America is a country constantly moving downhill. Looking neither right nor left and definitely not backward, the pace of American life is the wonder of the world. Usually derided by Europeans, it has fascinated most of the rest of humanity that Americans can move and adapt so quickly to changing times. It has allowed us to accomplish truly amazing things without giving the slightest thought to the past. To do so would force us to pause in our headlong rush toward the future and think of where we’ve been and how we got where we are.
This myopia has had some very strange consequences. For the first 85 years of our existence, it allowed us the to concoct the perfectly reasonable fantasy that we were a nation that stood for liberty while holding in bondage millions of human beings. This schizophrenia was best summed up by British author Samuel Johnson who is reported to have written to a friend prior to the American Revolution “Why is it we hear the loudest yelps for freedom from the drivers of Negroes?”
It took a civil war that cost more than 600,000 lives to wipe the stain of slavery from our Constitution and several generations more to make a beginning toward bringing to life the words in our Declaration of Independence that promised equality for all men. All the while, Americans continued with their mad dash toward an unknowable destiny with only faith in progress and a belief in the righteousness of American ideals as a guide. Studying America’s narrative was something you were forced to do in school or a pastime for professors toiling away in the dusty halls of academia. It was not for those who were more eager to make history than to examine its subtleties for any lessons or insights.
This is why American myths have always been so important. They have allowed us a touchstone with the past without giving the consequences of our place in history much thought. This is virtually unheard of elsewhere because mythology is usually associated with the distant past, hearkening back to a time before history was written down and hence, dependent on storytelling or song singing. The Robin Hood myth in Great Britain is a good example of myth creation by such a method. The medieval troubadours who went from village to village singing about Robin Hood were unconsciously creating a national data bank of mythology from which ordinary people could draw on for inspiration. Never mind that the historical character from which the myth is drawn was very different than the heroic figure enshrined in the hearts of the British people. That fact was not the point of the myth.
But America, by comparison, is a very young country. Our myths are created instantly. They go from news, to history, to myth in the blink of an eye. The power of the myths surrounding George Washington can never be underestimated not only for their impact on how we look upon Washington today but also how we define our founding as a nation. Less than a year after Washington’s death, Parson Weems published “The Life of Washington”, a book that is so laughably inaccurate about the real Washington that it did a huge disservice to our understanding of the man and his times. For instance, the myth of the cherry tree and Washington saying to his father “I cannot tell a lie” helped place Washington on a pedestal so high that when other, more scholarly books were published, they seemed to diminish his accomplishments and character.
The same holds true for other Americans whose lives have achieved mythical status like Daniel Boone and Abraham Lincoln whose real life deeds and attributes outstripped the myths created to lionize them. Even the historical impact of events like the winter at Valley Forge have suffered because of this peculiarly American custom of nearly instantaneously mythologizing our history.
So it is with 9/11. That date represents the great divide in American politics and culture. One one side are those who see that day as a tragedy. Others see it as an act of war. Both have embraced the power of myth to explain and justify their politics.
The myth that “the world was with us” after 9/11 was one advanced shamelessly by the Kerry campaign during the election last year. In fact, most Americans embrace this myth because of the outpouring of sympathy from around the world for the victims in the aftermath of the attack. However, even a cursory look at what was going on in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 shows that far from being with us, the rest of the world pretty much took the Ward Churchill view that we had it coming.
The confusion comes as a result of the rest of the world – including friends like Great Britain and Canada – clearly delineating the difference between feeling sympathy for the American people and exhibiting enormous satisfaction at the blow to the American government. At the same time that the British people were laying wreaths of remembrance in front of the American embassy, former American ambassador Philip Lader was almost reduced to tears on the BBC program “Question Time” as a result of being nearly shouted down while trying to defend American foreign policy. The ferocity of the barbs and criticisms directed toward Ambassador Lader just two days after the attacks resulted in an unprecedented apology from the BBC for not taping and editing the show.
Even more remarkable was the reaction to the headline of a front page editorial in the French newspaper La Monde entitled “We are all Americans.” Constantly cited as “evidence” that the world stood shoulder to shoulder with America following the attacks, the editorial, in fact, skewers American foreign policy and the American government while blaming our “unbalanced” middle east policy for the tragedy.
