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The WTC Attack, Sep 11 2001
Commentary and Analysis
Susan Sontag in The New Yorker
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The disconnect between last Tuesday's monstrous dose of reality and
the self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by
public figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The voices
licensed to follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign
to infantilize the public. Where is the acknowledgment that this was
not a "cowardly" attack on "civilization" or "liberty" or "humanity" or
"the free world" but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed
superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances
and actions? How many citizens are aware of the ongoing American
bombing of Iraq? And if the word "cowardly" is to be used, it might be
more aptly applied to those who kill from beyond the range of
retaliation, high in the sky, than to those willing to die themselves
in order to kill others. In the matter of courage (a morally neutral
virtue): whatever may be said of the perpetrators of Tuesday's
slaughter, they were not cowards.
Our leaders are bent on convincing us that everything is O.K. America
is not afraid. Our spirit is unbroken, although this was a day that
will
live in infamy and America is now at war. But everything is not O.K.
And this was not Pearl Harbor. We have a robotic President who assures
us that America still stands tall. A wide spectrum of public figures,
in and out of office, who are strongly opposed to the policies being
pursued abroad by this Administration apparently feel free to say
nothing more than that they stand united behind President Bush. A lot
of thinking needs to be done, and perhaps is being done in Washington
and elsewhere, about the ineptitude of American intelligence and
counter-intelligence, about options available to American foreign
policy, particularly in the Middle East, and about what
constitutes a smart program of military defense.
But the public is not being asked to bear much of the burden of
reality. The unanimously applauded, self-congratulatory bromides of a
Soviet Party Congress seemed contemptible. The unanimity of the
sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American
officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy
of a mature democracy.
Those in public office have let us know that they consider their task
to be a manipulative one: confidence-building and grief management.
Politics, the politics of a democracy-which entails disagreement, which
promotes candor-has been replaced by psychotherapy. Let's by all means
grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of
historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened,
and what may continue to happen. "Our country is strong," we are told
again and again. I for one don't find this entirely consoling. Who
doubts that America is strong? But that's not all America has to be.
-- Susan Sontag
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