On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, what meaning do Americans take from the milestone, from the events, and from the course of history since then?
As one column puts it, on September 10, 2001, America was at the peak of its post-Cold War dominance, and our status has diminished, “step by step,” ever since. As to how, why, and what that means, it is hard to see focal points, even focused points of argument, in the media or in public discourse. Just familiar tropes, of politicized criticism, of academic social and political analyses, of personal losses, of a change in the air that no one quite knows how to describe. And way too much footage of the events and trauma – as if it was a all a set for an action/horror movie.
If this perception is fair, it may reflect that we are busy worrying about today, arguing about tomorrow and at a loss to see what may come next month, or next year. Or that our media takes us as shallow consumers of sensationalism. Or perhaps we are keeping whatever it is we feel inside and unvoiced.
It may be fair to say that this blankness of discourse also applied to the observation of America’s 250th year anniversary. We all noted the big round number, we heard the “normal” politicized spats over what it means to be America or American, and we intoned the words of the Declaration’s second sentence. But again, it is hard to see meaningful reflection.
Perhaps this is not the time for reflection. The bad guys (choose your version) are an imminent threat to society, and life is difficult and confusing.
But America will need to build something we can all rely on as Americans.
The nation, and the world, face massive upheavals in the months and years – maybe even days – to come. These go well beyond the politicized rhetoric that drags our public decision making down rabbit holes of divisiveness. The term “polycrisis,” which some had coined to capture the confusion and disruption of the age, seems quaint when compared with the fears and uncertainty we all face. There is a geopolitical rivalry, global both on the map and in the issues it touches, where dictators seem to be gaining both power and influence. Technologies, plural – genetic engineering and artificial intelligence – raise questions about what it means to be human, and really scare us. A financial sector that features mind-boggling numbers and arcane instruments is creaking in ways that recall past cataclysms. Disorienting discoveries about the world and the universe, some wondrous in themselves, also cast doubt on a lot that we thought was true. All these, and many other disruptions, can spill over on each other to compound the problems. Any and all could disorient and disrupt us personally. And our institutions are paralyzed by the partisans who cast a bipolar, mutually alienating tone over the public square – and the fragments of discourse we call social media.
Rather than parse the wars, the politics, the economics, and all the other things that the experts will run on about, Americans might consider focusing first on what, at bottom, matters most to us. As Americans, this blog contends that our purpose and nature point us to validate our creed: that all are equally endowed with unalienable rights to live by our own lights, and that governments exist to secure those rights, taking legitimacy from the consent of the governed. As this site has recounted, there is much to be said about those tenets, and certainly about how well we validate them. But what will be needed going forward is not a rehash of ongoing disputes, not a reach back to past “good times” or glories, and not a despair that it’s all just broken.
Our creed gives this nation a bedrock article of faith to build on. People, we believe implicitly, have free will for some reason. America was founded for that free will to play out. We have managed, fitfully, to introduce this idea into a world that had only dreamed of it before. Now we should reset our eyes on that purpose.
Common Conviction 