(no subject)
Sep. 6th, 2003 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaA while back ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lady_babalon was asking about September 11 stories. Here's one I just remembered.
About a year ago I wound up talking and flirting and drinking with a woman in the French Quarter. We were having a grand old time, but as the prospect of sunrise began to loom it was apparent she had had waayy too much to drink and needed to get home. So (after a series of misadventures of the sort two tipsy women can expect to have in the Quarter in the wee hours) when we finally got to her Ninth Ward apartment and talked for a few moments she started crying and cursing the Sept. 11 hijackers.
She then claimed that before September 11 she had worked for an intelligence agency and was one of many people whose failure had allowed it to happen. Furthermore, she was so depressed after the attacks that she hadn't been able to work since. I found the second claim to be very believable. The first was enough for me to conclude that she was delusional or, more likely, schizophrenic. The few schizophrenic people I have encountered are like psychic radio receivers who can pick up on other people's thoughts and emotions and are unable to tune them out -- and so, meeting her made me very aware of the high level of psychic detritus in the country's air since the attacks.
It's been almost two years now, and I don't think the country is even close to healing. The Iraq war certainly hasn't helped the healing process, either... I think most Americans have an innate understanding that it was unjust, but feel still feel to powerless and helpless from September 11 to do much about it.
lady_babalon was asking about September 11 stories. Here's one I just remembered.About a year ago I wound up talking and flirting and drinking with a woman in the French Quarter. We were having a grand old time, but as the prospect of sunrise began to loom it was apparent she had had waayy too much to drink and needed to get home. So (after a series of misadventures of the sort two tipsy women can expect to have in the Quarter in the wee hours) when we finally got to her Ninth Ward apartment and talked for a few moments she started crying and cursing the Sept. 11 hijackers.
She then claimed that before September 11 she had worked for an intelligence agency and was one of many people whose failure had allowed it to happen. Furthermore, she was so depressed after the attacks that she hadn't been able to work since. I found the second claim to be very believable. The first was enough for me to conclude that she was delusional or, more likely, schizophrenic. The few schizophrenic people I have encountered are like psychic radio receivers who can pick up on other people's thoughts and emotions and are unable to tune them out -- and so, meeting her made me very aware of the high level of psychic detritus in the country's air since the attacks.
It's been almost two years now, and I don't think the country is even close to healing. The Iraq war certainly hasn't helped the healing process, either... I think most Americans have an innate understanding that it was unjust, but feel still feel to powerless and helpless from September 11 to do much about it.
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Guilt and blame
Date: 2003-09-06 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-06 07:42 pm (UTC)The whole 9/11 War on Terror scenario is, in some sense, a massive hunk o' cognitive dissonance, from "American invulnerability" to "al-Qaeda does/does not equal Iraq" to "Weapons of mass destruction/no weapons" and so on for as many bizarre memetic short-circuits as ya wanna look at. Lots of stress created in the populace, mostly manipulated & fueled by the media. "The world is going to hell - buy a Hummer (while we play a Who song) and feel secure again."
Hard for those of use who consciously attempt to spread countermeme vaccines (like with my own Cackling Grackle list, for example). How much "stay awake" info to pass to help counteract the overwhelming mass-media line of the day". Past a variable point, it may well just increase the cognitive dissonance to the point of despair or apathy.
Can't blame anyone for that - the BushCo boys have really sent some serious adrenaline drugs into the collective unconscious and it's flight or fight time without much room for any subtlety. In some cases and some countries, this is how overt populist fascists get elected or take over. Anyone who promises to calm the panicked horses can win. Looks like we just get a pack o' wonky Dems in suits, mainly. No crazy Perots or George Wallaces to monkey-wrench the system this time.
Yeah, some folks are snapping under the strain, and I'd also predict at least a slight rise in Lone Berserkers over the next few years.
As for my well-known incurable optimism (no, really!) I'm clinging to the hope this is indeed all cyclical.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-06 08:12 pm (UTC)Oops - I correct myself. Just saw Gen. Wesley Clark on Bill Maher. Now this could well be our Mussolini fascist candidate, and it's not really surprising to me that he's gonna run as a Democrat. Ye godz, the "anybody but Bush" crowd could well end up voting for someone that will make Bush look like a civil libertarian and brilliant strategist.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-06 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-06 08:54 pm (UTC)He's the guy that almost started World War III a few years ago. When the peacekeeping forces (including the US, UK, and Russia) were in Kosovo a few years back, the Russians pulled a propaganda coup for the folks back home by taking control of the airport. Wesley Clark, having overall command of the NATO forces there, ordered a contingent of British troops to attack the Russians. Fortunately, the British were having none of it and refused to follow Clark's order, thus averting a major crisis between nuclear powers.
Clark sounds good on the surface without actually saying anything of import, but he appears to be a military nutball in the mold of Alexander Haig. Much too unstable a personality to be in charge of the country, IMO.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-06 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-07 05:53 am (UTC)Like the way Iraq has been twisted to be the source of terrorist attacks, how one politician went so far as saying that he wanted to melt down some of Saddam's building and use the result to build the base of new World Trade Centers. . how hanging flags on one's car is not the least one can do, its pretty much the only thing that can be done by the average individual. How the gov't is trying to tell people that drugs support terrorism when the real moneymakers for them lie in oil - but the republicans would never challenge that industry, and the democrats are too tied up with the auto unions to challenge it as well. .
Rather funny, and a bit enlightening. I think people are aware what a sham so much of this has been (wool pulled over the citizen's eyes).