By David G. Walley

Aftermath

When I saw the Towers burn and crumble on September 11, I was swept with many contradictory emotions: on the one hand I wanted revenge naturally, but against what? whom? who was guilty? I sat transfixed, switching channels; I was enraged and I despaired. I wanted to kill them all, men, women, children, dogs - and let God sort out the rest. I railed against God, for the victims of this "holy war." Then I realized that belief in God had nothing to do with it, that God was made in man's image, and that belief in God (personal or a state-mandated one) had been the cause of most death and destruction throughout the ages of mankind. Indeed that Christian God has nothing to do with this, that Islam had less. Being the Witness as I seem to be as a cultural historian, I'd never been a big fan of Crusades, nevertheless, in a mutated sort of way, it contributed to what I was seeing in real time over and over and over again on NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN. No one even brought it up, which was a pity.

Perhaps for the individuals who conceived this act, this was ultimate payback for the Crusades--- America wasn't responsible for the Crusades. The Christian West was in the Middle Ages for it was concieved as a way for the second and third sons of the nobility to find something to do with their lives. The crusade was thus devised to take back Jerusalem from "the un-believers," the Moors. It devolved into an excuse for wide-scale rape and pillage, it had nothing to do with God, save for cementing the temporal power of the Catholic Church. Along the way the Crusades destroyed a thriving Moorish civilization in Spain which was rich in art, musical and mathematical traditions, it slaughtered Jews as well as Moors, long ago and far away. But how long can payback go on?

In truth, this attack wasn't against America, but against the world. New York City has never been part of the United States in any way shape or form, remember, it's a place where many nationalities come together and live and co-exist, an international melting pot. No, this attack wasn't against (or about) America, it was against the world. If this had taken at the Strawberry Festival in Anytown, USA, THAT would have been against America. But the individuals responsible were more bound up in abstractions, generalizations and demonizations of the Other. They were treating us like inanimate objects, as abstractions, the same way as we have treated those with whom we have had differences, whether in Southeast Asia or Haiti, just like the British, the French, the Germans, Italians and Spanish have done during their colonialist adventures from the 15th through 19th centuries.

It was a heinous act, an audacious act; the media commentators were talking about "brilliance," but I was starting to get my bearings again. It's not like this was any kind of a surprise: we'd been warned. It wasn't really a surprise "how" we were attacked, America tends to live in a bubble and to leave highly important tasks to people on minimum wage---like those who run airport security who think that getting a job at Mickey D's is a step up. They are the same minimum wage slaves who handle most of the transactions of the major banking houses too. One didn't have to be a brain surgeon to know that Logan Airport was a security sieve, a risk waiting to be exploited too. America always closes the barn door after the horses have escaped, that's nothing new because we live in a bubble, where political geography isn't taught in high schools, where in certain areas of Texas, students don't even know that Israel is a state, where citizens don't think that part of citizenship is being informed about foreign policy, save if foreign policy is considered what goes on in the state capital.

But we're not the only country who lives in a bubble, even in certain Arab states, authoritarian regimes themselves have their own extremist problems to contend with, extremists they tend to pay off in the mistaken belief that "our" terrorists aren't going to cause any internal problems. It's better to let them de-stabilize other regimes outside. But the individuals responsible for this heinous act went way over the line, into the realm of outrage even in the countries which covertly support terrorism for export purposes. And that's bad for everyone's business, even for the nations who have legitimate beefs with us for our blameless mindless consumer capitalist lifestyle.

So I was thinking about that and how there's only so far that payback can go because it's an infinitely repeating cycle, it's like the Irish and the British, or the Israelis and the Arabs, a self-reinforcing feeding frenzy of hatred so ingrained it's part of the DNA. And if we're going to talk about payback and who's guilty of what, if you're going to get down to it, we're all guilty because we're all human and human beings are imperfect creatures who kill, rape, pillage, maim and hunt other men for sport; because war is a kind of sport, a kind of game, even wars of ideology, especially wars of ideology, but a game with purer rules.

Then I began to notice how this conflict was being framed, because news is always framed, skewered to its audience's expectations, it's what newspaper editors as well as world leaders and Presidents (or their advisors on National Security) do. So we now have a "crusade" to embark upon, an unfortunate metaphor considering what the Crusades have done for inter-species relationships and international affairs between East and West; we have a crusade "evil" more or less. But those terms are relative according to which side of the ideological fence one is on. And while listening to the President stirring up the Senate and Congress and the nation a few days later, I started to meditate upon America, and Americans, how most people genuinely like Americans, but have trouble with America: what she is and what she does.

Since the events of September 11, we have been surfeited with a new surge of patriotism and nationalism. I wanted to examine what it meant to be an American, and what the "American way" comprised. I wanted to know what had been attacked. Again I was conflicted and confused: was the American way the right to have a Starbucks or MacDonald's on every corner? to shill for a culture which extinguished any vestiges of cultural individuality? I've never been an enthusiastic supporter of the MacDonaldization of world culture, it's something that the Islamic as well as many third world countries find common cause to hate, for glitzy consumerist America is indeed soul-destroying and a rogue state of mind.

Or is the essence of America that we allow people the right to live as they choose and to have equal opportunities for happiness regardless of race, color, or creed, to live peacefully with one's neighbor. I can understand how dangerous a creed this can be in countries run by civil or religious authoritarian regimes. We'd export this, not our goods, and we'd encourage our government to support the best that America can offer in terms of technology for better, safer and healthier living, without asking anything in return. The roots of extremism grow in souls where there is a no hope, where disease is rampant, where there is poverty and ignorance. It's not consumer goods or lifestyle transplants that will win this "war," rather it's showing others how to be self-sufficient and self-reliant regardless of their religious or cultural beliefs, that's what we can offer. If we have the wit or the foresight to do so.

Indeed, this is the challenge put out on the table by those individuals responsible for the events of September 11. We don't need more smart bombs, but we do need to be vigilant. As Americans especially we have to make a concerted commitment to practice the values we preach and to reach out in good faith open-handedly to the world. No this was an attack against all men and women of good faith. The journey we are about to undertake starts with a single step, the gauntlet has been thrown down. We'd better be ready for this. That's what I've been thinking.



(C) 2001 - David G. Walley