Sunday, September 11, 2016

9/11 anniversary

As a young pup newspaper reporter a lot of years ago, there was a period when I actually assumed that if you collected sufficient facts, readers would reach an 'obvious' conclusion as to the truth or falsehood, goodness or evil, of the given topic. Truth to tell, I can still be victim to that assumption and gather fact upon fact in the hope/assurance that a clear-eyed appreciation (often very like my own) would evolve.

But now, on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 (2001) attacks here in the United States, I find myself as lazy as any knee-jerk patriot: I have my assumptions and I am out of gas when it comes to defending what I assume, let alone trying to convince anyone else. The official story is that they -- al-Qaida or some such -- were responsible for the spectacular attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives. This assumption, with arabesques, has entered softly into the realm of popular assumption. No need to argue or dispute ... and besides, there's a refugee crisis in the Levant and a sale on broasted chickens. It's no biggie. It's just a boxed and tied with a bow building block of perception. No fault, no foul.

I am as guilty of soft and easy assumptions too ... now, so many years later. But my assumptions call up good reason not to buy into the official story. It's no biggie -- just my lazy assumption. Who stood to
benefit (eight billion bucks)? How did the World Trade Center towers collapse with the sweet neatness of an industrial demolition ... straight down into their own footprints? What of the engineer who said the towers had been built with an eye to collisions with aircraft? What of the heat generated by even something as flammable as jet fuel ... and the burning steel girders days after the explosion ... those girders so surgically sliced at a demolition-man's angle?

However strident the questions, still, subtracting the stridency, the empirical questions remain unanswered and unaddressed and they form my own current laziness and assumptions ... which, as I say, I am not interested in convincing anyone else about.

As I say, I am lazy these days and am glad if anyone will challenge the official version but also do not expect any challenge to the unofficial version. It takes more energy than is available to go back and parse and dissect and try to suck out whatever truth there may be in an empirical sense.

My myth, your myth ... it's hard to maintain a myth, however deserving or correct. It's muggy today and I have not yet had my breakfast.

3 comments:

  1. I can't buy into it either. And lack the energy for the stupid that follows questioning the tale. They talk to invisible and omnipotent friends who live in the sky. Can't fix that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is uncertain, the Gautama Buddha advised against speculating. What seems quite certain, of at least as far as I am concerned, is that today is also Hari Raya Haji is many countries with Muslims. What I so far cannot reconcile with, is the simple prospect that try as I might, the best I can do it seems at this juncture is doing zazen whenever I can. My gut feeling is that pretty sooner or later once ISIS is over and done with, it's USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, France, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Chile and perhaps likely Germany or Poland as well as South Africa while Russia probably stands alongside China, North Korea, Cuba on the other side of the next major conflict, just naming a few that comes up in the mind. I seriously dislike war, but I do see it forming, and if we are lucky India is helping out the US indirectly being English speaking as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I used to think that journalists were supposed to act on society's behalf asking the reporting the 5W1H -- "What, When, Where, Who, Why and How." Definitely asking and reporting "who benefits" and "following the money."

    Later on I realized that those in power strive to stop the questioning and the reporting.

    Those with singled minded persistence with the endurance of a prize fighter will be able to speak the truth about the deeds of those in power.

    As for the Mideast, I would be surprised if there's still conflict in the area after the oil reserves are finally exhausted; but it'll likely get worse before that happens.

    "So, what's it like to be able order the death of tens of thousands of people just so you can become richer and more powerful?"

    ReplyDelete