The Trouble With These People Is That Their Cities Have Never Been Bombed

Plenty of radical types from both ends of the political spectrum subscribe to some form of “it’s got to get worse before it gets better” philosophy. Most of them, however, aren’t nationally televised commentators rooting for Bin Laden:

Yesterday, Glenn Beck guest and former CIA official Michael Scheuer openly hoped for a terrorist attack on the United States, saying, “the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States…It’s an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.” Beck nodded solemnly

For my part, I’d like to bracket any observations about the mobeus-like cognitive dissonance of the reactionary right-wing mind or what this kind of thing says about the modern media landscape, and actually engage the question. Having existed through an actual terrorist attack on the actual city I lived in, I think there’s really something to be said for the positive social effects.

In the six weeks or so after New York City was attacked, prior to the hardening of the National Patriotism and before the appropriation of this tragedy as causus belli became sickeningly apparent, very interesting things happened in my town. In the face of mass death, an ever-present smell of burning plastic, rifle toting solders and the specter of Anthrax spores swirling through the Subway (remember that? never solved it since it turned out not to be a-rabs…), there existed an amazing solidarity among the people.

It wasn’t unity per se; folks were all over the map. I remember seeing posters in and among the photos of the dead calling for volunteers to privately organize and launch a counterattack. Others responded with meditation circles. Non-insane people had heated (shouting) debates in public parks. And yet everyone was kind. Charity flourished, as did simple politeness. There was no crime to speak of, and people more or less looked out for one another.

This all coincided with the dot-com bust, so the economy more or less collapsed, and everyone had time on their hands. As normal patterns were disrupted, new life flourished. Art, love, friendships, community; all these things boomed in the city’s collective recognition of mortality.

I really don’t want to say that I’m glad for all that destruction — the people killed, the people (not in small number) who actually went crazy as a result, etc — but it was certainly a privilege to live through the aftermath. It’s complicated, and I don’t think the rest of Estados Unidos got anywhere near the same experience. The Pentagon is physically isolated from DC, and the reaction there was pretty different from what I hear, more suburban. Duct tape stashes and permanent concrete barricades. The rest of the country was traumatized via television — jingoistic propaganda to follow — but got none of the real effects on their actual lives. No pattern disruption or changes in habits of action. Which is too bad.

To return to the post that sparked my comment, it really seems like this other experience, the televised national trauma, and the chauvinism and fear which resulted outside the actual effected areas is what Beck (and Cheney) and their ilk long for. National Pride. They miss the aenomic sheepie leader-following and empty-headed chest thumping they conjured forth with their remote-control phantasmagoria.

And fuck that noise. Really. Your little psychodrama was a moral and strategic disaster. Please get your poser-jollies somewhere else.

For my part, I do wish we could get that kind of shock to the system, without killing people. Confronting the finite nature of life while taking a collective holiday (and being drawn into conjoint community service) for four weeks is a pretty healthy thing, and could do a lot of good in the country. Might get a bunch of people who do pointless counterproductive shit for a living to retire.