Posted by galtin on September 30, 2001, at 0:43:55
In reply to Re: Terror's emotional effects, posted by sar on September 26, 2001, at 2:11:46
> this is what i was trying to post on in an earlier thread, except i think it may have been misinterpreted by a few (i.e., i was discussing my emotional response rather than the crisis on a political, macro level). i feel really disconnected from all of it even though i've an uncle in NYC and another in Alexandria, VA. i just don't know what to think.
>
> i don't think anyone deserved to die, god no, but my own personal emotional take onit is that the U.S . is dominant, exploitative, and i can underatnd how other countries would resent that to a fatal degree.
>
> i don't support that fatal degree, it's just that i sit here well-fed and pampered enjou=ying varying degrees of liberty while other suffer harsh climates and edgy rocks, tough religion and fright.
>
> an emotional level? it has not hit me yet. really i don't think it will until i'm unable to afford shopping at the mall anymore.
>
> rilly.
>
> love,
>
> sarthesecretmallratsar- It is hard for me to take in the "World Trade Center Tragedy" but am deeply saddened when I read about particular individuals who died. Is this a character defect? Maybe. But maybe it's also due to everybody talking too much (as I prattle on). And I find what people talk about often distracting and unsettling.
For example, I have heard scores of people pronounce that "nothing will ever be the same." I suppose we could debate the meaning of "nothing," but on a common sense level these assertions are silly. Sure, some things will change--airport security, access by care into NYC, people's sense of vulnerability. But these and other changes will either will eventually melt into "normalcy." But deeper changes in our national psyche, in our acquisitive nature, in our reliance on the estimation of others for our self-worth, in our frequent selfishness? History provides us with overwhelming evidence that none of this will change. Sure, there is going to be alot of self-congratulatory talk about how courageous, generous and relilient we Americans are. And it is true, sometimes. But by talking so damn much about it we suffocate the actual experience of being these things and substitute the surreal experience of hearing others and ourselves talk about it. Same with the tragedy itself. After awhile all the palaver, esp. on TV overshadows the tragedy itself and the almost unbearable sad fates of so many people. With our penchant for the overdramatization of our own reactions we dishonor those who died and those who will be without them.
And after all this self-inspection we will eventually wake up to realize that very little has changed. Maybe one of the reasons behind so much talk is that many Americans don't realize the this and far, far worse has happened innumerable times in the course of history. In the past year or two alone, tens of thousands have lost their lives to brutality and butchery.
In fact, we have mostly forgotten the ultimate lesson of the Titanic, the sinking of which produced a national crisis of confidence and a conflagration of soul-searching and "reprioritizing." What came of it all? Was everything changed forever?This recent disaster is a tragedy partly because untimately nothing redemptive or transforming will come of it. 99.9% of us will drift back into the ebb and flow of our lives and concerns.
What I am increasingly hearing is little in the way of sadness for the victims and much more in the way of a focus on our own feelings. And so, once again, the real topic of concern is. . . me. Yesterday I heard a person talk in excrutiating detail about her cousin's boyfriends, step-brothers uncle's angle of vision from New Jersey as the Twin Towers came down. I hear this stuff all the time. Along with the wearying platitudes about all evil giving birth to good, God bringing meaning from tragedy and other confidently stated certainties about what it all means. There is no ultimate meaning that redeems the loss of 6,000 lives. The world we live in is(was, and will be) subject to the passions of evil, the disinterest of the self-absorbed, our love of overdramatization, and to the impossibility of a perfect freedom from calamity and fear.
Maybe all it means is that like every century of human existence there are evil people around to provide fleeting reminders that we are always vulnerable, from attacks without and certainly from attacks that come from deep within ourselves.
I know that this is somewhat exaggerated. I know that many people have genuine feelings of sorrow and horror. These feelings have unassailable authenticity. They would be more ennobled if we quit talking about them and quit trying draw some lesson for life from it all.
Now I will try out my own entreaty, and shut up.
galtin
poster:galtin
thread:11763
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010927/msgs/11934.html