Is Bush the Result of our National Psychosis?

Keith Olbermann raised a good the other night.

He pondered whether we as a people are all suffering a form of
collective shock as a result of 9/11?

That's an interesting point. When I was covering 9/11 for Democracy Chronicle, at the end I questioned a few teachers as to the kids' reactions since most could not avoid seeing the twin towers coming down over and over again

I had seen it happening without the filter of TV and it left me changed somehow. It was as if I had established my own belief system that nothing, absolutely nothing could affect the twin towers or affect the skyline; that was my personal bias and I couldn't accept change; it just wouldn't process.

And then to see this great cloud of smoke and hear the rumble and then watch the building disappear behind the smoke was confusing and frightening.

What was happening?

I knew that the building would reappear once the smoke was gone....but there was no opportunity to hang around.
When it finally cleared enough to see through the smoke it wasn't there; oh, how we can rationalize almost anything--I waited patiently as if I thought it would reappear in the former space it occupied; or maybe, just maybe it moved a few yards to the right or left? This of course, was my irrational way of dealing with a truth that I couldn't process. .

That was why as a post mortem I spoke to teachers. They told me that many of the children would just start to cry over what happened. Some more outspoken wanted to know how many buildings really came down. I could understand that since we were all treated to the same shocking site over and over again. My heart went out to all the teachers who had to explain what happened to terrified children who couldn't understand or grasp why this has happened. Many, I was told, had to go into therapy.

If this was so apparent among young people, might it not be the case with their parents? Adults tend to keep painful experiences inside. One suspected that if they viewed what happened either on TV or up close and personal, there was no way you were going to come out o that unscathed in much the same way that none of us of a certan generation who loved JFK came out of the assasination the same way.

It has been said that an entire generation experienced lasting shock from this experience and I suspect the same is true of the WTC experience. Even now, it continues to replay in my mind’s eye over and over again and that stirs associations of people and places and things that happened that day to friends and neighbors.

That’s despite the fact that we have all tried to put it to rest although the Commission was flawed and so many questions remain that I don’t suspect will ever leave me the same way that the
Committee set up to investigate the assassination failed to wash with me and left lingering doubts that will never go away.

I am sure that the next generation will have its own crosses to bear.

But I think Keith may have hit onto something. I’ve mentioned it to my associates and friends and many of them about my age tend to agree that they notice the changes, the fear, the quickness to anger and the polarization that seems to hold sway and the disconnect with so many who blame government for all that ails us…and want to have nothing to do with it.

Les Aaron
Hubmaster


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