ENGL 475: Postmodern Literature (Fall 2004)

i didn't even realize it was the 11th until 9pm today. the hijackings, now three years past, already feel akin to some ancient and distant memory. and it really might not be seen for sometime the complete effects those events will have had on this world. it has a lot to do with the complete clashing of - not just political - but almost every kind of ideology there was in existence up to the events of the 11th.

it is strange that no matter how hard you try, conceptualizing the event, discussing it, your conversation with yourself or others will eventually become a political one. this may just be the goal or an inherent consequence of a terrorism by people unaffiliated with government.

Political, perhaps... I think ideological is more apt. The shrouds of international mystery were unveiled after the 11th and maybe our society got the impression that parts of the world aren't too keen on American golbal supremacy. Nevertheless, if you take a stoic and more skeptical look on the events, the ideological impact takes precedent over the political. To elaborate, politically, our nation, since the events has shifted economic and national focus towards Homeland Security and The War on Terrorism (are these phrases copywrighted? I hear them so much, they should be...) The goal of the political shift is to avert tradgedy (e.g. terrorist strikes upon United States soil). Following a neo-conservative political approach, the political landscape provides this service by attacking the problem on the forefront. From a purely political point of view, that's great. You hunt down the enemy and corner it, taking away its allies and threats.

Now, if we continue our geo-political terraforming of the middle east, as we seem to be set upon doing, a political task can be accomplished. However, an ideological task can never be fulfilled. Jonathan Schell explains the distinction most wonderfully in "The Unconquerable World," in that great military and political clout has never been able to supress ideological and nationalistic uprising (i.e. Alexander The Great to The Romans to The Nazi etc etc).

The ideological precedent was facilitated through the mass media that fueled the inferno of 9/11. Al Qaeda realizes the significances and planned so accordingly. The attacks were on the centers of American Capitalism (Trade Centers) and Militarism (Pentagon). The political result is loss of property and loss of life (from a sober economic viewpoint, its an absurd formula of numbers and ledgers, trickling from the stock market, to the airlines to security services et cetera...) From an ideological standpoint, it is a attack on American 20th century imperialism and terra-forming.

That ideological attack can never be quelled, no matter how many countries we occupy and how many terrorists we ring up. The global dissonance that was presented through the mass media on the day is the lasting impression and the real problem that needs to be ammended.