Thursday, September 03, 2009

I Forgot. And That's Not a Bad Thing.

Ice cubesImage via Wikipedia

I was trying to promote a liquid lunch with a former colleague and suggested "Friday/11." He reminded me of the "trappings" that surround 9/11. So we'll push it back a week. That's not because I think anniversaries are pointless, not if you regard them as a moment to recalibrate, to focus on a fading moment (and everything fades) or even to accept that you have forgotten it. Or sometimes to conclude that all the meaning the moment had was imposed, not discovered, not your meaning.

I'm not disrespecting 9/11. It is useful to rethink 9/11 carefully if only as a reminder of how stupidity flows as naturally from righteous anger as water off asphalt, or as JD over a couple ice cubes. We got drunk on anger, and it's been one hell of a hangover.
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3 comments:

Peter Moore said...

Or you can think of 9/11 as the day the US-backed coup happened in Chile. And then they cut off Victor Jara's hands. Which shouldn't be forgotten.

....J.Michael Robertson said...

I did not know who Victor Jara was but I had the what and why of the event down. Here's the lesson (one of them): How many millions of my fellow Americans would herd how many thousands of the rest of us into stadiums to torture and kill? American exceptionalism? Nope. Banality of evil? Full marks.

....J.Michael Robertson said...

Oh. I forgot the Jara link!

http://bit.ly/1R99I