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| A world my sons will never know |
Even on the day, I had a feeling. In the 1990s, along with the usual cultural trappings, there was a strange upsurge of 'patriotism' and appreciation for the past in post-Cold War America - and England I think. I don't know why. But all of a sudden it was The Greatest Generation, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Apollo 13, Gettysburg. In England you had a tidal surge of old Victorian Era production remakes. One of the big television events of the late 90s was a new series on AMC based on Forrester's Horatio Hornblower. It was quite a feat, and it was presented non-ironically or without the usual sardonic humor that so much Brit fare exhibited in the post-war era.
I've often thought, with Labor and Democrats in the international spotlight, those Boomer liberals in the new post-Cold War world wanted to show they were not the anti-West/anti-America radicals that decades of post-60s fare suggested. Even if they were, they wanted to show they could wave flags and bow to our forebears with the best of them.
Then came 9/11. Contrary to popular belief, the day of the attacks was all over the place in terms of a 'unified' response. Emotions were off the scale as a generation of journalists with no real exposure to the world's horrors broke down on television over what they were seeing. Peter Jennings ripped into Bush for not leading us. Al Sharpton railed against our country for thinking it was Muslims, once again demonstrating our race hate of non-white people. And that was on the day of the attacks.
Oh sure, another day or two and it was all flags and bunting. George Bush gave his megaphone speech and for a moment looked as if he might lead, until he told us our entire civilization was on the brink - so go shopping and show those terrorists who's the boss. A few weeks and you saw more flags. Celebrities came out of the woodwork to produce shows raising money for the victims. Jim Carrey and Kevin Spacey held up the child of a slain first responder for a big photo op. Some country singer caught the hypocrisy in Lennon's Imagine and called on us to imagine no possessions, I wonder if we can. Commercials from deodorant to coffee makers made sure to display the Stars and Stripes at every opportunity. We had a national church service and the Rev. Billy Graham, in his last big appearance, was our pastor.
But by late October, something caught my ear. We had tickets to the Ohio State football game that Saturday after the attacks. If you recall, all games were cancelled and moved from that weekend. Our game was moved to the bye week at the end of October. It was that game my wife and I were driving to when I heard the news reports on the local sports radio. It turned out Rush Limbaugh was in trouble for attacking critics of George Bush who themselves were complaining Bush was dropping the ball. There was also scuttlebutt that the attacks may have been planned by the terrorists as a punishment for Bush stealing the election.
So by late October at least, the first chinks in our celebrated 'unity' were already there. It was clear by November that the Left was far more worried about keeping Bush from capitalizing politically on this than going after those who did this. Likewise it didn't take long to see in Bush an empty suit that didn't have the grounding of a Reagan, or even a President Eisenhower. By 2002, the divisions were beginning to multiply exponentially. It's been going downhill since.
Even while I was still pastoring (entered Catholic Church in 2006), I said I feared the terrorists of 9/11 achieved what the Japanese had dreamed of achieving in 1941. I've seen nothing in the subsequent 15 years to allay that assessment.
Terrorists blowing up buildings to punish Bush for stealing the election..... who came up with that?that's actually insane. From the Wahhabi's perspective, both candidates were Degenerate infidels. The idea that they would care about such a thing is actually hilarious. I'm pretty sure Al-Qaeda dosen't even believe in democracy in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIt was the early weeks following the attacks. I remember it being discussed by ol'Limbaugh. I also remember it on early news pages I followed in those early days of the Internet. Remember, as of Sept. 10, 2001, there were still many who insisted we had an illegal president who had stolen a rigged election that had been cheated by the SCOTUS. The idea was that Bush was a typical War Monger bigot like all conservatives, as opposed to nice guy Bill, so the attacks were a warning shot. That was of course debunked as we realized how many years of planning went into the attacks. And it was short lived. But a reminder that we were already mightily divided as a country.
DeleteWithin days -- maybe hours, I'm not sure -- of the attack, there were (of course) the claims that ALL religions and ALL religious believers were to blame. These were in the minority, that time, but I daresay they were at least as prominent as any "stolen election" narrative.
