Yes, it’s that day again. And yes, everybody is talking about it on Facebook (and, I presume, Twitter). Frankly, I grew tired of the histrionic pathos a long time ago. We Americans are acting like this is the first and only time something bad has happened to a country when, really, the 9/11 terrorist attacks were nothing compared to the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the two World Wars across Europe. It’s 8 years later -- not a year ago today. I mean, there have been natural disasters in third-world countries that took far more lives than the 9/11 terrorists.
So can we all please stop talking about it and put things into perspective? Let's get over it and move on.
16 comments:
Hiroshima needed to get nuked, the Japs wouldn't surrender after Nagasaki.
Natural diasters can't be prevented.
9/11 was the first attack on U.S. soil ever. I just put things in to perspective for you.
Put things in perspective? Are you retarded?! Yours is the dumbest comment I have ever received.
gotta love some americans. shoe bomber, i salute you. idiot.
anyway.
yeah, there have been many natural disasters since, many more lives were lost, but it was a historic day and in retrospect it change the world dynamic quite a bit. still, i totally forgot about it the other day and heard nothing on the news over here either. but i'm guessing it'll be awhile before americans start thinking about 9/11 in perspective. patience is the word. :)
i know I'll get a lot flack for this, but whatever... When I first saw the twin towers get hit and then go down, my first thought was, Holy shit, this is just like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. It was compelling to watch, surreal. And I think that has much to do with the fact that we obsess over it so much, why we keep watching the same clips over and over again. There's something perversely fascinating about the whole thing. I'm reminded of when Damien Hirst said it was almost like a work of art, a work of performance art. He got a lot of shit for that statement and had to later recant. But I think that statement hit close to home. Nobody wants to think of it that way, but I think deep inside a lot of us, it was a source of perverse entertainment. It was not unlike pornography; you couldn't keep your eyes off it. I admit whenever there's film footage of it on tv, I stop what I'm doing and watch -- even if it's for the 9 millionth time.
What does Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and natural disasters have anything to do with 9/11?
@ Maya: I mentioned Hiroshima/Nagasaki and natural disasters because, like 9/11, they are cataclysmic events that are experienced, in one way or another, collectively, by nations. The U.S. acted as though we were the only country to experience such extreme attacks when, really, it was rather minor compared to, for example, the loss of European lives in both world wars or the wholesale destruction of an entire population as the result of a nuclear bomb as was the case in Japan.
I too seem to fail to see how something like the World Wars, Hiroshima and/or natural disasters are comparable to 9/11. The WWs (including something like Hiroshima) were officially declared wars, the loss of lives was to be expected and accepted (I am not in favor of wars in any way, I just think you can't compare a war to a terrorrist attack).
Natural disasters are not caused by humans, therefore in a totally different catagory, I'd say.
I think it's a mixture of different factors that still has people talking about 9/11 8 years later.
Yes, there have been terrorist attacks before and many since, but nothing of that symbolic significance and "shock value". Attacking the US on its own soil, attacking such significant buildings, killing that many people, the unexpectedness of it all (at least to the general public...), revealing to Americans their own vulnerability for the first time... And it did stop the world in its tracks for a few days, and some things haven't been the same since. *am I melodramatic enough yet? ;-) *
So yeah, I think it's completely understandable that people still talk about 9/11 these days, I mean, it's only been 8 years, not 60!! Oh, one more thing: In addition, EVERYBODY witnessed 9/11, so in a way, everybody can talk about it, because we've all seen it. Couldn't do that with Hiroshima.
PS: I actually kinda agree with Damien Hirst and his statement about 9/11 almost beeing like performance art, was quite surprised that he seemed to be the only one who had the guts to say it. I mean, it was brilliantly executed, the symbolism and all that...If I were to plan a terrorist attack, that's what I would do. (Sarcasm!!)
Like I said, terrorism and world wars and UNEXPECTED extreme natural disasters are all severely traumatic and can bring about a shared, collective experience and memory of the worst kind. So that's why I put them all together. But I think it is rather pointless (and almost tasteless) to compare one to the other and say which was the worst. They are all horrible. And I don't think that just because casualties are expected in war makes it any less traumatic. If anything, it makes it even worse because then you have prolonged anxiety that can last years, waiting to die or be injured. That is hardly better.
But do I think 9/11 is on the same scale as WWI and WWI? Of course not. And it certainly doesn't compare to Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Not to mention natural disasters that take tens of thousands of lives such as the earthquakes in India and other third world countries. But America has never experienced those kind of traumas (or any major trauma for that matter) up until 9/11. Hence the prolonged reaction.
I'm just saying Americans need to put our bad experience in perspective. Other nations have suffered far worse. So far we've been pretty lucky this is all it's ever been. We emerged out of the 20th century relatively unscathed -- unlike many other parts of the world.
Hells Yeah! I'm glad those Jews in NY burned to death!
Praise be Allah! And death to America! ;-)
Freedom of speech is not to wish someone's death. Isn't it possible for you, Yogchick, to control/edit/delete some comments? I'm sure you would like to do that sometimes! After all, this is your blog and you don't have to put up with everything, you know!
Take care,
Ana.
@ Ana: Freedom of speech is freedom of speech (except for yelling, falsely, "FIRE" in a crowded theater). But yes, I know what you mean. I may have to censor in the future, but hopefully it won't come to that.
Wow, any discussion about 9/11 surely brings out the wackos from under their rocks! Amazing, that even those people know how to use the internet...
I knew this would happen. I thought it would be worse actually. But in a sick way I find some of these comments interesting because under the veil of anonymity, people sometimes really show their true colors. Very Borat.
Yes, America has not sufferd enough.
Lets have another civil war! More Katrina! Vietnam! Okalahoma city! Kent State! Columbine! VA Tech! NIU! Machine-guns for everyone!
@ Anonymous: Every single example you gave, save Katrina, were traumas endured at the hands of Americans themselves. Interesting.
I wonder why there hasn't been a terrorist act on U.S. soil since 9/11/01? There was a terrorist attack in Spain(train bombing) that lead to the evacuation of Spanish troops from Iraq, there was a terrorist attack in France, yet there were thousands of people packed in Times Square every new years eve, but nothing happened. Why?
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