We were forever changed..

The deliverance of Terror

On september 11, 2001.. a sunny, pleasant day for most of America.. millions of Americans woke up presuming it was just another day. They woke up, prepared breakfast, whipped up a cup of coffee and sat down to watch the local news. Flick* "TERROR IN THE SKY! Planes crash into WTC and another into the Pentagon!". The hairs on the back of your neck raise, the curiousity of why, who, and are you in danger rushes through your head. You stay tuned into your favorite news carrier for hours, call off work, and watch the news all day long, learning every bit of breaking news you can trying to make amends to what is happening in your beloved Country. For those of us unlucky enough to witness the second plane crashing on tv, and witnessing the collapse of buildings 1 & 2, over and over and over and over as if it were being hammered into our heads... we were forever changed..

Now, everyday events cue our curiousity and fear. Bombings in some foreign 3rd world country are plastered all over the news, beheadings televised and readily available all over the internet for viewing, gunfights from the war on terrorism on the news and/or internet, death films of people being shot, bombed, blown to bits all over the internet. The fire at the oil refinery, the pipe bomb some teenager made, the fire down the street at the old lady's house.. And not to mention warning after warning after warning of upcoming attacks on the news nearly everyday. We were forever changed..

Before september 11, 2001, our biggest worry was the commute to work, or what color shirt we will wear. Now, everytime you're in a large gathering of people, you wonder if you'll "be next". Everytime you see an arabian man you quickly magnify him and wonder if he is a suicide bomber. Everytime you see a plane landing over a large city you wonder if it's really landing. Everytime theres an explosion, you wonder if its a terrorist attack. The media gobbles up this fear, knowing, that fear mongering sells, and if you're getting people to watch the news, by God, you're making money and doing something right! We were forever changed..

It's been nearly 3 years since that drastic change in our lives. Liberties have been stripped, Counterterrorism tactics skyrocketed, security tightened to the point of barely being able to breathe, media has stooped to all time lows. We all know we're still vulnerable. We all know if 'they' wanted to attack us, they will. But in the back of our minds we wonder, "Why the fu ck are you waiting!?". This terror they slammed down our throats is killing us from the inside out. And they know it. We were forever changed..

Al Queda is not some group of redneck arabs with a little bit of money and alot of nothing to do with it. They've planned this attack for years. They knew exactly how we'd reacte and they were prepared for us to attack back. They knew how our media would cover this attack, the why's when's and how come's to the point of scaring us into denial. Al Queda killed 3000 people and invoked terror into the world's strongest nation. Not one civilian in this country can rightfully and truthfully say they are not scared of the future. Scared everytime they go in public, scared everytime they see even and inkling of suspicion. We were forever changed..

Thousands of Americans die everyday. Numbers we can't even comprehend. They always have, and they always will. But on one day, by killing 3000 people, a group of men demoralized a great nation. Posters of these 3000 victims were made, monuments dedicated to them made, specials broadcasted on the news about these victims were run. But the same number of people (or more) die on a daily basis and we don't care. We were forever changed..

In one single day, we went from properous unguided individuals to doom gloomers and scary story tellers. Our media is fueling the biggest terror the world has ever witnessed, in sense not just scaring the civilians of America, but fueling the fires of diplomatic pressures between countries that are ready to go to war. In sense, fueling the next World War between a multitude of countries that have been ready to shoot for years, but would not in the sense of being a trouble maker. The terror thats shooting across this world by over zealous media is causing tensions to rise.

And deep down inside, the generations that did not witness the WWII are hoping for WWIII. The tensions in one country affects another. A haystack of countries abroad are on the verge of collapse and turmoil. Another haystack of countries are at the brink of war. And somewhere in the middle of the haystacks is YOU, the needle, hoping to be found and knowing this all has to happen, and is going to happen if you like it or not. The tensions of this world will not fix itself. The old saying of history repeats itself is oh so very true at this very moment. Our world is a mess, and the only thing thats going to fix it is the realization that we're all being a bunch of idiots by killing millions of our men and women fighting over things that don't really matter. Al la World War.

