9/11 Overdose
I've been assembling this weekend's linkfest -- and I started to feel a little quesy. I couldn't figure out what it was, and then it dawned on me: 9/11 overdose.
We are in for a total excess of "celebrations" -- is that the right word? -- of the 5th anniversary of 9/11.
That would be Wood, for you married couples. Instead of wood, we get tasteless Mini-series, crass comedic novels, fictionlized dramatizations, front page columns, magazine stories galore: The U.S. media, following the ugly lead of politicians, is about to engage in a full on festival of September 11th commericalization.
Its already cloying; 9/11 is now at risk for becoming another holiday, like Halloween or Columbus day. Macy*s will have a white sale, halftime at football games will do a video montage (aftr the 9/11tailgate party in the parking lot), speeches will be given, barbecues consumed. Take what has been already been done to Christmas: Sterilize, mass produce, fictionalize, and repackage it into one giant opportunistic shopping orgy.
Thanks, but no thanks.
I don't want to see any of these things -- don't want to buy the book, see the mini-series, read the column. Shit, I don't even want write about it. I already told my own personal recollection from a day of horror. That's more than enough.
What asshole thought up making a commerative 9/11 coin? -- and would they please choke on their own vomit in their sleep? (Thanks). A fictionlized version of events? Fictionlized? Are you shitting me? Can't we have a more dignified way to honor our dead?
The greatest tragedy of the post-9/11 period has been the failure of our nation's leaders to bring the country nation together. There was an enormous opportunity to take advantage of the crisis to unify the population and work together. That moment was lost. When the history of this period gets written 50 years from now, and blame gets apportioned for that, it will be none too flattering the collection of buffooons and incompetents (of both parties).
And people ask me why I am so cycnical . . .
Saturday, September 09, 2006 | 10:00 AM | Permalink
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Barry - I hear you. On the mini series, I love the politics of it all. Did you see the networks response to Clinton? Basically they said it wasn't a documentary so Clinton's concerns weren't valid. Which just forces me to ask the networks creating a fictional backdrop for 9/11 and if so why.
Posted by: BigBill | Sep 9, 2006 10:12:16 AM
The Bush team has done more to discredit us around the world than any President in memory. As a result of 9/11 (which happened on his watch!), the country seemed quite united behind the president's objective of hunting down and killing those (groups) responsible.
However, invading Iraq only had 50% of the people's support, which has eroded ever since. Turns out the other 50% were right, and despite denials, the intel was so faulty who can blame the conspiracy theory guys?
Iraq: If the "axis of evil" consisted of only three members, why did we pick the wrong country? Was it because it was easy? The oil? It's geographic location?
Iran was always lurking as a growing problem. Yet, there we were taking out Iran's true enemy in Iraq who was ruled with an iron first by a leader whose own minority party was a centuries old enemy of the Shiites. We managed to unite 1300 year old natural enemies when we invaded Iraq. And, talk about stable. Iraq was as stable as Israel (regardless of how brutal Sadaam was). What did we create? A country run by the Mullahs, where they were powerless before. In other words, we liberated the 70% Shiite and Kurd peoples who were brutally ruled by Sadaam but are now happy aligned with the cleric shiite rulers of Iran.
And, all the while: IRAN & N KOREA HAVE ADVANCED THEIR NUCLEAR WEAPON ASPIRATIONS WHILE WE LOOK ON AND DO NOTHING.
Forget the $ cost to date of the Iraq "adventure" (can anyone say Southeast Asia?), the true costs in medical bills and ruined lives will never be added in. And, our "prestige" around the world, our moral authority, is gone.
Just curious: why do we always have to go everywhere and do everything (with our military)?
Another problem today: We are having "Guns & Butter" and zero leadership.
Posted by: Larry Nusbaum | Sep 9, 2006 10:22:28 AM
"And people ask me why I am so cycnical . . . "
WHAT BUBBLE?
Posted by: Larry Nusbaum | Sep 9, 2006 10:25:11 AM
Barry - thank you. I'm almost tempted to post anonomously lest the trolls strike but... Anyway hadn't seen your personal recollections before and just finished reading them. While we all have memories (I live in CT, worked with people thereabouts, had friends 'round the country including one of the runway at LGA at 900, know a school on LI where every child lost a parent) it struck me how the thinking of that writing from three years had or hadn't held up ?
Have we pulled together ? The coverage is, as you point out glib and superficial, but if you read the 911 Report (including the superb graphics novel version which compresses it down) you see the buildup over at least a decade that made possible this disaster because of a combination of bureacracy and our own unwillingness to acknowledge a changing world.
There were a lot of 'the world is changed' comments but really that was a wake-up call that it had been that we seemed to determine to ignore.
