Reply #8: It will come to that [View All]

[Prophet 451]

I have two rules which have served me well in this life:
1. "People will believe what they want to believe or, what they fear to be true" (from Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind).
2. "Always bet on stupidity" (from Babylon 5).

Niemoller's statement speaks of the gradual esculation of brutality and the dangers of moral indifference. It's a powerful statement and a true one but people will not learn from it, for the same reasons they refuse to learn from history. Because they believe that we, now, are unique and the circumstances we now face are unique. We are above comparisons with the past or with others, they don't apply to us. American exceptionalism plays a big part too. For at least thrity years (and probably longer), the US has believed itself to be special, unique. That it must be the best of all nations because it is the most powerful. When 9/11 happened, the reaction was less to do with the loss of life and more to do with the puncturing of that annoying American sense of unearned superiority. Suddenly, the USA was vulnerable, no longer special and so, because cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable and people in pain tend to lash out, we had the ridiculous over-reaction that led to Iraq.

In actuality, the only unique thing about 9/11 was it's scale. I'm British. Here, we had the IRA bombing us on a roughly monthly basis for about thrity years but because we don't have that feeling of superiority anymore (a century ago, probably. Today, no), it wasn't as violent a wound on the national psyche. The 7/7 bombings were a tragedy but we dusted ourselves down, drank some tea, buried our dead, cracked some questionable taste jokes (for which, in the ultimate irony, certain Americans attacked us) and got on with things. I disagreed with some of what John Kerry said but he was right about terrorism. You'll never end it, at most you'll manage it down to the level of a nuisence.

Why am I bringing up 9/11? Because that will be the justification, as it has been for virtually everything the Bush junta does. "The world changed on 9/11" says he, and quite a few Americans believed him and still do. The rest of us sort of look at you and go "Huh?". Nothing changed on 9/11. A bunch of savages committed a terrorist act and murdered lots of people. A tragedy for sure but it happens. Numbers aside, it was a terrorist act, no different in quality than hundreds which preceded it but because it happened to Americans, was inflicted on Americans by actors from outside, it supposedly "changed the world". It supposedly justifies throwing aside all rules and laws. People will never learn, from Niemoller or from history, because they don't want to.

K & R, by the way.