A blog entry that spoke to me.

I religiously read the webcomic at squidi.net. I find it hilarious and it helps me get through the day. However, squidi has something that most other webcomics don't have. An intelligent person at the driver's seat. He also writes a blog that completely fits into the theme of ATS. It helps me keep my mind open and puts me back on track when I'm straying into ignorance. I want to post today's because it really makes a lot of sense, though it is a bit extreme in nature.

www.squidi.net...

If you don't want to visit the site, have pasted it below:

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I'm not sure if there is enough hindsight, even three years later, to express my feelings about the September 11th disaster. I am of the firm belief than any sort of emotion or belief too far in any direction is a very dangerous thing, especially when shared by many, many people. It's too easy to corrupt and manipulate - and it ALWAYS happens. ALWAYS. As such, I try to keep a calm and collected viewpoint of the world. When it comes to the tragedy of September 11th, I feel nothing towards the events themselves. No empathy, betrayal, sorrow, or whatever. It happened. Now what?

Because I share no empathy with those who died in the event, or their families and especially the police and firemen who died in the line of duty, the things I'm likely to say in this blog will probably offend some people on a very deep and personal level. I've made the mistake of mentioning my thoughts on this subject in the past without proper warning and was treated to some words I had never heard before, but I'm sure they weren't very nice.

Let me put this on the table. I am not, nor will I ever be, patriotic. No, scratch that. I'm extremely patriotic in ways that few could ever understand. Living abroad as well studying online communities has given me an appreciation for this fine Republic. What I mean is that I'm not blindly patriotic. If the government tells me to die for the country, I tell them to go # themselves. I burn flags for giggles and I think Texas is the anus of the country. I think other countries sometimes have a clue when the US doesn't, and I think we've really screwed up our country recently.

Anything worth doing is worth arguing over, and that is one of the things that I think make this country so great. We don't do things. We argue about them. In fact, it is so damn difficult to actually do anything in this country that almost every time we invent new ways to solve problems just because the most obvious way is impossible. Can ban guns? How about gun locks, background checks, and seven day waiting periods. That sounds like a bad thing, but it is a VERY good thing.

You see, in this country, if you want something to happen, you've got to really want it. You've got to fight for it. You've sometimes even got to die for it. But no law is written in stone, except perhaps the free speech one, and everything is open to debate. But when there is no debate, mistakes happen. While you can't change the status quo easily, the status quo is a very slow downward spiral that is controllable through other forces than government. You can't screw up the country over night.

Of course, there are exceptions. When everyone is in agreement - almost always in times of trouble that requires quick fixes - things go through quickly and without debate. Without debate, you don't have to double check your answers. Mistakes slip through and gum up the system. Mistakes can be compounded by more mistakes. It can get a hell of a lot worse in a very short amount of time, and it takes so very long to fix these mistakes.

After September 11th, for about a year, everyone was in agreement. In fact, you couldn't be not in agreement. Then the terrorists win, or you are unamerican, or some other flimsy and completely stupid bull# that this administration has used to control our thoughts and deeds. The fact is, arguing is American. If you see someone doing something, even if you actually agree with it, it is your right and duty to question those actions, publicly. That is what this country is built on. That is what this country stands for. Peer pressure and strong armed propaganda are not.

So, without further delay, ladies and gentlemen.... September 11th...



The Event Itself

I remember where I was on Sept 11th. I remember because I was asleep, and I like to be asleep. But people kept waking me up and telling me to watch tv. I saw the planes hit the towers and the towers crumble down, but frankly, I didn't care. I wanted to watch the other channels, but they all had the same crap on it. Even MTV. In fact, for the next week or so, tv stopped. The Home Shopping Network just put up a black screen. Sluggy Freelance, which I read at the time, didn't update in honor of those who died. What the hell? How do terrorists stop the home shopping network?

More people die from gunshot wounds every year than have died in any terrorist attack on this country since the beginning, yet automatic weapons just became available on the market again. Hot diggity. Damn those terrorists... I'll shoot them with my now legal AK-47. Man, did we get our panties in a bunch about the wrong thing. September 11th was a one time thing which was not likely to be repeated (at least not in the same manner), and in fact, the whole buildings collapsing thing was pretty much a fluke anyway and not intentional.

The reason why I couldn't shop from home and can now buy semi-automatic laser scoped heavy artilery is because of one thing. Media coverage. Had the event not taken all day, with several exciting moments caught on tape, we would not be having this conversation today. The World Trade Center was bombed before, but all the media got was a few aftermath shots of smoking holes. It was fairly quickly forgotten. It's the same thing with Columbine. Why do we hear about that more often than all the other school shootings? Because they've got the pretty pictures to Columbine and were just a little too late to the others.

