the days after 9/11
To me, what was most shocking about 9/11 wasn't the brilliantly executed military strike—it was how 99% of all fuck-the-government types metamorphosed into flag-waving Instant Nationalists during the weeks that followed.
Things have simmered, though, and most of the old-time radicals are back gettin' lippy and actin' radical again. But I remember those first few weeks, a bitter taste of McCarthyite national panic when almost everyone draped themselves in a flag, threatening to beat up dissenters and all those who looked vaguely Arabic.
Many people who should have known better were frightened into scary pro-Am conformity by this first-ever attack on the Continental 48. They scurried to buy little American flags, waving talismans to ward off all the bombs and anthrax their guilt complexes told them were imminent.
Beware of the ideologues. Feed them a little fear and a spoonful of peer pressure, and it quickly becomes evident how shallow their beliefs are. 99% of you would have been Nazis in 1938 Germany, 99% of you would have joined lynch mobs in 1918 Arkansas, and 99% of you would be Allah-fellating Mujahdeen if you'd been born in Afghanistan.
After the US starved a million Iraqi women and children to death during the 1990s, the only consistent surprise is that there haven't been more attacks both before and after. I'm not saying the US "deserved" it—I don't think in biblical terms like that—but it was an understandable animal response by the numberless camel jockeys and sand nigras who feel we oughta keep our dicks out of their oil wells.
I'd still rather live here, though.
