On the Events of September 11, 2001

NewWork Opinion

NewWork Opinion

Until September 11, 2001, the greatest loss of American life in a single day occurred during the Civil War on September 17, 1862 near Sharpsburg, Maryland in the Battle of Antietam. Two armies commanded by Generals George Brinton McClellan and Robert Edward Lee, respectively, engaged in fierce fighting over a 12-hour period. When it was over, nearly 23,000 Americans lay dead from a total American population at the time of approximately 30 million, less than the population of California today.

Given that about 50,000 persons ordinarily worked in the World Trade Center and also given that there was an elaborate shopping mall under the WTC buildings, as well as a major subway interchange, early estimates were that there might be as many as 20,000 dead from the WTC towers, surrounding buildings and streets, and another 10,000 dead from the region under the buildings, plus the fatalities at the Pentagon in Washington and those from the four planes themselves. If these estimates turn out to be accurate, September 11, 2001 will greatly surpass Antietam in total carnage. Also, the total loss of life during that short period last Tuesday will be more than half of American fatalities from the entire Vietnam War which went on for years.

The fact that the attack commenced just before 9:00 AM may have helped a bit. Casualties may have been much heavier if the attack had begun after 9:00 AM when more people would have been at their work locations. Also, the fact that the three plane crashes in New York and Washington were spaced a bit and that the WTC towers did not collapse immediately made it possible for large numbers of people to escape in time.

Currently, it appears that the total number of dead may be closer to 6,000 than 30,000, although, given that we're faced with some of the most gruesome circumstances imaginable, we may never know for sure how many people died during less than two hours of unimaginable horror on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. It is likely that we will have to be as satisfied as possible with estimates. However, we do know that more Americans died at the Pentagon when the airliner crashed there than during the entire Gulf War.

So, what now? Although nearly a week has passed since the attack on the United States, it's probably safe to say that most Americans, as well as a lot of other people, still feel like vomiting when they think about it.

America has been wounded, but certainly not disabled. Americans are coping with their own feelings in ways that seem to work best for each individual. In addition to the tremendous rush of sadness and need to help the victims and their families, many are also feeling deep anger and a need for revenge. There is the impulse to punish the wrong-doers, but how do you punish someone who is willing, perhaps even eager to die in service of his mission? If he plans to kill himself, he may not be too bothered if he knows that some of the rest of us would like to kill him too, and, if he does die, for whatever reason, he simply goes to paradise, from his point of view.

Our country's political leaders are obligated to tell Americans at least some of what they need to hear at this point, so there has been some official talk of "punishment" and "revenge." Fortunately, though, there are signs that most Americans, angry as they are, also remain fairly cool about all of this. Polls indicate that we will not demand that our government strike out immediately, blindly, in a response that would be more glandular than neural, and, in all likelihood counterproductive. Americans want protection, and they want results, but they also want informed, well-considered, intelligent action. This is a good sign, because it will make it easier for our government to do its best, and, despite all the campaign rhetoric and barroom arguments during ordinary times and the partisan raving that sometimes makes America sound like some sort of hospital, the American government's best can be very good indeed.

America is fortunate that both of its major political parties contain a large number of very bright, well-informed, competent, psychologically normal grownups. The cooler heads in the Administration and in Congress--and there do appear to be quite a number of those cooler heads--know that our government's principal mission now is not to punish or seek revenge. Instead, it must be to make the global terrorist network incapable of hurting us or others again as we were hurt last week, either by dismembering it or by destroying it altogether.

We can only hope that this can be done without turning the entire Islamic world--not just its most extreme and irrational elements--against the U.S. and its allies. It is in the interest of all of the world's people that martyrs and open sores not be created which can increase resentment and motivate further attacks on the West and all it represents for generations, if not centuries.

Also, it will do little long-term good if we root out the current terrorist network without understanding or dealing with its root causes, because a new network could easily take the place of the current one and readily learn from its experience.

In a fundamental sense, what is going on, really? Well, for one thing, religious wars are not new, and, almost always, religious movements have also been political movements, not in the sense of campaigns, elections, or political institutions, necessarily, but in a sense relating to the organization of society and the distribution and exercise of power.

For instance, as part of this, but only a part, the name of God has been invoked numerous times to justify some of history's worst atrocities. IN ADDITION TO MANY OTHER THINGS, the history of religion has been part of the history of depravity. Religious zealots have been killing other people and each other for millennia, and the carnage hasn't been limited to a single sect or religious culture. One difference last Tuesday had to do with the greater vulnerabilities of modern life. If, as has been the case through much of the experience of modern humans on this planet, people were scattered fairly thinly over large areas, lived no more than few feet off the ground, and the only weapons available were rocks or pieces of tree limbs, the total carnage would have been far less. Same hatreds, perhaps, but much different outcomes. There is something to be said for being constrained by circumstance, and our government is committed to changing the circumstances available to the world's terrorists.

But what else is going on in the world? I could not have imagined that a relatively few people could destroy the World Trade Center in the largest city in the most economically and militarily powerful nation in the history of the world, and I certainly didn't predict it. I don't think anyone outside the terrorist network itself predicted that this could happen.

Still, for years, I've been talking in various settings and writing in various venues about the fundamental changes that appear to be going on in the world. Given that modern humans have spent most of their time on the planet in the Stone Age, even the past 5-6 thousand years of recorded history have been an aberration. The time since the onset of the Industrial Revolution has been another one. However, I believe that the changes that have been going on are even more fundamental and may have even more fundamental consequences for humanity than that fairly brief but tremendously creative period thousands of years ago during which cities, written language, and mathematics were invented.

Novel conditions make novel outcomes highly probable, even when we cannot predict exactly what those outcomes will be. For instance, I've written in other places about the apparent resurgence of irrationality and superstition throughout much of the world, including American society. Even some college graduates whom I know well seem to be actively resisting a rational approach to some issues, while, at the same time, exhibiting tremendous gullibility for some of the goofiest, most ancient (or most experimental, equally unfounded), most easily discredited ideas imaginable, while also trading mostly in stereotypes and caricatures, and even presenting their own issues as caricatures so as to make it easier for them to be dismissed, even by the most serious, fair-minded people.

So, what on earth is going on, really? I can tell you that when people are rational and fair, when they think critically, when things are reasonable and make sense, well, it doesn't offend me.

I sincerely hope that nothing so destructive and painful as the events of last week will be repeated in the United States or anywhere else. However, if you think that there are some solid things that you can count on, that simply cannot change, well, hang on and fasten your seat belt. Just about the time we think we've seen everything, it becomes necessary to reconsider.

Gary G. Johnson
September 17, 2001