Quote:
Originally Posted by habernac
very true. It was awesome to see how much people helped each other in the aftermath of that awful day. All the people who took in stranded travellers. The people of NYC, showing up in Manhattan and saying "I'm here to help, what can I do?" Sadly, it usually takes horrible things to bring out the best in people. then things go back to normal.
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It isn't just that they go back to normal. Sometimes I worry that we learn the wrong lessons from these kinds of events as we move forward. Down here in the states, it seems like the lesson people take from this event is too often something like this:
1. Terrorists hate America
2. America is special.
Dis already pointed out in another thread that people from many countries died in these attacks--it was an attack not on the U.S., but against civilization itself--in my opinion, at least. The actual "reasons" for an act of violence like this are irrelevant. What I think the appropriate lessons from this are:
1. Religious fundamentalism is morally empty. If a fundamentalist can completely invert the fundamentals of religion to the point where they do the opposite of what their creed instructs, and nevertheless claim to be pious, then fundamentalism is useless as a source of moral truth.
2. The way to win the war on terror is not to defend our material possessions or even our lives. It is by defending our moral values--our belief in a liberal democracy, our belief in the principles of egalitarianism, individualism, and secular government that we will be victorious. They may attack us, but ideas cannot be killed. We will lose this war if in attempting to win it we sacrifice those principles which made us a target in the first place.
3. There is strength in unity against a common foe. There is also strength in discourse, and strength in freedom. These are our most potent weapons against all forms of fascism--including that religious brand of fascism that this wave of terrorists espouses.