A Revolting Confession

FluffyMcDeath

FluffyMcDeath

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A revolting confession

by Kevin Potvin
The Republic

This and the article following it were originally written in October of 2001, five weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. It seemed prudent at that time to stuff it in the back of the drawer for when things lightened up again. But it seems that's not going to happen.
I have a terrible confession to make. When I saw the first tower cascade down into that enormous plume of dust and paper, there was a little voice inside me that said, "Yeah!" When the second tower came down the same way, that little voice said, "Beautiful!" When the visage of the Pentagon appeared on the TV with a gaping and smoking hole in its side, that little voice had nearly taken me over, and I felt an urge to pump my fist in the air.
This is a revolting confession, I know. But it's what happened.
I know lots of people were killed. But then again, I see lots of people getting killed whenever I turn the TV news on, and frankly, it doesn't really get me anymore. Plenty more people are killed without my knowledge. A million Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days a few years ago. That's a rate of six whole World Trade Center tower catastrophes every day for over three straight months running--and the whole thing barely registered on my radar.
Let's face facts. If the news on the morning of September 11 was that 3,000 Tanzanians or Burmese had been killed, they wouldn't have broken in on regularly scheduled programming, or cancelled football games, and there'd be no conversation about it the next day. No one would say the world changed. It's been a long time since lots of people getting killed is, in itself, news, and we all know this, and we all live comfortably with it.
The fact it was Americans who got killed is also not the reason this event gets so much play. As many Americans die from murder in any month as died on September 11, and hardly anyone notices this either, or cares.
The only reason September 11 merits so much attention is because the targets were so supremely symbolic. Corporatism and militarism were struck that morning, and that's why it's such big news. New York is not just home to American corporate headquarters, it is home to global corporate headquarters. It is the centre of global corporatism, and the twin towers were constructed precisely to celebrate this very fact.
The Pentagon is likewise not just home to the American military. The American military is so overwhelmingly dominant in the world, with a reach giving it ultimate power in every corner of the planet, that the Pentagon is really the home of the global military. The US supplies so much of the world's arms and commands so much of the world's force, either directly or through proxies in every nation on the planet, that the Pentagon is, to put it plainly, militarism itself.
I recognized these facts on that fateful day and so did a lot of other people, and I know I wasn't alone when I heard that little voice inside me say, "Yeah, beautiful!"
Nor was I alone, I know for a fact, whenever I passed a TV or newspaper with a report on the ensuing US war to capture Osama bin Laden, and I secretly said to myself, "Go, Osama, Go!" I am happy he has eluded capture by the Americans. I am in love with those Afghans who, whenever asked, said, "He went that-a-way," and their fifty hands pointed in fifty different directions.
There is a war on. US President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld call it "a war on terrorism." But is war not terrifying? And is terrorism not war, waged by those who can't afford tanks and airplanes? If someone wanted to wage war on the US, with all its satellites and drone bombers and smart missiles, what other form could it possibly take besides terrorism? To call it "a war on terrorism" is like calling it a war on war–surely an absurdity.
This is not a war against terrorism. It is a war against unbridled corporatism and militarism. And I'm not sure which side my heart is on.
 
Then I have lost a great deal of respect for you I'm afraid.
 
Glaucus said:
Then I have lost a great deal of respect for you I'm afraid.
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I thought that happened when I opined that it had been deliberately allowed.

I felt the same way that Potvin felt about the spectacle - it WAS a spectacle and had the same sort of emotional "wow" punch that Hollywood had been creating for years even then (and more so now). Things blowing up have been a staple of entertainment for years.
And I felt the same about the number of deaths - very small in the scheme of things considering the numbers of deaths that the US causes itself and that the US causes others and that others cause to others.
This is separate from the realization that there are people suffering and families being destroyed but I realize that with all the deaths from all the wars too but the media (neither the US nor ours) dwells on the fact in quite the same way as they did endlessly on those who died that day.
 
New York is my home. It's not just some big city to me. So when I saw the twin Towers on fire I felt insulted that MY HOME was being harmed. And that MY FELLOW New Yorkers (as well as any visitors) were killed. It was and still is very personal for me.

I don't give a rat's ass about the business or the military implications.
The Towers were just a cool place to go to. I knew someone who's mother worked in one of the Towers when it first built and a friend was on the 30th floor when there was the first bomb attack in the 90's.