ReplyDeleteUgh. So much evil came of this. I remember our departmental secretary, a very conservative, older lady from Minnesota, warmly approving the surrender of American rights to "keep us safe". The deaths in New York apparently made all the sacrifices in previous centuries to secure those rights worthless -- and this was in a small Texas town with a population of maybe 10,000 -- one that neither bin Laden nor anyone else in al Qaeda would have even known to exist. She was scarcely alone. This atmosphere of fear once again expanded the power of the presidency, eventually to the point that he alone was now the "decider" of when to go to war, Constitution be damned. It also made Americans comfortable with the Orwellian-named Office of Homeland Security and a domestic spying program that would have made the Stasi proud.
When the reaction wasn't fear, it was pride -- which, as has been almost entirely forgotten, is the foremost of the deadly sins. If we all fly flags from our car windows, it will frighten and confuse the terrorists! They only hate us because we are so fantastic! They hate us because we have used our freedoms in ways they think are perverse -- just let 'em see how we'll use those freedoms NOW! At BEST this was childish, but there was a demonic element in it, too -- as there always is in paganism.
I don't think 9/11 was when we first said we would sacrifice everything for safety. But it was the most obvious. It was clear we were not equal to the task, nor were our empty suit leaders. Most, as Bush makes clear, would happily have joined the Left, they just puttered around tossing scraps to those who still cared to stay in power.
DeleteBut it's true about their assessment of our freedoms. I used to work with missionaries from various parts of the world. They said it's actually true that many in other cultures see our freedoms as something to be leery of. Good in some ways, but watch out. Freedoms without check and they could end up like us. Something they don't want to happen to their own cultures.
I must not have been clear in how I described my surprise. I was surprised, based on what I knew of her whole character, that THIS PARTICULAR WOMAN had expressed a willingness to surrender basic rights clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights not made-up rights that are so popular these days, like the right to marry a potted fern, but rights that were understood as the essence of how we were different from Nazi Germany or Bolshevik Russia. A college student or even someone my own age at the time would not have been quite so surprising, but she was near retirement age in 2001. If even SHE was reacting that way, we had much worse to fear than terrorism.
DeleteAs for the misuse of freedoms, imagine you are on a Higgins boat headed for the Normandy beaches. "Of course Americans are no better than Nazis," you tell the guys about to hit the beaches. "Especially white Americans, who, as your university faculty will eventually tell you, should just commit suicide. But at least your sacrifice will insure that first graders can be compelled to listen attentively as drag queens glug glug glug."
DeleteDefinitely it marked a cultural shift. There is a strong skeptical/anti-government bent through the 90's. Looking back, it's probably the easiest to see in media the X-Files might have been the quintessential 90's show and it's no coincidence that Michael Crichton topped the book charts in that decade. Deus Ex, released in 2000, might be the perfect encapsulation of the worldview. Of course these things weren't taken out of nowhere, and you did have a distrust of both the government and the news in the wider culture and it was magnified several times over in certain corners (like hacker culture or in certain Christian groups.)
DeleteAfter 9/11 that changed. Certainly you still have many distrustful of the government. But it's almost always with a political bent. You had people railing against W Bush as an evil dictator with far too much power, but it was transparently because he was a Republican. When Obama got into office and doubled down on all the overreaches that his predecessor did, the vast majority of Bush's critics shut up instantly.
But things like the backlash to Ruby Ridge didn't come out because "How could that Democrat Clinton do this?" but because it was shocking that our government would be so corrupt, regardless of who was in charge.
Rudolph, that's right. My entire life growing up was listening to our popular culture spin endless tales of government corruption. Not trusting the government was as American as apple pie. Though in honesty, that shifted in the 90s, and not trusting the government was increasingly portrayed as some far right wing issue. Then it was picked up on as liberals (and some conservatives) raged against Bush for his policies. Again, as you say, the liberals dropping off while the skeptics of government picking up conservatives during Obama. Perhaps the problem is the hard divisions in our country where people are fine with whatever, as long as our side does it.
DeleteDunno. Can't say as I remember it that way.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. And I was one who thought this might bring us all together. Remember, when Bush went into Afghanistan, there was plenty of push back. And like Howard points out, it didn't take long for Atheists and others with axes to grind begin using this to their advantage. The old 'what did we do to make them hate us so much' was almost in stone by the time the year changed. Again, I thought it would surely bring us together. It didn't take me long to figure I was wrong, and we had likely already passed that point of no return. Which is more and more obvious with each passing day.
DeleteNo kidding, this was my thought at the time: http://www.liturgies.net/Prayers/Orthodox/canontothetheotokos.htm.
