"After 9/11: Literature, Arts, and Ethics in the Age of Terror" is a team-taught, interdisciplinary course run by Paul Lauritzen and Philip Metres at John Carroll University, at the 10th anniversary year of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Sad, but not in the least bit surprising. (this is pretty much par for the course from what I've seen out of our government) These kinds of soulless knee-jerk reactions to people the government doesn't like run rampant, and I think that this points to a deep cultural defect in our society. That being, a good number of people will react impulsively not only in their daily lives but when voting. That allows for people much like them, impulsive, to come into positions of power and carry out great miscarriages of justice like this. This isn't even a conservative or a liberal problem, it's a bipartisan one. There is by no means a shortage of intelligent people voting and in positions of power, but in my opinion their number is small, smaller than their opponent's ability to see reason or think ahead. Also, the man at the beginning of the report, John Ashcroft, looks similar to a villain from a popular comic book movie that debuted in 2005. Surely a coincidence, but his ignorance seems on par with said comic book villain. It also seems a bit strange to me that they would chalk up the entire american taliban to one man, likely in a propaganda attempt at character assassination.
I don't think that the politician, or people in power, necessarily have to be "impulsive" to make the decision like the one they made regarding John Walker Lindh. I think that in 2002, when Ashcroft announced the charges against Walker, it was more of, "we need to get someone". We need someone to blame and someone to show the Americans that we're not going to war for nothing, there is an enemy and we need justice. Earlier in the week we discussed how Toby Keith's song is "angry", and showing we're strong and we can't be defeated in a time when Americans wanted hope. Many were angry like Keith, and they wanted security so by catching one person, Ashcroft, it meant we were getting the Taliban or the "enemy". Similar to Obama, everyone was happy and people cheered and felt safe. I think because of what we went through as country, and as citizens, during 9/11 many view Al Qaeda as "the enemy" and many people want to see the "enemy" defeated. I believe that's the feeling Ashcroft and other politicians were also responding to. The "who can we blame" allows Americans to feel like their government is doing it's best to get revenge, if your government isn't showing any progress, you stop supporting them. We're even seeing that now with the Obama administration for example, americans are fed up with not having jobs or money, and they expected Obama to change everything within the 3 years he's been in office. There are campaigns many places and that's one of the most popular arguments against him, the citizens want progress when they're hurting and they wanted/want revenge. Ashcroft and the Bush administration I think we're trying to respond in that manner and by capturing John Walker Lindh they could gain approval and show American citizens that they care.
Sad, but not in the least bit surprising. (this is pretty much par for the course from what I've seen out of our government) These kinds of soulless knee-jerk reactions to people the government doesn't like run rampant, and I think that this points to a deep cultural defect in our society. That being, a good number of people will react impulsively not only in their daily lives but when voting. That allows for people much like them, impulsive, to come into positions of power and carry out great miscarriages of justice like this. This isn't even a conservative or a liberal problem, it's a bipartisan one. There is by no means a shortage of intelligent people voting and in positions of power, but in my opinion their number is small, smaller than their opponent's ability to see reason or think ahead. Also, the man at the beginning of the report, John Ashcroft, looks similar to a villain from a popular comic book movie that debuted in 2005. Surely a coincidence, but his ignorance seems on par with said comic book villain. It also seems a bit strange to me that they would chalk up the entire american taliban to one man, likely in a propaganda attempt at character assassination.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the politician, or people in power, necessarily have to be "impulsive" to make the decision like the one they made regarding John Walker Lindh. I think that in 2002, when Ashcroft announced the charges against Walker, it was more of, "we need to get someone". We need someone to blame and someone to show the Americans that we're not going to war for nothing, there is an enemy and we need justice. Earlier in the week we discussed how Toby Keith's song is "angry", and showing we're strong and we can't be defeated in a time when Americans wanted hope. Many were angry like Keith, and they wanted security so by catching one person, Ashcroft, it meant we were getting the Taliban or the "enemy". Similar to Obama, everyone was happy and people cheered and felt safe. I think because of what we went through as country, and as citizens, during 9/11 many view Al Qaeda as "the enemy" and many people want to see the "enemy" defeated. I believe that's the feeling Ashcroft and other politicians were also responding to. The "who can we blame" allows Americans to feel like their government is doing it's best to get revenge, if your government isn't showing any progress, you stop supporting them. We're even seeing that now with the Obama administration for example, americans are fed up with not having jobs or money, and they expected Obama to change everything within the 3 years he's been in office. There are campaigns many places and that's one of the most popular arguments against him, the citizens want progress when they're hurting and they wanted/want revenge. Ashcroft and the Bush administration I think we're trying to respond in that manner and by capturing John Walker Lindh they could gain approval and show American citizens that they care.
ReplyDelete