Comments on: Some Reflections on September 11

By: Finnpundit

Finnpundit — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 04:23:15 +0000

Your essay is an exercise in postmodernist equivocation; as such, eminently dismissable. We do not need thinking like this to understand where we are and where we are going. What we need is an understanding of the failures of postmodernism and multiculturalism, – the two currents in Western thought primarily responsible for 9/11. And what we need is an understanding of the nature of reaction, and action, in an era where postmodernist equivocation is only possible for the naive.

By: Ken Houghton

Ken Houghton — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 20:07:24 +0000

“But why, if they could do this incredible thing, have they not sent nineteen more men out to shoot people at random in malls, in schools?” Willie Sutton robbed banks, not well-dressed people on the street. Michael Eisner takes his money from Disney shareholders, not kids seeing or buying the films/merchandise. The people who can take out or seriously damage Embassies, battle cruisers, and 107-story buildings don’t need to waste their time doing something five kids in Paducah would have done if four of them hadn’t (thank G-d) chickened out, or that two kids in Colorado did do.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 16:41:12 +0000

Absolutely lovely. Exactly what I’ve thought about Osama for years.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 01:38:10 +0000

This post is why I like to read blogs. Nicely done. Osama is strangely . . . soft isn’t he? For a supervillian. Unlike Khomeini or Saddam he is unreachable. An enigma.

By: laura

laura — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 21:00:00 +0000

For me, fear of heights has something to do with fear I’ll fall, something with fear I’ll jump, and a large measure of crushing awe at my own insignificance, at being dwarfed by spaces. This is one of maybe 5 things I’ve read since 9/11/01 that had anything new or interesting to say about that.

By: Amardeep

Amardeep — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 16:50:28 +0000

To your left there are many, incomprehensible cities of pipes and flame-topped pillars, wan in the sunlight. To your right, nothing: swamps poisoned with acrid metals and the distant towers shimmering behind, out of scale. There is nothing now to tell you if you are near or far, only marsh, and the sudden maw of the tunnel, surprising you into the city. I’ve never read a better description of that part of New Jersey. It is indeed incomprehensible, massive, depopulated, fume-y, and humming with fierce robotic industry.

By: Sebastian Holsclaw

Sebastian Holsclaw — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 16:38:51 +0000

I think the most insightful part is: “Perhaps we are not even the intended audience for this spectacle of destruction, but merely props in it. Perhaps they would lose face by causing any lesser tragedies, paltry massacres that would make them seem weak. If so, then what comes next must be truly awful, something on a grand scale to compete with the steady, shattering thuds of bodies leaping from the flames. I try to think about the people who did this.” It has been mentioned before, but I think it is very possible that the drama of the towers was meant for consumption in Osama’s local audiences at least as much as it was meant to stir up ‘terror’ in the US.

By: Ted Barlow

Ted Barlow — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 14:52:22 +0000

This was lovely. However, I’ll bet you $100 that some asshole will link to it, quote one word, and say “THE LEFT THINKS OSAMA IS ‘THOUGHTFUL’”. Yeah, I’m pretty burnt out on blogging right now.

By: eudoxis

eudoxis — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 11:09:49 +0000

Beautifully written and insightful.

By: Hunt

Hunt — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 08:32:38 +0000

This might make both Belle and Jrm feel better, or perhaps worse, but most people who suffer from acrophobia are afraid that they will jump. In fact, in cognitive-behavioral treatments for acrophobia, this feeling is one of the primary targets. I too suffer from acrophobia, and recently got to participate in a study testing a new treatment. One of the benefits of being in a psych department.

By: JRM

JRM — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 08:06:04 +0000

Perhaps it’s because I am afraid of heights? Some people are afraid of heights because they worry that they might fall. I am afraid of heights because I worry that I might jump. I know just how you feel. I’m exactly the same way. Never knew there were others like that!