DeleteDon't know if you've seen Evan Sayet's first Heritage Foundation speech, from 2007 or so. He was a liberal TV writer when 9/11/2001 happened. He was also sure that all those people saying they hate America didn't mean it, the way you don't really believe a guy who says "I hate my wife."
ReplyDeleteUntil the day when you're having lunch together at a diner, and witness a brutal attack against her. And you say, "We gotta help your wife! She's being brutally attacked!" And the guy replies, "I'm sure she deserves it." And the experience of that sort of reaction to 9/11 is what convinced him that leftists actually do hate America.
A better analogy would be, "We gotta help your wife! She's overdosed on heroin!" This should apply even to a stranger. If you see a car crash, you should not look at the bumper stickers -- or even sniff the driver's breath -- to see if this is a person you think "deserves" a 911 call.
DeleteWe need to get away from false sacraments that are supposed to absolve people of all sin. Victimhood does not grant absolution, and neither does wearing a US uniform.
The song notwithstanding, America's alabaster cities had been stained by human tears a long, long time before 9/11/2001, and even worse, America's alabaster soul had been stained by some very filthy human sins for as long as the nation has existed -- just like every nation. That's no excuse for hating one's nation, but neither is patriotism an excuse for pretending America is some innocent Princess Peach, always being inexplicably victimized by evil Bowsers from outside our own little Mushroom Kingdom.
For my part, I've never known a single person who said America is perfect or without sin. I have, however, seen many using the sins of America to burn it to the ground. Of course it's right to celebrate one's nation without the need to drag its sins into every verse and stanza. Those it's worth noting that even in one of the most gushing songs of America praise ever written, we have this:
DeleteAmerica! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Again, an awareness of our sins, not an exploitation of them, which is what we're seeing today.
The America hate was already there, and had been in parts growing up. Looking back at old movies my wife and I watch from the 70s and 80s, I'm shocked to see how many of them are of the 'America is as evil as the USSR' brand. Or America is why the USSR is evil. Or America is worse than the USSR. The problem was, many felt - rightly so - that it's completely appropriate to be honest about the sins of our nation and where we fall to be no better than others. But that was exploited by those who didn't give a rip about anything but tearing the nation down, and I think we missed that until it was too late.
DeleteDo you think the pagans thought Jupiter was perfect or without sin? They told stories about the rape of Ganymede but STILL worshiped Zeus.
DeleteFalse gods rarely have all the attributes of the One True God. They are rarely conceived as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. This is especially true if the gods are money, or sex, or drugs, or popularity, or the like. Nevertheless, idolatry does exist, now as in the past. Don't tell me that you have never known anyone who has made an idol out of America. You might as well tell me you have never known anyone who has eaten pizza; my most generous reaction would be to conclude that you are not very observant.
Oh, I've known people to take patriotism too far or to lift up love of country beyond healthy limits. Just as I've known people to do that with many things. I've just never met a single person who insisted America was perfect and never did anything wrong. Despite that I've heard for over 40 years the need for Americans to 'finally be honest about our past.' We were, probably more then than now, where the demand for honesty now insists upon seeing a almost everything to do with our heritage as racist Nazi needing burned to the ground.
Delete"I've just never met a single person who insisted America was perfect and never did anything wrong." You keep saying that. Why do you think it's important? I'm pretty sure I've never met anyone who, in conversation with me, has insisted that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. All that proves is that when I encounter Muslims, we rarely discuss religion, and when we do, they expect that I already know the basic idea behind their religion. It doesn't mean that Muslims are so very, very rare as to be insignificant.
DeleteYou may or may not have met military (or ex-military) men who make the boast (they somehow think it is a boast) that when you're in the military, you "have to" do what your commanding officer orders, even if you know it is wrong. Not that you will be punished if you disobey, because then you would still have to decide if it was worth the punishment; that you "have to" obey, that obedience is the summum bonum that comes before everything else. Sometimes they will throw in "unless it is an illegal order". At any rate, contrary to Peter and the other apostles, they answer, "We ought to obey men rather than God." That is a kind of idolatry that is not at all uncommon -- so much so that we frequently read headlines about how priests in Australia are "forced" by this new law to violate the seal of confession, and that priests in this or that US state may be "forced" to do so soon. I will let St. John Nepomucene give the answer to that.
