Cav's Place

I remember the day very clearly. I had just spoken on the phone with someone I had been talking to on-line for a while, then went to the living room and started watching some tennis while pacing around idly. All of a sudden, the broadcast was stopped and replaced with a report about what had just happened, set on a background of live images from New York. And the station in question was in fact somewhat late, holding on to the tennis broadcast until the magnitude of the event couldn’t be denied anymore, so I saw the same images and reports that were already at a later point, some moving on to analyses, pretty much everywhere while switching from one station to another, struggling to grasp the situation as well as possible, as quickly as possible.
What was immediately, instinctively, obvious, without requiring any analyses or official statements, was that I was witnessing a truly major event, and also that it wasn’t “just” an act of terrorism, but one of war. Something huge was taking place, something that would have many implications, so I wanted to have all the information I could, from all the sources I could have access to. However, the Internet wasn’t an option during the day back then and when I picked up the phone and called dad he said he hadn’t even heard of it yet, which I found odd, considering where he worked. So that left me with various TV stations, jumping from one to the other to figure out which had the best broadcast and putting everything together in my mind.
I certainly won’t deny also being rather excited about the whole thing and won’t claim that it was because I was “young and stupid”, being 16 at the time. I was fully aware of the scale of the tragedy and didn’t share the popular “the United States deserved it” mindset either, but it was simply the kind of event that gets your blood pumping, gets you worked up, imagining scenarios, thinking of strategies and trying to figure out implications. Or, of course, at an instinctive level it was simply this: “Why is it that we always break up our history by the wars, not the years of peace? […] Why the war and not the peace? Because it’s exciting, and because on some level people like to see something big fall apart and explode from the inside out.”

In the ten years since then, we have witnessed countless scenarios, conspiracy theories, debates, decisions, law and policy changes, military operations and all sorts of other actions and events that have been, and still are, directly or indirectly related to that day. It was very likely the most recent “day that changed the world” and it may well retain that “title” for quite some time. As such, it provided us with an extraordinary opportunity to implement the right kind of changes, making improvements at every level, from individual to global. Any event of such magnitude does that. Whether the initial impact is positive or negative makes little difference in the end, what matters being that such events force the world to change, throw away some old beliefs and practices and replace them with new ones. They simply create a void that needs to be filled.
So what have we done with that opportunity, with that void? Did we take full advantage of it, overhauling the very foundations of society, getting rid of everything that had stopped working, or had never worked in the first place, and replacing those things with new systems and concepts meant to truly improve the world? No, we most certainly have not. But we didn’t quite make the worst of it either. It’s true that certain elements of society, most notably those in positions of authority, have used this and other such events to further their own agendas, implementing many changes that worsen the overall situation, but the fact is that there’s still a lot of unused momentum and it’s only up to the rest of us to take advantage of it. “Governments deal in matters of convenience, not conscience. If they fall behind, it is up to the rest of us to make up the difference. If we don’t, who will?”

Since it’s been ten years, I see no point in dwelling on pointing accusing fingers to those believed responsible, wondering how was something like this possible. I’m also not going to believe the conspiracy theories claiming that the United States government, or certain elements of it, actually orchestrated this. I will, however, say that many governments and other official figures all over the world have been using it to their full advantage, greatly increasing their control over people through measures supposedly justified by the need to combat terrorism. But they’re not the ones to blame for this, or at least not really.
The current system requires people to truly desire a position of authority before obtaining it, so it’s only natural that the vast majority will desire it for their own ends and try to use it to further their personal agendas at the expense of those they’re supposed to help and protect, and at the expense of the world as a whole. What’s more, most people are very easy to manipulate, largely through fear. They’re not rational beings, instead reacting instinctively to such events, doing, demanding or simply allowing things that bring about such negative changes. In a way, according to the current system, many of the negative changes that have been implemented over the past ten years are actually justified by the actions and desires of this large number of people, taking even more of the blame off the shoulders of the powers that be.

Ten years later, we’re still far from reaching any destination, but the good news is that there is still a lot of unused momentum, especially considering the elimination of certain authoritarian regimes, regardless of the method used to achieve this goal or the real motives behind it. The void created by the events that took place a decade ago hasn’t been completely filled yet, and many of the parts that have been filled can still be changed, as they haven’t fully settled yet. What needs to be done now can and likely will be ugly for a while, but we can still turn this around and make the best of the opportunity provided as long as we remember that nothing can happen in our society unless most people let it happen.
The blame for what has happened during the past ten years can’t be thrown on the attackers, nor can it be left entirely on the shoulders of politicians or other decision makers. Commemorate the victims and the heroes if you want, but most importantly honor them by guaranteeing that their deaths were not in vain. Identify and learn from past and present mistakes in order to create a better future. After all, as reality proves time and time again, “we have to create the future or others will do it for us”.