From Arabs dancing in the streets of refugee camps in the West Bank to Iranians shouting Bin Laden’s name in adulation on the streets of Tehran, to even Canadians booing the American national anthem at a baseball game shortly after the season resumed, the myth was nevertheless created that world solidarity with America was undermined by the policies of the President. Despite all evidence to the contrary, even those who support the President believe in and perpetrate this myth so ingrained into the 9/11 narrative it has become.
Other myths surrounding the attack are more conspiratorial rather than historical. The shooting down of Flight #93 is one such conspiracy myth that refuses to go away. More recently, former Bush Administration economist and retired professor Morgan Reynolds has kept alive the myth that the World Trade Center towers were felled by demolition rather than a terrorist attack. These kinds of myths are common following world-shattering events in that they seek to put into context things that literally cannot be contextualized. Rather than grasping the historical significance of so large a tragedy, the conspiracy monger trivializes the event by positing fantastic plots that not only place the story teller in a privileged position of “being in the know” but allows for an emotional frame of reference that can give meaning to what amounts to a meaningless tragedy.
The history of 9/11 is still being written. The farther the event recedes into the past, the more we will mythologize that terrible day. It says something that is perhaps unflattering about America that this will be so. But it also indicates how dynamic our society truly is and how the power of myth continues to shape our politics and culture in ways that are almost unfathomable.
See also Alexandra’s “Remembrance of Things Past.”
10:15 am
The Wide Awakes Remember
For those who don’t know, I’m a proud member of a blogging community called the The Wide Awakes. It is a wonderful group of likeminded bloggers that I feel privaleged to be a part of.
Today marks the 4th anniversary of a day that we should neve…
10:23 am
Never Forget
Tribute to 9/11.
Tribute in Light.
My husband and I were both working that day, I remember hearing about this from someone who was watching the news in the break room. All day long we were following this news…watching the videos, and amazing…
10:27 am
Wow. I would have thought it would have taken another 10 years or so for it to become a myth, but I see what you’re saying.
10:28 am
Remembering 9-11-01
It’s impossible to watch documentaries about 9-11 without recalling your own memories of what you were doing that day. As we approach the 4th anniversary of 9-11, I wanted to share with you my personal 9-11 story. I originally posted this on my blog …
12:26 pm
Four years ago – never forget
Four years ago… September 11, 2001. What were you doing? What was I doing? What happened that day?
I had just dropped the Darling Munchkin off for school. She was just starting First Grade, and…
12:58 pm
Remembering 9/11
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our chil…
1:08 pm
Flopping Aces,
No we had a President who was dumbstruck and responded only when he was advised about what to do next many hours later. Its too bad to think we had a lameduck President but he was quacking that day and make excuses about not scaring children later on to justify it.
1:36 pm
9/11
Take a moment, ponder the event and the impact it’s had on our lives – 9/11 echoes in the response to Katrina. Remember the Day… and that while we fight… We also build – and in some cases, fight so…
2:37 pm
This is exactly the reason why the Flight 93 Memorial must be changed from its present design.
It does not matter what the designer of the memorial intended to do with the cresent shape. The Memorial appears to incorporate Islamic Sysbols, and that is all that matters to those who create and sustain rumors and myths;
That the memorial pays homage to the hijackers, or worse to all the muslim deaths that the US is somehow responsible for…
2:56 pm
Speking of mythsss.
Does any one really believe the Civil War was about ending slavery?
Sorry, it was about states rights. In other words the southern states wanted the right to self determination; as outlined in the constitution. With almost a million dead frpm the Civil War did blacks have equal rights? Of course not. Shouldn’t taht war have ended racism.If the textbooks in high school and college tell every one the war was about ending slavery and they do, why did it take another 100 years for Blacks to have equal rights. There is a period of enlightenment that society has to experience. Bussing and all the other attempts that govt. has undertaken has created white flight and too many other political backfires to mention-you get thepicture.
Did L.B.J conquer racism with all of his ‘Rights Programs’. No! Emphatically ‘No’!
The end of racism was an evolutionary process where the American people eventually saw the light and had enough.
It is magical thinking to see it otherwise.
The government cannot and have not ever molded society ( I do not include the liberal and forth estate bombardment to be ‘good little boys’ and girls’). The college teachers I had in the late 60’s and early 70’s did send forth a politically correct armada who ultimately became ‘sensitive leaders’ in academia and; surprise, surprise-corporate America. They had to be so careful in their hiring procedures that we have been and will continue to dumb down America. Read Bork’s book ‘Slouchig towards Gome’? . Don’t know the spelling-but is garauteed to blow your mind.
