What if 9/11 Never Happened?

What if 9/11 Never Happened?
from New York Magazine


There are days in New York—surprisingly many of them, all things considered—when it’s almost possible to forget that we are living in an age of terror. And then there are days, like last Thursday with its headlines out of London, when that grim reality rises up and slaps us hard upside the head. When we’re reminded that there really are ideological-cum-religious fanatics intent on slaughtering us in large numbers. When we realize that these zealots aren’t merely crazy but determined and ingenious. When we’re forced to admit that we are, deep down, more scared than we ever let on.

It is almost five years since that fear was imposed on us and the age of terror began in earnest. From the moment the Twin Towers fell, 9/11 was seen as a watershed, a historical turning point of grand and irreversible proportions. With the acrid smoke still swirling above ground zero, the mantras repeated constantly were that 9/11 had “changed everything”—that “nothing would ever be the same.”

By now we see those mantras for what they were: natural, perhaps inevitable, exaggerations in the face of gargantuan trauma. So much about how we live our lives today remains the same as it ever was. And yet, at the same time, we all know (or think we know) that vast changes have in fact been spawned by 9/11—political, cultural, and sociological; intellectual, emotional, and psychological—in New York, throughout America, and around the world. The question is precisely what they are.

As a way of marking the fifth anniversary of 9/11, we’ve attempted to provide an answer—or, rather, many answers. But we’ve done so in a roundabout manner: by asking an assortment of big thinkers and public figures to address the question, What if 9/11 never happened? Now, let’s be clear, we’re well aware that the dangers of counterfactual speculation (If Bobby Kennedy had never been shot, then Nixon would never have been elected! So no Watergate! No Carter! No Reagan! Etc., etc., etc.) are almost as grave as those of unbridled futurism. But we also see the virtues of an approach that appeals both to left-brain analytics and right-brain imagination—and that, in the process, tends to uproot subterranean assumptions and challenge conventional wisdom.

The most glaring item in the latter category (at least on the left) is the canard that, if not for 9/11, the United States would not be a country at war. But as a number of the voices in the pages that follow argue convincingly, a clash between the West and the forces of jihadism—and, in particular, between America and Al Qaeda—was inevitable. Osama bin Laden’s campaign against the U.S. had been under way for nearly a decade; the only question was when, not whether, it would land upon these shores. As Andrew Sullivan suggests in his alternative-present blog, America should perhaps consider itself lucky that 9/11 took place when it did (thus giving the country an early warning of the battle ahead) and that it wasn’t worse. In a parallel history that avoids easy morals, he draws a path that leads us to an even more dire version of where we are today: in the midst of a long twilight struggle against a lethal enemy...

Read the full article at New York Magazine

Sunday Sports Page

I've got my first fantasy football draft this weekend so what better time to get back into the sports scene than now on Veritas Lux Mea. After all, we're not just about truthiness and music around here.

Caught the first three quarters of the Packers - Falcons preseason game last night and I have to say, the Pack looked good offensively. Favre was sharp and had a good rhythm going with Driver, while the running game chipped away when needed. I think they still have a ways to go in getting their running game back to what it used to be, and hopefully that will happen when a healthy Ahman Green returns to the field.

The defense is always going to need improvement, but A.J. Hawk finally showed me something last night - that he can tackle and get in someone's grill.

Also in action yesterday:
Vikings shut down sloppy Steelers
Matt Leinart's first preseason action a pleasant surprise

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Music

My buddies Luke and Todd just moved to AZ to teach in the Fountain Hills school district, so this one goes out to them: Acoustic OutKast cover by a Tempe, AZ musician named Mat Weedle from local band Obadiah Parker [link complete courtesy of Metafilter].

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Jed and Lucia

Highly recommended, a beautiful etheral sound...like a whisper escaping from someone's lips on a warm sunny day...


Jed and Lucia - "Wasn't Right"
Jed and Lucia - "Heaven Don't Need Me"
Jed and Lucia - "World On Fire"

Jed and Lucia website

For Those Who Know


Channeling the spirits of post punk rock and pure psychedelic shoegaze
pop, For Those Who Know brings forth a hypnotic blend of beautiful songwriting with a love for digital/analog oblivion.

For Those Who Know - "Competition"
For Those Who Know - "Monday"
For Those Who Know - "Perfect"

Bonus mp3: The Spinto Band - "Japan is an Island"