I'm not saying Sept 11th wasn't a big deal. It was, but it was made about 10,000 times worse by the media. It's kind of like the OJ trial. We've had famous murders before, only we didn't have two hours of the most boring police chase on the planet and unprecedented access to the court precedings. The media is what decides how we feel and how much we obsess.

In all honesty, we would have a MUCH more balanced opinion of the event without constant media coverage for the next four billion hours after the event. We'd have the distance to make the decisions that needed to be made. We'd have the patience to debate at length about how to handle the situation. The media made us too close to be objective. Dammit. It's like we were there, seeing the building coming down around us, releasing a giant dust cloud swallowing everything. Screw the movies! This is real! And it has better special effects! We were all felt the adrenaline rush before realizing that people there were experiencing the same thing, only 100 times more effective.

The news channels will NEVER have the kinds of rating that they had that week. That doesn't stop them from trying. I can't flip past the news without hearing about how my life is forfeit if I stay in the path of the dreaded hurricane Ivan... which is smaller than that other one. All I'm saying is that if it is that dangerous, why do they have people reporting on the beach? If it were that bad, they'd be in Idaho or something.

There is something else about the Sept 11th thing which bothers me. Way too many people were made into heroes. I don't know. Maybe my definition of hero is warped. It just doesn't feel like getting up in the morning, going to your job, and dying in a firey building collapse is any sort of hero. Victim, sure. Hero. Nah. We just want to give sense to those deaths so much that we project the ultimate good will on those who were lost. Heroes are people you are supposed to be when you grow up. I've got better things to work towards than to die by random.



The Aftermath

The aftermath really pissed me off. Airport security went psycho and more than a little bit racist. In fact, the entire country went racist over night, taking a few long months to finally calm down. When the French wouldn't help us, we decided to call them "Freedom Fries". What the hell?

And, of course, we eventually ended up in a war with a country which had no overt (or even covert) connection to those events. How did that happen? We got manipulated. In fact, if you watched the Republican National Convention a little while ago (I didn't), they STILL bring up Sept 11th to manipulate you. It doesn't work quite as well now and they just look pathetic doing it. But none the less, for the time between the attack and our war, any time the president wanted something done, he'd invoke the almighty September 11th card.

And it worked, and that's what pisses me off more than anything. I don't care if the event was tragic or if the media made it more personal than it should've been. We should be smart enough to know when someone is using the oldest manipulation trick in the book on us. The guilt trip. Holy crap. It works on senators. It works on other English speaking nations. It works on us. We were guilt tripped and pity tripped right into a faulty war. You want to talk about the terrorists winning - how about removing all debate and free speech from our country?

Maybe it's just me, but I saw a lot of similarities to the events after September 11th and Senator Palpatine's rise to power in Attack of the Clones. Dictatorships don't just happen over night (barring the occasional coup, but those are impossible in highly militarized states). We gave the president way too much power at the time. I was honestly scared. What happens if he decides that terrorists will attack during elections, so he bans elections? That kind of crap not only could happen, they've already threatened it!!

Luckily, the further away from the event we get, the more collected we become. We are slowly starting to realize that we've been manipulated far past the point where we should've sat up and took notice. Depending on how much Florida screws up the next election, there may very well be some people who start asking important questions and actually doing something about it (unlike the last election where the questions went unanswered and when answered, unpunished).

But there was a time there when this country could've been destroyed. In a way, I'm kind of glad that he had a boner for Saddam Hussain's corpse. Since he had to get the world's consent (or part of it), he wasn't leading us down the pit of doom. He could've said "Hey! Follow me!" and we would've - right into hell. But because he had to deal with the UN, who couldn't give a flying rats ass about September 11th, he faced opposition that we weren't providing. He was slowed down just enough that the damage is minimal at this point. He was slowed down and now we are waking up. Are vision is still a little blurry, but by golly, we aren't going to get molested in our sleep without causing a black eye or two anymore.

Perhaps the worst and most offensive part is that things got censored for no good reason. The World Trade Center was digitally removed from many tv shows and movies. Some things which dealt with sensitive subjects, like terrorism, we either delayed for years or flat out censored (ironic because just about every videogame involves killing terrorists now). Anything with explosions, or planes, or buildings was canned, changed, or manipulated in some way. And don't get me started on that "Don't mess with New Yorkers" crap that the Spider-man movies have tarnished themselves with.



The Exploitation

September 11th wasn't just a tragedy. It was also an economic boom for rather unlikely industries. Every dumb ass in the nation had to have four American flags sticking out all the windows in his gas guzzling SUV. It was especially bad in the south. The market for flags went through the roof. But that's not all.

