I’m sorry if this pisses you off.
I’m tired of September 11th. I’m tired of hearing about it. I’m tired of seeing news stories about it, and I’m tired of reading weblogs about it (which sort of makes this the pot calling the kettle black). In short, I’m tired of the longest news story of my life. I’m tired of patriotism, I’m tired of hearing phrases like “war on terrorism” or “new war” and the word “evil” bandied about with no sense of perspective, and I’m tired of hearing about “how we’ve changed”. I’m tired of having had my grief hijacked for 365 days. I’m tired of being embarrassed that I’m a citizen of a rogue state. (I’m an American in case that wasn’t clear). I’m tired of dissenting views being called anti-American. I’m tired of losing respect for people who bought the party line hook and sinker. I could go on and on and on but yeah, you guessed it, I’m tired of ranting about September 11th as well.
Most of what you say resonates with me – it points to the artificiality, the inability of media phrases, grossly offensive expressions of patriotism, ranting responses (both liberal and conservative) to express what thoughts and feelings I have regarding the events of last September.
Even this:
http://www.jjcha.net/blog/images/citylights.jpg
which gave me so much comfort last October, doesn’t quite grasp what I’m thinking now – not that I disagree w/ it (it still brings me comfort) – just I can’t help but think some liberal responses are just as ignorant/gut-reactionary as the conservative ones. Just seems dissent has been as pigeon-holed as flag-waving patriotism.
Anyway, we’re forced to think and respond to the events of September 11th – it’s impossible not to. But none of those aforementioned responses quite resonates with me, and after a year of it – I am quite tired of it. I imagine you are as well.
Still, I suppose I’m more sympathetic/understanding with those who feel the need to express/deal with their feelings regarding those events. I realize now, unlike last year, that the events of September 11th genuinely destabilized some people – perhaps forced them to be in touch with their naked mortality – and I guess that realization makes me a bit more patient with them.
Not to say that justifies any of the crap surrounding us.
-Jason
Hell, I’m tired of being tired of it.
Now that I’ve polluted your blog w/ my thoughts, I don’t need to pollute mine! =)
-Jason
thanks for commenting, very nice and considered comments and they made me think about what I wrote (which is the whole point, right?!)….I know I said I was tired of writing about 9/11, but…
While certainly there was/has been knee-jerk reactions from liberals, and a lot of it has been predictable, my feeling is that most so-called liberals turned out not to be so liberal after all, that most cowered under popular opinion and in my mind showed their true colors (what, one representative out of almost 400 voted again that resolution last year).
I too felt heartened when I saw that city lights banner (and kudo’s to you for capturing it, I never did), and it was one of the first times I actually felt, wow, other people are taking notice too that there is a real silencing going on in the country. I don’t know if dissent has been pidgeon-holed…certainly those knee-jerk predictable ones that San Francisco seems to particularly attract have tended to give us a bad name, but I wonder how much of “pidgeon-holing” is self-inflicted and how much is Bush/media whores inflicted.
Yes. Yes. Yes. We are all sick and tired of it here (in America) as well. Tired of the jingoistic tirade. Tired of the emotional outpouring. Tired of hearing about how we are all changed forever. Tired of having our civil liberties usurped by the government in the name of security. Tired of slandering the ideals of peace and freedom by hiding behind those terms to justify mindless aggression. Tired of having dissent silenced.
I have never felt more Japanese than I do now; I have never experienced a time living in America when so many people were so afraid to speak out. Better to keep a smile on one’s face and go along to get along, than to disagree openly and be thought un-American. Hard to believe that today in America it is the nail that sticks out that gets hammered down. Hard to believe that we have embraced honne to tatemae. Wave that flag and hide your feelings because Ashcroft is looking over your shoulder.
Me too.
I’m not American but I too am fed up with it all. Its not denying the tragedy to separate the events of Sept 11 from the war in Iraq, the clampdown on freedom etc. However my impression of the situation in the US is that to be critical of any element of the ‘war on terror’ is to be Unpatriotic and therefore nigh on being a terrorist yourself. The Patriot act seem to be double speak of the highest order.
How much of this is due to the US inexperience of war and/or orchestrated mass destruction WITHIN its borders and how much is due to the current leadership I don’t know, for example, had it happened a few years earlier during Clinton’s administration what would the reaction have been?
Here in the UK we had become used to semi-randomly targeted bombing by the IRA, obviously no one event was on the same scale but the fear in the back of the mind still existed. However while this led to an increase in security it didn’t lead to a wholesale clampdown on un-Britishness and un-patriotism, in fact the terms aren’t even really used here, people don’t really think in terms of being unpatriotic when critisising an element of the country’s make-up. In fact patriotism only seems to rear its head within the field of international sport.
Tim