I've never supported any of the asinine "US aggressions", never supported the zionists and have never been interested in shoving "democracy" down anyone's throat. Unlike the moron bush, I paid attention in school and learned that the ONLY way a group of people can have a democracy is if THEY fight for it because THEY want it. Unless you fight for it you don't understand how important it is. That's just a fact.

if the terrorists really wanted to stop asshole politicians from invading 3rd world countries maybe they should encourage Americans to get educated and stop voting for idiots
violence solves nothing
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
I thought that happened when I opined that it had been deliberately allowed.
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Not really. It's good to ask questions and to be skeptical. I do however get annoyed arguing against conspiracy theorists because it's like arguing against creationists - doesn't matter what facts you bring out they'll be ignored or dismissed.

I felt the same way that Potvin felt about the spectacle - it WAS a spectacle and had the same sort of emotional "wow" punch that Hollywood had been creating for years even then (and more so now). Things blowing up have been a staple of entertainment for years.
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It was quite entertaining for Saddam and Osama. Do you think Iraqis who hated Saddam were entertained by the Shock and Awe campaign over their cities? Can't remember the blogger's name from that war ("pax" comes to mind) but he was anti-Saddam but also said the last thing he wanted to see was his city blown to bits. Meaning, you can hate the system and still find sadness in watching it's destruction. Nothing good came from either of those events, not sure how anyone can be even slightly happy about them.

And I felt the same about the number of deaths - very small in the scheme of things considering the numbers of deaths that the US causes itself and that the US causes others and that others cause to others.
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True, but I don't go "ya!" when the US drops a bomb on a village. I don't go "ya!" when a bunch of Africans kill a bunch of other Africans either. If you said US foreign policy brought on the attacks, I'd be with you. But when you say you were glad to see the people die, I can't stand by you on that, sorry.

This is separate from the realization that there are people suffering and families being destroyed but I realize that with all the deaths from all the wars too but the media (neither the US nor ours) dwells on the fact in quite the same way as they did endlessly on those who died that day.
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Ya, and you think the foreign press outside of Western civilization will cover the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 quite the same way? Probably not. They might cover it as a historic piece, just as when the Berlin wall fell or Tiananmen Square - it was a piece of history that affected the planet in many ways but that's it. But despite all that, when the tsunami hit Indonesia it was very well covered by the Western press and people from Western nations contributed a large sum for the relief effort despite the fact that Indonesia is mostly Islamic in a post-9/11 world. I'll say "Ya!" to that!
 
metalman said:
Imagining yamaka's on their all heads as they jumped to their death?
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That sounds like a libel.
For your information, the majority of those killed on that day were not Jews, not that it matters. The libel you are attempting to insinuate with your comment has no basis in fact and is, quite frankly, dangerous and highly insulting.
 
cecilia said:
New York is my home. It's not just some big city to me. So when I saw the twin Towers on fire I felt insulted that MY HOME was being harmed. And that MY FELLOW New Yorkers (as well as any visitors) were killed. It was and still is very personal for me.
Click to expand...

Had it been my town I would probably have felt different but it wasn't and in further, it wasn't very different watching New York get attacked as it was for watching any other town that wasn't my own getting attacked. But the targets also made a difference to me because I recognized their symbolism. While the US and NATO like to bomb things like power stations and hospitals because it undermines the civilian population (which is necessary for conquest) this was a straight out strike at the owners of the world. It didn't target Joe Yokel and his water supply, it was a cut directly at the machinery of control.

The people who died were mostly ordinary as usual but the machine they worked for didn't care about them - they were just soldiers in the business of running the empire.
 
Ya, I typically think of my family when I hear about things like that.
 
Glaucus said:
True, but I don't go "ya!" when the US drops a bomb on a village. I don't go "ya!" when a bunch of Africans kill a bunch of other Africans either. If you said US foreign policy brought on the attacks, I'd be with you. But when you say you were glad to see the people die, I can't stand by you on that, sorry.
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But I didn't say that I was glad to see people die, did I.

I had a visceral reaction to the spectacle and the news was well aware of that human awe from the big explosion and the crashing machine into building. They played the planes hitting the building on a once a minute rotation, it seemed, as soon as the footage became available. BOOM, BAM, BOOM, BAM!!! because they knew it was "hooky" and would keep an audience.

And when the towers fell they played that over and over too.

