubles they were facing, such as: a strong Israel, the plight of the Palestinian people, American troops in Saudi Arabia, and narrow and limited economic development. Their cause was fueled by poverty, a large number of unemployed young men, and a real sense of powerlessness. In the wake of these attacks we fixated on punishing the perpetrators and screening people at airports, and made no real attempt to develop the goodwill that existed in the aftermath of the attacks and use it to attack the structural problems that give rise to terrorism. Our leaders instead used the tragedy as an opportunity to champion their ideological agenda and take care of what they saw as unfinished business. In the pursuit of these goals our leaders destroyed any goodwill that had been created, and tarnished whatever good image we had. We abandoned a realistic approach to the world that was based on compromise for a more idealized approach based on a rigid adherence to ideology. They also used the furor over 9/11 to weaken federal regulation of the economy and the environment in a way that favored corporations over individuals. That’s what happened. It wasn’t great. It didn’t involve much light or many beacons. It wasn’t evil either. It just was what it was.

I prefer this kind of straightforward retelling of the events of 9/11. It wasn’t the end of the world. It was important, very important, but only when you consider not only that one day but our reaction on all the days that have come after. It is more than just the loss of 3,000 lives. It is more than just daring rescue stories and heart wrenching tales of loss. It can’t be captured in a television special or a t-short or even a memorial centered on a twisted piece of metal … no matter how much hyperbole you indulge in. It is one piece of a much bigger story about how we relate to the rest of the world and how the rest of the world relates to us … a story that isn’t going to be told in the next few days … and is rapidly being obscured and shouted over. A story we should try to reveal before it is buried in an avalanche of hyperbole.

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