Posted on 03/08/2004 9:42:31 AM PST by quidnunc
Last week, President Bush was attacked by members of the Democratic Party for using images of 9/11 in a campaign ad, and by the next day there was the normal political and media uproar over this burning question: Should the President be scolded for daring to use such images, or should he be defended?
I do not wish to weigh in on this question because, like many burning questions being asked today, I think it is absurdly irrelevant, like the burning question whether President Bush should have worn a flight jacket while aboard a helicopter. Instead the question I want to ask is how our nation permits such "issues" to become burning questions in the first place. Do we have nothing more urgent to worry about?
The answer to this question should be an easy one. Yes, we do have many more urgent things to worry about; and by far the most urgent is what to do about 9/11.
Here I am not talking about what to do about future 9/11's — catastrophic terror that may or may not happen in our near or our distant future — I am referring back to the 9/11 that occurred on a beautiful morning over two and a half years ago. And our most urgent question today is: What should we as a nation do with our collective memory from that day?
-snip-
To insist that your enemy is not your enemy when he insists on being one is to rob him of his humanity, and to endanger your own existence — and all for the sake of preserving an unsustainable illusion. To recognize an enemy, and to treat him as one, is not to dehumanize him — on the contrary, it is to treat him as your equal. It is to take him seriously. It is to meet him on his own terms.
But that is just what liberal Democrats cannot bring themselves to do. They insist on pretending that 9/11 was just a kind of glitch, instead of seeing it as an act of devotion carried out by men who were motivated by the highest ethical purpose that they could comprehend.
This is the terrible truth revealed by 9/11. It was not an act of crazed loonies, unlikely to reoccur; it was the symbolic gesture of an entire culture — a culture that looked upon those who died in carrying out their mission as heroic martyrs who triumphed over a vastly more powerful enemy. That is why so much of the Arab world celebrated the great victory accordingly, by dancing in the streets and cheering the collapse of the Twin Towers — another set of images that liberals are forced to repress, since to acknowledge such behavior is to acknowledge the concept of the enemy that is embodied in such wild rejoicing at the annihilation of men and women whom you had never met.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at techcentralstation.com ...
The memory of 9/11 must be repressed because otherwise liberals would have to come to terms with the concept of The Enemy. They would have to face the grim and disturbing truth that there are people out there who relish the thought of pointlessly killing thousands of our fellow citizens, simply because they are our fellow citizens -- not for a political objective, or to achieve a military goal, but just because they see us as their enemy.
...[liberal Democrats] insist on pretending that 9/11 was just a kind of glitch, instead of seeing it as an act of devotion carried out by men who were motivated by the highest ethical purpose that they could comprehend.
This is the terrible truth revealed by 9/11. It was not an act of crazed loonies, unlikely to reoccur; it was the symbolic gesture of an entire culture -- a culture that looked upon those who died in carrying out their mission as heroic martyrs who triumphed over a vastly more powerful enemy. That is why so much of the Arab world celebrated the great victory accordingly, by dancing in the streets and cheering the collapse of the Twin Towers -- another set of images that liberals are forced to repress, since to acknowledge such behavior is to acknowledge the concept of the enemy that is embodied in such wild rejoicing at the annihilation of men and women whom you had never met.
It is almost as if we, as a nation, are entering into what psychologists call denial. Instead of making the necessary adjustments to reality in response to 9/11, we are engaged in a process of denying it, both by outright repression of all public memory of the event and by making it a subject of incomprehensibly stupid political controversy, dividing us as a people into warring factions over absolutely nothing -- and often it would seem for no better reason than to have something to bicker about on radio talk shows.
Lee Harris clear thoughts PING. Please, let me know if you want or don't want to be pinged to Lee Harris articles.
His articles at the TechCentralStation are archived here: http://www2.techcentralstation.com/1051/searchauthor.jsp?Bioid=BIOHARRISLEE
If you want to bookmark his articles discussed at FR: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/k-leeharris/browse
essay Al Qaeda’s Fantasy Ideology By Lee Harris (FR post) "Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology," (original)
The Clausewitz Curse (FR post) The Clausewitz Curse (original)
Given our uncertainty, what alternative does this, or any, administration have?Our World-Historical Gamble (FR post) Our World-Historical Gamble (original)
The collapse of the liberal order and the end of classical sovereignty.
His new book: Civilization and Its Enemies : The Next Stage of History
A perfect illustration of this mindset was given by rocker John Mellencamp immediately after 911 when he called Osama his "little brother who had done something wrong." Harris nails it when he call this kind of condescension "endangering to [our own] existence."
Thanks
Thank you for posting the FULL TEXT !Folks need to CHECK THE LIST ...
Reference For Excerpting Articles -
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... before posting an article. Then if it's NOT ON THE MUST EXCERPT LIST,
the full text should be posted so folks on the thread can READ the full article.
It certainly does, and should be shouted to the rooftops. Thanks for the ping!
Thanks for the ping. :-)
Give that man a big ceegar!
I just hope that Bush's campaign has the needed skill to fire the right guns at the right time. And give Kerry all the time necessary to implode. I am surprised that they are spending money this early.
Tapping into the collective memory of that day, and contrasting to JFnK's sorry record is a slam dunk; but it needs a subtle hand to make it work for the sheeple.
Qualities that must have been like nails on the blackboard to the DemoRats.
John Heinz was a Senator from Pennsylvania.
Did not find the words said by Sen. Heinz about Sen. Kerry, but still looking. Did read Mrs. Heinz will not use her money for Kerry, UNLESS the fight gets personal, then her money gets into play.
So I figure as the battle goes on and the Kerry medical and military records become an issue, as they should and by the media, out will come the Heinz money.
So, we may have been set up!
Still looking. BTW Mrs Heinz does not like Rick Santorim. (sp- sorry Rick)
An article about that was in this forum recently, I think. You could do a search on Senator Heinz and maybe find it.
As I recall, Senator Heinz, at a Democratic meeting, read aloud, without comment, two letters Kerry had sent to a constituent on a particular issue, each letter supporting opposite positions on the issue. Heinz was mocking Kerry.
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