I'm a member of several rather large forums. I read to my hearts content. I post when I feel the urge to comment, but in the most sense, I keep quiet and just learn what I can, and dismiss what I tell myself to be false. On occasion I argue my point. But the influx of predictions, gore stories, hopes and wonders of great catastrophies has come to a boiling point. It seems as if every person in this nation secretly hopes for some huge attack. We all know we would never tell another human being about our hopes and dreams of death, but, behind the anonomity of the internet, we can... and we do.

If the anonomity of the internet shows the truth we're all hiding from public is a sense of what this nation truly believes, then it's quite apparent that something nasty has to happen to fix this mess we've dug ourselves into.

"A collective mind creates a problem, and that problem can only be fixed when the collective realize it was them that caused the problem."

We will be forever changed..




[edit on 31-7-2004 by rwsdakota]

[edit on 31-7-2004 by rwsdakota]

The emotions, fears, and hopes have all changed for everyone.

But having viewed other boards and ats posts, you can see an outlet to decompress is needed. An outlet that sometimes is disguised as hate, anger, fear mongering, doom-n-gloom.

But where do you direct this energy. This need to fight back, without knowing what to fight at. The emotions are high on all fronts, and several just get burned out and go back to living a simpler life with simpler worries. Leaving the rest of it to higher powers.

Although in these times a more protective coating is necessary for countries against terrorism, this same coating only abraises the common folk, and exacerbates their personal dilemma's. And dont forget about Information Overload, as well as Paralysis by Analysis.

It's been nearly 3 years since that drastic change in our lives. Liberties have been stripped, Counterterrorism tactics skyrocketed, security tightened to the point of barely being able to breathe, media has stooped to all time lows. We all know we're still vulnerable. We all know if 'they' wanted to attack us, they will. But in the back of our minds we wonder, "Why the fu ck are you waiting!?". This terror they slammed down our throats is killing us from the inside out. And they know it. We were forever changed..

I think their waiting until the government realizes its to damn expensive to keep our country on yellow or red alert w/e. The day we do put our defenses down WAM they will hit us hard and most likely we will panic once more and start the cycle all over once again, its a never ending cycle until Osama Bin Laden and all does other sob's are caught and killed. But By killing them they will turn it mortars and you cant stop a mortar.

quote-If the anonomity of the internet shows the truth we're all hiding from public is a sense of what this nation truly believes, then it's quite apparent that something nasty has to happen to fix this mess we've dug ourselves into.-un quote you have a good point there in these pages ive been reading about how your sub-councious can affect reality if people get an idea in their head of what they want in the case of your topic revenge their expectations go up and the barriers just keep being pushed. I think deep down everybody wants peace but living in fear is not nice. The media will always be the same they use what ever information they have to keep you intrested thats their job- take celebrity's for example they cant go anywhere without a camera person preying on them and we get fed up with sex scandal stories the media dosent seem to think about what it is doing until it is too late then you get the next story. Everything is succed out of the topic most of the time it is the celebrity but when you switch to such political issues as war there is no boundary especially in these times. sorry if i went a bit off track but im tired ill come back in the morning

I thought it was September 11, 2001?

I will tell you the true, yes US change that day and it was tragic, but people is resilient and people get over tragedy and life most go on for our children sake, but I see the administration making his entered war on terror and his attack on Iraq as an excused for the 9/11 tragedy, and to me that is plain a slap in the face of the families of the people than die.

The administration is the one that is not letting this tragedy put to rest and is keeping the victims families mourning everyday of their life with the warnings and threats about possible terrorist attacks this scam is draining our economy and making a mockery of the true meaning of 9/11.

I am sick of it.

I remember waking up and putting on the new, I saw what happened and thought it was a movie channel. When I realized what happened, I was dumb founded. I went to work ( a wireless networking company) and the boss wanted to offer our services to help-he saw it as an opportunity- I don't mind saying, I was scared and upset all day long- thank god they thanked him, but did not take him up on his offer.