I'll give another example that I know you have heard: "We need to look beyond our petty differences of race, ethnicity, politics, and religion, and concentrate on what is really important: we are all Americans." All they're asking for is a pinch of incense!
It's important because I've spent my life hearing, largely those on the Left (though not exclusively so) insist Americans have never been honest about America's past, or never talk about America's sins. Sure they do. And they have my whole life.
DeleteThat's not to say some have never gone overboard with patriotism, or taken an uncritical look at our policies. That often happens. But that's a far cry from the charge "Americans never admit America's evils' or 'refuse to look at America's past.' That false claim repeated for decades has been used as a blank check to trash, hash and retrash America to the exclusion of anything positive. Hence the growing number of Americans convinced that America has to go.
Sorry, but when I ask why it is important that you keep insisting you have NEVER heard something, and you answer that you have spent your life hearing something else, how is that an answer?
DeleteHow many people, by the same standard, have told you they worship the demon Moloch? Likely none. How many Americans worship Moloch through their actions? That is a different story altogether. What people tell you is a highly biased, highly unreliable measure not just of reality, but of what people actually believe.
You say "some" have "gone overboard with patriotism". Do you call putting the state before God patriotism, even patriotism gone overboard? It has as much to do with patriotism as abortion has to do with women's rights. And it is NOT a small or insignificant group who have gone overboard -- any more than putting money before God is "going overboard with Capitalism" but is only done by "some". Maybe you really do have a limited experience that leaves you blind to this, but it is a real spiritual problem that has (less significantly) national consequences. Cut it out with the whataboutism.
And basically no one is saying "America has to go," or is really getting rid of the state's power. They want America to remain, under their iron grip; they just want all the ideals that the Marines and the Boy Scouts used to stand for to be first humiliated, then perverted, then destroyed. They may want to get rid of the Constitution, or the vestigial rights of States, or representative government altogether, but they want to own and wear the national government like Agrippa owned and wore his garment of spun silver, so that they too can be acclaimed as gods.
In other words, I've never heard what they insist. They insist there is this country called America that has never, ever discussed its sins even while having spent my entire life doing nothing but discussing and condemning America's sins. I personally know of nobody who has said America is or was ever perfect. And all my life, and going back ages into old textbooks I collect from the early 20th, there is mention made of various 'sins' of the past. Not in today's way, but mention nonetheless.
DeleteSo the ongoing mantra of 'America's sins and sins only' because Americans have never admitted America's sins is founded upon, well, a lie. Sure they have. Heck, liberals have been pounding America's sins my whole life. But it's a ploy of course. And yes, America has to go is picking up speed. Pay attention. In 2018, CBS reported on over 40% of Americans believing it was time to scrap the Constitution. You're seeing it in the growing iconoclasm and eradication of not just statues, but almost anything tied to America's heritage. Saying nobody wants America to go is almost as off as saying Americans have never talked about America's sinful past.
Actions speak louder than words. Get back to me when the people saying, "America has to go!" get rid of Gen. Milley. Get back to me when AOC says she is so disgusted by America that she will no longer hold public office. They want an America. They just don't want an America with you or me.
DeleteI consider an America not yours or mine to be not America. An openly godless, Marxist inspired socialist state high on the right of relativism and debauchery and low on the right to speech and religious liberty is not America. A nation that has burned our founding documents and principles along with our founders and pillars to the ground is not America. This is, in a way, the second revolution. And just like the first resulted in a not-England nation, so this one, once the ashes have settled, will likely bear less resemblance to America than the new American nation bore to merry old England.
DeleteI think I knew by Christmas that year that this was true. The political rhetoric was already divisive by then. And I knew we didn't have the strength of unity we'd need to truly address the attack. I have found it difficult even now for people to believe that their fellow Americans actually hate America, or their fellow Americans, and would even do things like cheat in an election or purposefully do things to make us look bad internationally. But I have not been surprised by this since Christmas 2001. Because the people who hate America, and especially the common American, have been the barbarians in power of all our major institutions, and a lot of our minor ones, since at least the 90's.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. By Christmas it was already beginning to dominate the situation, and a year later all pretense was gone. I'm not saying the official majority narrative wasn't one of unity. It was. But the cracks were already beginning to show in the first weeks following the attacks, not a year or so later as we often hear - driven by Bush's push into Iraq. And by now, we should see it wasn't some spontaneous American hate, but well planned and purposeful.
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