Frank
3:04 pm
9 1 1 For Freedom
!
New York City, NY State and America were struck by terrorist at the WTC on September 11, 2001. It was an assault on all of us as a community. Most of the victims were New Yorkers, almost all were Americans. Any memorial or cultural additions at groun…
3:04 pm
After I wrote that, I knew that some idiot who can’t read and thinks even less would write some slop like you just did.
I said “it took a war” to end slavery. I didn’t say that the Civil War was about ending slavery.
As far as taking 100 years for blacks to have equal rights, I guess the terms reconstruction and “Plessy v Ferguson” don’t have any meaning for you.
And racism has not ended, my friend. THAT is truly magicial thinking.
“Slouching toward Gomorrah” I’ve read. And if you can’t spell it, how can anyone believe your read it?
I ordinarily wouldn’t have responded to this idiocy but I was sitting here, the Bears lost, and I feel like crap because it’s 9/11 and I want to take it out on someone.
Thank you for presenting yourself for a spanking.
3:23 pm
[...] e 4 years beyond the old America and already there are myths springing up about that day. In my essay, I tried to tie in the way that America is with th [...]
3:47 pm
9/11: My Remberance by Todd D. Miller
The day we know as 9/11 started as just another pleasant fall day in Chicago where I was living at the time. My wife and I had been blessed by the arrival of our son in February and life was generally very good.
10:27 pm
No oh long winded one, I could not read beyond the first paragraph as I became bored. I shall return tomorrow and try to do better.
12:28 am
The other thing that amazes and appalls me is how the Left has managed to convince the media that they were all in favor of Afghanistan, but Iraq was going too far. In fact, most of the Left opposed the war vehemently; remember all the comments about how the British and Soviet empires had been unable to conquer the Afghans, and the predictions of the brutal Afghan winter?
1:01 am
In Memoriam
Read Rick Moran’s essay on 9/11
2:12 am
Remembering…
September 11, 2001
2:30 am
Steve:
Are you drunk? If so, gimme some. If not, don’t bother to come back.
In fact, the question should be asked why one who is bored in the first place would visit a site that does not please him?
Truly idiotic.
4:25 am
Rick, I see what you’re saying applies to not only the recent past, but often to the present and future: We frequently tell ourselves myths about what we are doing in the present and also about where we are going with what we are doing.
We’re very much the idealists, not the pragmatists.
Good post!
4:43 am
I’m sorry guys, but every year I get madder and madder and when I watched The Flight Who Fought Back last night on Discovery, a wonderful, non-slanted piece, I got even angrier. Why can’t the dems get even a little agitated here? I just don’t understand.
12:58 pm
Damn, you are cranky. I don’t think we could have expected anything better from the Bears, and frankly, I don’t think we could have expected anything better from those on the other side of the divide. And that is what is truly depressing.
Leave it to the Bears and the left to take three false start penalties in a row, and then to allow a sack. Now there’s a metaphor we can all latch onto.
5:03 pm
Kender,
Everytime your guy does something wrong you can’t just balme Clinton you know. Bush was totally dumbstruck and lost all control over his country that day. Instead of being a leader, he just sat there wondering who would advise him about what to do next.
5:05 pm
Whose the appologist now Kender, hmm? Also what do you mean the left doesn’t fight, what do you call Kosovo, getting lost? Come on, think about it.
9:33 pm
Somebody has a case of the Mondays
Today’s dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny … Ugh, Monday
2:05 pm
#93 was going to siteR. lots of plane parts in buildings but v.little in a field just doesn’t make sense.
9:47 pm
[...] Mike’s America, The Baltimore Reporter, Stop The ACLU, Broken Masterpieces, Musing Minds, Moonbat Central, Winds Of Change, Cao’s Blog, Blogs For Bush, Aldaynet, PointFive Blog, Holy Coast, Area 417, The Wide Awake Cafe, Bookworm Room, Countercolumn, Lifelike Pundits, TMH’s Bacon Bits, Bright & Early, Pardon My English, Rightwing Nuthouse, Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, & The Pirate’s Cove Filed in: 9/11 | No Comments » [...]