Maybe its just because I was am so far away from the "Epicenter", but I havent really been affected by 9/11..
Im not scared, im not worried, I can still sleep at night.
*shrug*

But then again, im kinda crazy as it is, so maybe im just missing something.

Originally posted by BANGINCOLOR
I thought it was September 11, 2001?

Heh heh.. oops... I was thinking 3 years when I typed it.. sorry

Originally posted by smirkley
The emotions, fears, and hopes have all changed for everyone.

But having viewed other boards and ats posts, you can see an outlet to decompress is needed. An outlet that sometimes is disguised as hate, anger, fear mongering, doom-n-gloom.

But where do you direct this energy. This need to fight back, without knowing what to fight at. The emotions are high on all fronts, and several just get burned out and go back to living a simpler life with simpler worries. Leaving the rest of it to higher powers.

Although in these times a more protective coating is necessary for countries against terrorism, this same coating only abraises the common folk, and exacerbates their personal dilemma's. And dont forget about Information Overload, as well as Paralysis by Analysis.

I understand the need or urge to want to vent, to want revenge and have no one to fire this urge at, but over the past few months it seems that many people are really digging into the doom and gloom threads; on all the message boards (not just ats).

It seems that the media and GOP has pumped us up with terror threats so much, and after 3 years of nothing happening, the collective actually want something to happen.

Can you all honestly tell me, while hiding behind the anonomity you are granted on the internet, that deep down inside you do not have this belief? There's a reason we feel this need to fantasize about very bad things. In my opinion, when the world, (the collective), gets to the point where every bad thing that has been ignored to the point where it reaches its boiling point, the collective seek out a war to ratify their mistakes. Not so much a war, but a world changing event to get everyones attention. A war being the easiest to acheive.

We can't fix our problems without pointing fingers to fix mistakes, we can't fix tensions between nations ready for war, we can't rectify religous extremists beliefs, and we know that world peace will never be achieved at the rate we progress as a world. So what can we do? Our subconcious knows what to do. And every post of doom is projecting just that, the subconcious thoughts of many who can speak their minds without being critisized.

A world war played out over several years/decades changes many things. It demolishes the finger pointing, it demolishes the pity things nations were tense over, and it slams religios zealots into the ground by turning their (our) world upside down. Things get fixed, people forget and forgive, extremists realize the flaws in their beliefs. A war reaches yet another boiling point where all involved just want to end it, pick up whats left, and try a different approach at running the world. Al la fixing past mistakes and putting into play progressive measures that these said mistakes dont happen again.

Maybe with all this story telling, doom glooming, and predicting is telling us that we really want just this..

[edit on 7-8-2004 by rwsdakota]

In an effort to get more discussion on this thread, I'll give it a quick bump..

Do any of you really believe that our subconcoius may be projecting the hopes and urges of something really big happening in this world to fix the current problems?

things that are today are not as they once were the day before. with each passing day things change. nothing is static and things are static tend to wither on the vine and rot. i am not the same person i was yesterday or last week. while such changes are minute, so small in detail you dont notice them at first the world, the people around us and ourselves turn a degree or two, maybe even a thousanth of a degree. these things can be quite small and inocuous in other cases it can be very fast huge and traumatic. but the world does change, sometimes rapidly, sometimes slowly but the world does change.

but make no mistake even if the events of 9/11 had not occured things would still change. things are never one way for very long.

Wow, great post dakota. I agree totally with your observation and your theory. There was one thing I want to point out though. Is the broken world our own observation or is it being propogated by external influences? I for one believe the latter. We are being told, including 9/11, that are world is deteriorating, that evil is run a much, that we are hopeless. And these feelings and thoughts perpetuate themselves, becoming stronger and stronger, and gripping the person more and more.

Though war may be the easiest option it should not be seen as the only option. We have the power at any time to change our obsession with all the bad things in the world. We can stop this at any time.

But who cant we stop, the people who encourage war and destruction. All who encourage it! Not just the terrorists, but the people who believe starting a war will fix things.