The Sleeping Giant looks he'd like to go back to bed but knows he can't rather than facing realities. Perhaps you'd care to dissect the situation in the same way that you're blog does so well at looking beneath the headlines ?
Posted by: DBLWYO | Sep 9, 2006 10:34:43 AM
But, Larry: what about Sadaam's violation of the UN resolution?
LMAO! The UN was in Iraq the whole time! You like resolutions? OK, I give you Iran & Lebanon. Have at it.
Name one counrty who doesn't ignore resolutions since the UN does nothing.
Posted by: Larry Nusbaum | Sep 9, 2006 10:59:16 AM
We are offering huge incentives to Iran to stop it's uranium enrichment program. Now, that's funny. We could have "bought" Iran's enemy (Iraq) with a lot less.
I am a registered Dependent and I plan on voting out the Republicrats in November!
Posted by: Larry Nusbaum | Sep 9, 2006 11:03:22 AM
Barry, I could not agree with you more. I'm doing my best to avoid the entire disgusting spectacle.
Posted by: fiat lux | Sep 9, 2006 11:06:15 AM
In hindsight, it seems it was both a careless & reckless move to lump N. Korea into the "Axis of Evil". It's not in the Middle Eastern theater and already has nuclear weapons. Demonizing the regime only gives it's leader a treasure trove of pr to further brainwash his people with. But apparently W found it prudent to give a sleeping dog a kick... and the N. Koreans responded by restarting their nuclear weapons program. Now W's looking for 6-party talks to bail him out of his "big Texas speech" mistake...
Posted by: Chief Tomahawk | Sep 9, 2006 11:23:39 AM
The media exploits it for profit. The political hacks exploit it for advantange. And while we argue over who is most to blame, the jihad continues against us.
Perhaps the jihadists are correct when they judge us as weak and soft - too spoiled to make any hard decisions, or to endure. Pathetic.
Posted by: Zephyr | Sep 9, 2006 11:26:42 AM
Thanks, Barry.
Posted by: 23 | Sep 9, 2006 11:36:24 AM
one thing I did appreciate was the interview with one of the widows on Larry King live last night. very simple and articulate reminder of what it's all about.
Let em all talk. the surviving families, I mean.
Everybody else is selling something and should be ashamed.
Posted by: financialrx | Sep 9, 2006 11:42:51 AM
I have a friend from El Salvador, who lived there during the civil war. She said her country lost the equivalent of our 9/11 loss every few months. She was disgusted by our lilly-livered obsession with our pain and suffering. Me too. As if only Americans matter. I also read of a congressional delegation to India about a year ago. Re 9/11, the congress critters were told by their Indian counterparts, in so many words, "we're sorry for your loss, welcome to the world, get used to it."
It goes without saying, but it doesn't hurt to say it again: the whole thing is being used for political and monetary purposes.
Posted by: Douglass Truth | Sep 9, 2006 11:52:28 AM
You are not a skeptic, Barry. It is real.
9/11 was a tragedy. The opportunism of the government and big business to use the politics of fear to subvert personal liberties, wage a war of vendetta, and move towards plutacracy is an outrage.
Posted by: blam | Sep 9, 2006 12:22:51 PM
It's not as if we don't all have vivid memories of that day, I still recall every detail as I imagine most people do.
Posted by: rob | Sep 9, 2006 12:27:46 PM
I was living in the New York area when it happened, and am in western PA now. What is striking is the extent to which actual New Yorkers have lost 'ownership' of their own experience - I have actually had people say, in so many words, "well, WE remember 9/11, even if New York doesn't!"
It goes far beyond commercialism - the whole tragedy has been transformed into a part of national mythology. Peel away one or two surface layers, and the myth is pretty clear. We thought we were safe, and we aren't; we always knew that the outside world was frightening and dangerous, and look: we were right.
For reasons that should be obvious, the cult of 9/11 is stronger the further from New York you get. I keep hearing and reading of people in the remotest locations possible - small-town Indiana, ranch-country Montana - who still live in mortal fear of The Terrorists.
This would probably be the case even if such sentiments had NOT been deliberately encouraged. But what a sorry, pusillanimous bunch we look like, hugging our fears and trembling under the bed.
Posted by: Dave L | Sep 9, 2006 1:24:55 PM
What liberties have been subverted? If you're talking about banking privacy or 'know your client' rules, nothing has changed. Try not doing business with Islamic screwballs and you'll be fine. The imagination of the American left is as wild as the Islamists.
Posted by: Tom C.,Stamford,Ct. | Sep 9, 2006 1:43:09 PM
This is not a troll. 9/11 was a horrible tragedy. That said, this is mainly an economics and markets blog, and maybe a bit of perspective wouldn't hurt.
