The day the earth stood still
25 years on.
“September 11”, more of an event than a date, in a similar sense like Vietnam being thought of as a war rather than a country. Has it really been 25 years? The “9/11 terror attacks”, when passenger jets flew into The World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City. The day the earth stood still and changed permanently, forever. I will be focusing on the subsequent societal and individual changes rather than the events itself as that’s what I’m more interested in and I cannot compete with news/media coverage which has already started a week ago. I will also touch on other events that had a huge societal impact, namely the GFC and Covid.
I was just 12, an Aussie kid living in a country town halfway across the world, when I woke up to airplanes flying into buildings. It was a surreal moment, in the truest sense, and it was all anyone could talk about. Life was broken into pre and post “9/11” (much like how it became with Covid some 20 years after), but for me at my level, I was largely unaffected and my life felt unchanged.
Obviously, I was still trying to enjoy my youth – in what turned out to be my most joyous schooling years – but across society things were changing dramatically. Air travel, for one, would never be the same. Security in general changed forever, and I feel this is the beginning of what we see today; the catalyst of all the surveillance culture that is now so prevalent.
American intervention in the middle east (with the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) is still going on now (with Iran), allied strongly with Israel and currently seeking to expand intelligence and military sharing between the two. The US also recently signed a long-term agreement with Saudi Arabia regarding nuclear energy and infrastructure – because the oil’s not going to last forever – so, I don’t see their involvement in the region reducing any time soon.
The difference between Islam and Islamic terror? To some, there was/is no difference, especially in the wake of September 11, 2001, and even still now. Each side proclaiming self-defence against the other’s terror. Our trust and social cohesion is at an all-time low, currently (and sadly). Antisemitic and anti-Islamic sentiments are high, let alone between everybody else. We’ve other latent effects and slow burning problems or issues along with the reciprocal financial pressure <-> social pressure, thanks significantly to:
The three biggest things in the last 25 years:
9/11 – terrorism/war – 2001
GFC – economic collapse – 2007-2009
Covid – disease (+ economic collapse) – 2019-2023
You could almost break up the past 25 years into the following timeline:
pre-2001 -> 2001-2008 -> 2008-2020 -> 2020 to now
In case it needed saying, I’m not suggesting these events are causally linked, and I can’t believe I need to say that, but such is the world we live in. I’m examining the progression of society between catastrophes which have highlighted the fragility of our social systems, fall prey to opportunists and propaganda.
The GFC had long-lasting economic effects beyond the time period it took place, even right up to covid, which sent labour and financial markets reeling again. Covid screwed with people interaction and induced a fear in others (a social contagion as much as biological). While “9/11” induced a prejudice against Muslims, covid had a specific and general antagonist if you will (see President Trump and his “China Virus”). On an individual level, many relationships crumbled under the pressure (emotional, social, financial). The lockdowns, restricting of movements and gatherings, the removal or reduction of freedoms and/or introduction of legislation, didn’t work well from a trust and social cohesion standpoint.
At various points, we’ve come to a grinding halt. For safety and security reasons, for economic reasons, for health and self-preservation reasons. We’re giving up more and more and feeling in control of less and less. The technological development of the last 25 years has seen a massive increase in surveillance, monitoring, tracking, listening, recording, recognition, and storing of all kinds of data, especially biometric, and under the guise of safety and security.
We are trusted less as a population, but we’re expected to trust governments and corporations more. Our job security and future outlook is not promising, with the idea of one full-time salary or wage being enough to surplus even just yourself, a nostalgic fantasy for a growing number of people. Despite all the inclusivity, equality, and diversity initiatives – the ideas of the modern zeitgeist – we all seem to hate, dislike and fear each other even more now. People are feeling increasingly fed up, leading to significantly more emotionally reactive decision making and political voting, regardless of what good it does practically either in the short or long-term.
At any point in the last 25 years, were we living in a dream world? Maybe The Matrix got it right and 1999 was the peak of human civilisation. We live in a world ruled by ignorance, fear, fantasy, and control. Life doesn’t start with politics – it’s downstream from culture (which is why so many are trying to “win” the “culture wars”). It’s more about the ability to think critically than to fill people’s minds with the right ideas because “if you knew what I knew, you’d think what I think” is a fallacy, and yet we keep believing it.
I don’t know what catastrophe will come next, but I know it’s coming, and we are not preparing well enough for it, but thankfully there is still time to change that.
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