There are no less than 100 different books, documentaries, and DVDs created on the subject. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Even Marvel had a special 9-11 trade paperback. Commemorative coins? You bet. Special holiday? Patriot day! (Not to be confused with the real, but lesser known Patriot's Day) Complete with Hallmark cards! Beanie Babies? Yup. Video games? Oh, yeah. How about a new Freedom Tower to uh... constantly remind us how our freedom was taken away, not by terrorists, but by our own loss of objectivity? Yup. Got that one too.



I think we got screwed over September 11th. Yes. It was a bad thing. Bad things happen to good people. It happens all the time. But the reason why we are so obsessed with this bad thing is because the media gave us unprecedented immediacy and subjectivity to cloud our ability to step back and think about things rationally. Then the government, completely conscious of what it was doing, abused us and used us and we thanked them for it. Now, we pay to remember such a horrible event because it makes us feel better to think that by remembering it, we are letting go. They have a word for that. "Obsession".

There is one theme which constantly runs through these blogs, and it is the one thing I want you to take from them. Question everything. Question your beliefs. Question someone else's beliefs. Question patriotism. Question religion. Question science. Question me. Question EVERYTHING. But more importantly, make sure you aren't so wrapped up in the answer you want to hear that you miss the answer you need to hear. A question where you already know the answer isn't really a question. It is an introduction.

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Impressive thinking, if only a lot more thought like him.

and you know what, he's just about spot on.

seriously!

thanks DR, that was a good read and i couldnt agree more. i wish i had the clarity of thought to write like that. that is real journalism.



[edit on 15-9-2004 by lost]

I'll finish reading it later, but I would like to point out that this guy is entirely ignorant of what the 'assault weapons ban' actually banned.

Originally posted by Esoterica
I'll finish reading it later, but I would like to point out that this guy is entirely ignorant of what the 'assault weapons ban' actually banned.

You could have stopped at "ignorant" and been 100%correct....

There is something else about the Sept 11th thing which bothers me. Way too many people were made into heroes. I don't know. Maybe my definition of hero is warped. It just doesn't feel like getting up in the morning, going to your job, and dying in a firey building collapse is any sort of hero. Victim, sure. Hero. Nah. We just want to give sense to those deaths so much that we project the ultimate good will on those who were lost. Heroes are people you are supposed to be when you grow up. I've got better things to work towards than to die by random.

Ok Hero's, I personal agree on this one.. and Its not being ignorant because I was a Volunteer Firefighter. Doing your job does not make you a hero! A hero is someone who will put themselves to the side to help someone in need. For Example :" A car is flipped over in a ditch and thier is a little old lady trapped in it and the car is burning. A passerby not knowing the danger he/she could be facing pulls off to the side of the road and runs down and helps the little old lady out of the trapped firey vehicle." Now that is a hero, firefighters are doing a job as well as the Police and first Aid workers, they no what to expect and get paid for that so explain to me why they should be made hero's.

The other thing I agree with is "New Yorkers" their so proud.... but in reality they forgot to say thanks to all of us in "New Jersey" who helped them out, with our construction workers, truck drivers etc.. and also "What about all the innocent people who died who were just working in thier office that day, most of them were from New Jersey but all you ever here about are all those "Hero's" that died.. What a shame...


Just my thoughts

Forgot something else..... If your a hero are you suppose to sue someone for getting sick after helping people out....hmmmmmm sure are alot of hero's trying to cash in on that lawsuit!

[edit on 15-9-2004 by Justmytype]

I'm confused about his not caring about the attacks on 9-11, and I think Alabama/Mississipi (sorry) is the anus of the country instead of Texas....besides that I completely agree with this guy's sentiments. I like cynical

What really resonated with me was the issue about the September 11th aftermath. How they couldn't show anything that had to do with explosions and buildings in it on TV. I can Cartoon Network not airing an episode of Cowboy Bebop that had twin towers in it. Also, the flag thing also got on my nerves. It's STILL getting on my nerves.

Originally posted by Flinx
I'm confused about his not caring about the attacks on 9-11, and I think Alabama/Mississipi (sorry) is the anus of the country instead of Texas....besides that I completely agree with this guy's sentiments. I like cynical

What really resonated with me was the issue about the September 11th aftermath. How they couldn't show anything that had to do with explosions and buildings in it on TV. I can Cartoon Network not airing an episode of Cowboy Bebop that had twin towers in it. Also, the flag thing also got on my nerves. It's STILL getting on my nerves.

in the uk sky showed the episode of the simpsons (i can't remember 100% how it goes) where a plane is blinded by a spotlight and crashes into a building just a day or so afterwards.