9/11's Failure to Launch.

I was an RA at the time. An urgent knock early in the morning awoke me to the tragedy. My ROTC resident was the guy to do it; he told me, “We’re under attack. The Arabs are attacking us.” After that, there was a prevailing notion of turning the entire Middle East into a smoking crater, particularly after one of the news networks showed people in the sand of some village celebrating.

Who knows if they were cheering about two buildings in America crumbling? The news takes everything out of context and repurposes it for a certain narrative. Regardless of the truth of that image, I will say that I was on board with the Smoking Crater Plan.

Rage can be a very powerful tool of motivation, if we are possessed enough by it. Rage has got to be the reason behind terrorist attacks. The desperate act of suicide bombings, the willingness to take out civilians, and the inflexibility of beliefs point to rage and not the need to dominate other people. In other words, this isn’t about power, it’s about emotion: the feeling you get when you finally vanquish an adversary.

Americans haven’t gotten mad enough. It’s not a matter of complacency, though, only misplaced emphasis. Capitalism is an independent venture. As such, our pursuits are independent of community. Without a strong sense of community, attacks upon it don’t carry as much weight as attacks on the individual. The emphasis on the micro as opposed to the macro is the misplacement of emphasis. But even if we were to a person pissed off that our soil soaked up the blood of so many innocents, we still would not be angry enough.

Ryan Seacrest spoke with former Noxema spokesperson Rebecca Gayheart about her new show Vanished. Ryan’s line of questioning went something like this:

SEACREST: “You’ve gone and straightened your hair on me. How long does it take you to straighten your hair?”
GAYHEART: “About an hour and a half.”
SEACREST: “Wow. I thought it was tougher being a boy than being a girl.”
GAYHEART: “Why would you think that?”
SEACREST: “It’s just that we’re not programmed to do all that. So, when we have to sit there and do it, it’s tough.”

Then he comments about her age and how young she looks in spite of it. Very bitchy, catty, girly stuff.

I’m not saying that the frivolity of the conversation on the anniversary of a tragedy is why the terrorists have won or why America is a terrible place, I’m saying the mere presence of Ryan Seacrest (who influences millions of people) is a factor.

President George W. Bush is not an obviously intelligent, well-spoken, thoughtful leader whose motivations come off more sinister than they ought to. He is a factor.

The United States of America now imports more products than it exports. Our worldwide lead in industrialization has diminished and our blue collar workers are being forced into poverty. That is a factor.

Elections continue to evolve into a battle of the lesser of two evils. That is a factor.

Intelligent conversation and intellectual personalities are vilified and discredited, unable to affect public discourse on account of extremists on either side of the coin. That is a factor.

Bureaucracy has caused airplane crashes, levy breaks, and devastating terrorist attacks, leading to the deaths of thousands. That is a factor.

These are all a factor in the reason why none of us have learned a damned thing from September 11th, why we will not be angry enough: We Are Mediocre.

We live in a nation of mediocrity, of diminishing returns, increasing mistakes and a disaffection for our communities. Our multitudinous voice has been squashed by a monotone, hawkish imperative, in the process deflating our quest to become better.

*In the past five years, have you sensed that humanity has gotten better or worse?
*In the past five years, have you sensed that Americans have gotten better or worse?
*In the past five years, have we come together or grown apart?

We will never forget, I will never forget, you will never forget what happened five years ago, but our increasing and collective stupidity will soon enough make us incapable of learning anything from that day.

***********

Lindsey,

I love you and I pray every day for your safe return.