Not to diminish the loss of over 3000 souls in the terrorist attack, but how many Americans die needlessly in traffic? How many premature deaths result without comment or tribute from a degraded physical environment? How many from unsafe workplaces? I could go on, but you get the picture. The huge amount of resources and public attention to terrorism seems to suggest that those lives are more worthy than those lost in less dramatic but often more horrific and more easily prevented ways.
In the end, the sad irony may be that the hyperattention turns the tragedy to farce.
Posted by: Estragon | Sep 9, 2006 1:48:32 PM
Thanks Barry it saves a lot of typing.
Iraq was invaded for reasons not plainly stated in public. I can guess at them but I will leave that to others. But it was the biggest gift we could have given the Iranians. But they still will not send us a xmas card! The much delayed 911 report comes out at about the same time as the abc mini series, which more people will surely watch than read the report. Why spend 30/40 million dollars to create a fictionalized account of the 911 situation and then have no commercials? Why did previews of the film go to conservative talking heads and not to people of a different political bend?
I am of the opinion that the neocons are deathly afraid of the Democrats getting control of the house or their worst nighmare both sides of congress while G.W is in office. Clinton lied about getting some adultrous sex on the side. It was wrong, but not worth an impeachment. There seem to be several Constitutional violations and certainly in many cases, law was not upheld by the white house. (The pres. swears to uphold these things.) These also seem to go to D. Cheney too.) So if that occoured the pres and vice are thrown out of office. Nancy Pelosi becomes president. (I am not sure if this would be good or bad.) Then there is a strong possibility that our govornment goes from complete Republican control to Democratic one. Then payback on a big time basis. Then excess hubris and the cycle starts again.
So does any one think that this scenerio is likely and how might we bet under this scenerio? I think devising several scenerios and possibilities for investment might be a good exercise for us here. Except for the trolls there seems to be some good minds here.
Posted by: alexd | Sep 9, 2006 2:10:38 PM
Re: Fictionalized events -- I would say it depends on how it is fictionalized.
I mean, lots of tragedies in which many Americans (or other people) died have been fictionalized without people batting an eye about it. Omaha Beach, Pearl Harbor (more than once), and the Holocaust immediately spring to mind.
Of course, I may be misunderstanding the use of the term "fictionalized" here. Or maybe it really is too soon for fictionalization, although I thought that the conventional wisdom was that the generally good receiption of the movie Flight 93 cleared the way for other accounts.
In any event, I agree that there is something unseemly about how people are cashing in with "memorial" crap.
Posted by: moonbiter | Sep 9, 2006 2:56:03 PM
Larry...... are you talking to yourself? There are meds for that
Posted by: bill | Sep 9, 2006 3:00:09 PM
I write this with tears in my eyes. I just read your account of 9/11 and all the e-mails that followed. In the days after the tragedy there was a lot of love out there. It is all gone now.
Posted by: pjhanawa | Sep 9, 2006 3:14:10 PM
A reasonable question alexd but I don't see the scenario you propose as that likely. Doubtless Democrats would love to deliver some payback but public opinion, as best I can judge, seems to suggest a swing back to the center is more likely with particular prejudice against: (a) incumbent politicians and (b) single political party control. It seems possible the swing could go further and the Democrats win both houses but even then I'm not sure they would pursue impeachment unless something really major came out of the hearings they will almost certainly hold.
Personally I would just like to see less evangelical fervor and more ethics and competence in Washington (a fellow can dream, eh). As it stands now we seem to have the worst of all possible worlds: a bloated government increasingly staffed by political cronies avidly pursuing poorly conceived and/or executed and/or underfunded policies while stuffing incumbent re-election coffers full to bursting; e.g., last year the lobbyist/congress-critter ratio hit 60:1 w/ 2.4 billion bucks spent to get favorable laws and/or earmarks -- Tom Delay's 'K-Street Project' was just the tip of big, rotten iceberg.
I think the economy is going to hit the rocks regardless of how the election turns out but if there is to be any chance of a better recovery next cycle then things need to change in Washington and in a fairly major way IMO.
In the meantime my investing is defensive and will probably stay that way at least until the end of the year.
And yes, my memories of 9/11 remain vivid and heartfelt; bowdlerized re-enactments and commemorative coins have no market here.
Posted by: RW | Sep 9, 2006 3:20:31 PM
Instead of commemoratives, I wish people would read things like your original posting about your and Bill's experiences. Very moving.
Posted by: EclectEcon | Sep 9, 2006 3:35:11 PM
Barry,
Amen to that!
Posted by: Bob_in_MA | Sep 9, 2006 3:35:33 PM
I agree completely! We need to keep in mind that it's important to remember, but we don't need to "re-live".
-Grant
TheCornerOfficeBlog.com
Posted by: Grant | Sep 9, 2006 3:40:47 PM
