Gotham Diary:
Let’s Not
11 September 2013
It’s that dreadful anniversary again. I am always reminded of the scene in The Poseidon Adventure where the ship’s bursar argues with the show’s hero about which way to lead their respective flocks. The bursar insists on heading for the bow of the capsized vessel, basically for no better reason than that he is the bursar. It is obvious to the hero, and almost as clear to the audience, that by doing so, the bursar guarantees that his party will soon be dead. Bad advice, together with the failure to take good advice, was an integral feature of the 9/11 catastrophe, but I’m reminded of the movie because of what came after.
A catastrophe ought to be a learning experience, but unfortunately it tends to reinforce pre-existing ideas. Once the emotion has subsided, lessons ought to be learned, but instead of that, the determination is made to restore the status quo ante. As if putting everything back as it was might constitute a victory. As if it were courageous to refuse to learn from mistakes. Or to deny that mistakes had ever been made. Or to make changes where few or none were needed.
There is a heedlessness in Anglophone culture. Perhaps there is a heedlessness in every culture. But we have become powerful enough to array everything that interests us before us, and to sweep everything else out of sight. We are no longer obliged to confront what doesn’t suit us. We can wait for it to confront us. We have genuinely tragic possibilities.
The fact that ten percent of Americans earned more than fifty percent of the nation’s income must mean that we’re on the right track, right?
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The sad anniversary that I would commemorate is that of the publication of Susan Sontag’s stirring remarks in The New Yorker (September 24, 2011), from which I excerpt the final paragraph.
Those in public office have let us know that they consider their task to be a manipulative one: confidence-building and grief management. Politics, the politics of a democracy–which entails disagreement, which promotes candor–has been replaced by psychotherapy. Let’s by all means grieve together. But let’s not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us to understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen. “Our country is strong”, we are told again and again. I for one don’t find this entirely consoling. Who doubts that America is strong? But that’s not all America has to be.