Remember that on that day the people in the towers were abstract - and the numbers being thrown out at the time were that there were 10,000 people in the towers - and nobody knew how many had gotten out. When the dust settled and the number was "only" 3,000 it was a reprieve.

What was visible was buildings and jets, not so much people. On the first day there were reports of jumpers but very little in the way of footage. The first footage I saw of jumpers was much later. That wasn't what they concentrated on the first day.

The whole campaign of personalizing the victims started later - bringing forward the faces and names and stories - something which is never done for victims of American aggression or for any victims whose death is not politically useful beyond the fact that now they aren't in the way.
 
I understand what you mean, Fluffy, I had a newspaper which thought the next best fart of a popular politician was utmost interesting, so that hit the front page, while the removal of the UN tribunal from Cambodia wasn't that much newsworthy so that ended up in a cadre just somewhere in the newspaper. Out of anger I shredded the newspaper and send them a rather furious letter.
 
Speelgoedmannetje said:
Call me sentimental, but I don't think as political when such dramas happen. It only hurts.
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It hurts when it's one or two people. After that you have ... diminishing returns. You simply can't feel a million times as bad when a million people die. But moreover, it hurts when it is one or two people you know or can come to know after the fact and relate to your own experience. A million people must remain strangers to you - it's not possible to come to know them - you can only know them in the most abstract way.

The death of one man: that is a catastrophe. One hundred thousand deaths: that is a statistic! Kurt Tucholsky

(A paraphrase of which is often attributed to Stalin)
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
It hurts when it's one or two people. After that you have ... diminishing returns. You simply can't feel a million times as bad when a million people die. But moreover, it hurts when it is one or two people you know or can come to know after the fact and relate to your own experience. A million people must remain strangers to you - it's not possible to come to know them - you can only know them in the most abstract way.

The death of one man: that is a catastrophe. One hundred thousand deaths: that is a statistic! Kurt Tucholsky

(A paraphrase of which is often attributed to Stalin)
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It still hurts. It hurts to hear what people have to endure, or what people can be up to. At this moment.
I feel very upset as well to hear about Syrians being tortured day in day out.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
But I didn't say that I was glad to see people die, did I.
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No, but what you're saying now is that when you see a plane crash your first thought is of the plane. Funny, for me it's about the people. When the Russian space craft blew up last week it was interesting but not horrific because it was just a piece of metal and plastic. When the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up that was horrific. To me at least, but I tend to imagine what it would have been like to be on the challenger or on a highjacked flight on 9/11. I remember Sept 11, 2011 very well and all I could think about was the people and the horror they felt. To ignore the human issue and to focus entirely on "symbolism", well, I think there's something wrong with that. I don't know, maybe it's because I did see the "jumpers" on that very day before those images were pulled - and I never bothered to dig those videos up again although I'm sure they're on the net somewhere. That was scary, horrific stuff and I often think about that myself - would I jump or burn? I still don't know.

And to be honest, I think your memories are off, it was personalized that very day. People were on the street looking for their loved ones, asking questions, posting notes on walls, etc. But that's just on TV. NY is a city of around 16 million people. I'd say it was pretty personal to them the instant it happened. As for all the other deaths in the world and statistics, etc, that's just rationalizing. The article you pointed to had at least one thing right - it's "revolting".
 
Speelgoedmannetje said:
I feel very upset as well to hear about Syrians being tortured day in day out.
Click to expand...

How do you feel about the US torturing people day in day out. You probably wouldn't like it. That's why it's not on the news, but they haven't stopped doing it just because it's not on the news. How did you feel about Syria torturing people that were sent there to be tortured by the US CIA? The Americans were quite happy with the service back when they were outsourcing this kind of "enhanced interrogation" but now it's become "bad". Tut-tut.

How do you feel about the fact that even the rebels admit that 50,000 Libyans have died in the rebellion? How do you feel about the rebels rounding up blacks and beating them and executing them?

Should we help Syria to have the same kind of glorious "freedom" as we helped Libya to and as we helped Iraq to and as we helped Afghanistan to. Should we send in our planes to bomb their hospitals and sewer systems or should we just stop paying people to instigate protests?

True, people shouldn't be tortured but let's not be tricked into thinking that Syria is somehow the center of the worlds torturing problems. We can look closer to home to find the people who pay to have people tortured in countries all around the world.
 
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