We have let the terrorists win, by fearing for our lives and by reducing ourselves to their own tactics. We have only a certain amount of control over our lives, and as we become obsessed by our fear, we relinquish even more. I'm not saying to ignore that fear, but it is destructive to allow its control.

[edit on 7-8-2004 by Jamuhn]

but make no mistake even if the events of 9/11 had not occured things would still change. things are never one way for very long.

I understand completely with what you've posted. But my question wasnt so much about change, but moreso about the aspect of people actually wanting change.

It's kind of hard to explain, and after rereading everything I posted I still dont feel satisfied that I got my point out.

Allow me to try to build on it..

Everything thats going on in the world, the tensions between china, nk, russia, iran, israel, iraq, alqueda and even in our own backyard; the exploiting of our civil rights... things are a utter mess. We all know this and know that it cant stay this way for long without something huge happening. Are people now, hiding behind anonomity of the internet, saying pretty much just what they want? Doom and Gloom (to fix our problems)? Or is this just me thinking short-term vs. longterm?

In my eyes, the only thing that will ever get this world back to even a semi-enjoyable world is for something large to happen, and the only thing large enough that I can think of is a rather large war.

For centuries now, we've ignored most of the worlds problems. Only dove into fights when we felt it was a small matter (in terms of fighting power). And it seems that all this ignoring has caught up to us and we're now in a time of unsettlement and uncertainy of the future..

Originally posted by Jamuhn
I agree totally with your observation and your theory. There was one thing I want to point out though. Is the broken world our own observation or is it being propogated by external influences?

The media is definatly not helping the matter. They seen the upheaval they caused by reporting the 9/11 event till our eyes bled. Now they just keep on riding that carpet of fear because everyone is tuning into the news to get the latest 'scoop' on whats to happen..

Kinda like the Reality TV shows that replaced the Family Guy shows.. they saw that everyone loved reality and totally scrapped the family shows.

Is the media intentionally doing this? I doubt it. They're reporting on what people WANT to see. And unfortunatly, people WANT to see doom and gloom. My question is WHY?

Is our world that messed up that we want to see the next bad thing that will set all the dominos falling? After the chaos of the "dominos falling" theres always silence and rebuilding.. maybe thats what we subconciously want?

To me, as someone who is not from the USA and never lived there, the terrorist attacks did not changed anything, directly. Maybe its because I was used to hearing of terrorist attacks in Spain, N. Ireland, even here in Portugal a man was killed by a terrorist organisation in my home town.

As far as the world situation, the only thing that changed was the "War on Terrorism" declared by the US president. All the world wars, crisis and other situations where more or less what they where before, maybe since the last 5 years before 11-09-2001.

PS: one thing I always think when someone talks about the dates and the possibility of the numbers mean something, is that, as far as I know, only the USA writes the dates as September 11, 2001. All other countries, as far as I know, write 11 September 2001 or 2001, September 11 or 2001, 11 of September.

I don't believe people are wishing for something major to happen. I believe that we are living in a time of instant gratification, the need to be in control, and a time where we generally do not have to be patient or kept in the dark on matters. We are used to getting what we want, when we want it.
Unlike the past, we don't have to wait a month or a week for a letter to arrive, we can receive it overnight via FedEx or even have it faxed to us. We don't have to wait 9 months to see what the sex of our child will be, we can find out via ultrasound. We are not a society that likes surprises anymore, good or bad.
Hearing that another attack 'might' be coming is tough. These days we don't know how to play the waiting game and we get frustrated when we have to. We are fearful of the unknown and our imaginations go wild when we are forced to live with the unknown.
Speaking for myself, I am NOT wishing or hoping something bad will happen to bring about change. I just don't like the unknown and sometimes I feel like if something bad IS going to happen I would rather have it happen and get it over with so that we can figure out how to deal with it and move forward. Though sometimes very positive things come from the worst tragedies, never in a million years would I wish anything bad to happen just to illicit change.
Just my opinion ...