Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
I suppose in a sense I feel that what has been shaken in the time since September 11th has been more than the sum of its parts. Life has gotten tougher and the outlook has become more bleak on several fronts, but the bigger thing that was so damaged was the ideal that represented American life. The optimism and idealism that was such a strong characteristic of the culture is not what it used to be, and that is sad.
|
I've definitely got to agree with this.
I remember the days following and people saying that this would for ever change our generation and it was another loss of innocence (akin to Kennedy's assassination). The kept saying on the news that this would be a defining moment that we would all remember.
Up until that point, the only defining moments that I could remember exactly where I was when the news came down was the Fall of The Berlin Wall, Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait (mainly because you could see the tanks roll by our old Ex-pat Apartment), the announcement that G.W.B won the 2000 election and of course when OJ was acquitted (because they announced it on the speakers at Western Canada High).
At the time I didn't think it would leave such an impact on our lives as it has. Call it being a naive University Student or what will you, but it's crazy what this one day has done to Western Society as a whole. Before that day, everything always happened on the other side of the world or to others. It was like a massive protection bubble was secretly popped. Every day tensions between "Westerners" and "Muslims" didn't even exist. Politics in the US and Canada weren't nearly as vicious. There were agreements, but political leaders generally got along and the mud slinging wasn't nearly as embarrassing as it is today. You didn't see a reverting back to McCarthy-era name calling and words like "Socialism", "Liberal" and "Conservative" weren't used as insults to others.
It was just a different time of innocence, I remember on more than one occasion before that time hearing people debate whether Canada even needed a military. (I never did agree with this). But that was the type of sentiment in many people's minds at the time.
(Please note that I could also be experiencing
baz-luhrmann-sunscreen-atitis in regards to political discourse in the past)