THE 9-11 BUTTERFLY EFFECT: Are We To Be A Nation of Oysters or "Sane Individuals"?
I held off on this post until the main memorial services were finished.
It is very difficult to escape the memories and collective bereavements left in the aftermath of 9-11. I say this as an American and a New Yorker, but also as a citizen of the world.
I did not lose any loved ones on that day. But I know many, some very close, who did. To me it is only proper to pay due respect to all of those innocents who met such a senseless and violent end as well as all of those in service who gave their lives in the violent aftermath.
This is the one image that I have in 9-11 memoriam. It was taken by a friend and I reprocessed it.
Earlier I saw a media comment that implied that Americans are exaggerating the historical significance of 9-11. I don't think so. When you add up all of the things that have happened over the past ten years, it is absolutely incredible.
Americans were directly affected. But Americans were then lead to do many things that affected many others all over the globe. As you know, certain of these things were clearly not things that we can be proud of. Moreover, the forced allocation of our resources to the war effort and the accompanying financial policies set us down an economic road leading to the protracted slow motion financial disaster we all know too well.
We as a nation have changed dramatically. Some of these changes may have been inevitable in any event. But the fact is 9-11 was a catalyst that hastened the process.
What process?
Try as they will to spin, manipulate and camouflage the "stubborn facts", the evidence is out there for all to see. We are an empire in a deep state of paralysis and turmoil. A declining empire is a fair characterization. As of this fleeting moment, we remain the most powerful empire on earth. But it is anyone's guess how long.
So the meaning of 9-11 penetrates far and beyond the lost love ones honored and remembered today. If they were alive, I don't think they would recognize the country they left behind.
The 9-11 "event" was the Brazilian butterfly, and we are all now struggling in the Texas tornado.
As American's we value our liberty above all else.
That's why I know I don't have to remind you of the the profound price that we as a country are now paying. Why are we paying this price. Is it justified. Is it to be accepted as the new status quo or is a price being paid far in excess of what is warranted by the purported "clear and present dangers."
It is incumbent upon all of us to ask the inconvenient questions that must be asked if there is to be any hope of survival with our principles in tact. No amount of fear baiting and scare mongering should distract us from the singular issues and precedents that will impact many generations for years to come.
You all know what I am talking about. I am not...talking about space monkeys and flying saucerism.
Finally, I want to close this post with something positive.
The first thing that came to mind is the following speech that was presented by the late Senator S I Hayakawa. Senator Hayakawa wrote a book that I consider required reading for those who struggle daily against the verbal manipulations and propagandas so prevalent in politics, finance and modern living: Language and Thought in Action. An amazing book when you consider that it was first published in 1949.
The following speech was delivered by Professor Hayakawa in 1956. A time when the country was living in fear of communism and nuclear armageddon. He spoke of the hypothetical "sane individual." My question to each of you is: Are we to be a nation of oysters or sane individuals?
THE FULLY FUNCTIONING PERSONALITY-S I Hayakawa
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WOW!!! janus read that hayakawa lecture twice -- and slowly each time. i'm about to 'share' it with my own email account -- and from there, out to my brother.
i'm sincerely overwrought! how i wish i'd tuned into ZH on 9/11 -- this would have been PERFECT inspiration! janus needed to disconnect TOTALLY to find the stillness for thought; i posted something here on ZH on 9/12...i had just completed it, and i was ready to send it off and get a bit of sleep. didn't even think to backtrack and find if you'd done anything on the 11th. i'll share it with you soon, i'd like to know what you think of it.
brother, we are SO alike. your wanting to get out of the way of the putrid parade; and then strike a meaningful blow for liberty, and worded with gentlemanly and elegant prose. you're going places, and i want to watch your meteor streak across the heavens!
looks like janus has a new hero to add to my list, hayakawa -- oh, i'll be downloading LOTS of this Wise MAN's stuff.
i'm so stunned, i'm gonna go for now. i've got a favor to work on for a friend that recently suffered an awful loss. i usually don't edit or whatnot...but, my esteem for this person being what it is, i don't want it to come across as sloppy or irreverant...for reverence is the seminal objective.
but i'll have some more comments on this when i've got the time to revisit.
people, PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE read that lecture WildBill posted...thirteen pages? come on...what a tiny price to pay for such an enormous reward. that lecture is the finest thing i've read in a month (trust me, that's a HUGE complement -- if you people had any idea how much hefty stuff i plow through, you'd know that not a day goes by without janus filling his mind with some measure of gold or silver -- the Everlasting Sort, that is)
WildBill, i have, and have before i ever posted on ZH, this feeling that you and i are going to be life-long friends. i do feel awfully for you, janus is a lot to handle -- but i think you can take me. you're one of the toughest SOBs around here.
and, WildBill, janus can clearly see that you had a Wise Father -- you should thank him for it out of the blue someday...he already knows it, but it means a hell of a lot commin from a son like you.
sorry to get sappy...i'm all pulsing in the profound portions of my very soul.
nevertheless, gotta get to work.
favorite dylan song of ALL time, i've been saving it for a special occasion -- and here it is, dedicated to WildBill, The Man In Full (i don't hand out that title capricously, WildBill -- and it's yours forever.)
raise children someday, WildBill -- you'll make a superlative father...raising the kinds of sons and daughters this world needs MILLIONS more of! be fruitful and multiply!
so, here's your dedication, from your biggest fan (ps. the dialog within the song is not with some lover, it's an internal struggle -- you'll get it, i just didn't want folks thinking i was sending you a love letter -- well, it is love, it's the Greek Philos):
http://videos.sapo.pt/I9gbs0sZUz1dCbmbSLFi
Everything went from bad to worse, money never changed a thing,
Death kept followin', trackin' us down, at least I heard your bluebird sing.
Now somebody's got to show their hand, time is an enemy,
I know you're long gone,
I guess it must be up to me.
If I'd thought about it I never would've done it, I guess I would've let it slide,
If I'd paid attention to what others were thinkin', the heart inside me would've died.
I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity,
Someone had to reach for the risin' star,
I guess it was up to me.
Oh, the Union Central is pullin' out, the orchids are in bloom,
I've only got me one good shirt left and it smells of stale perfume.
In fourteen months I've only smiled once and I didn't do it consciously,
Somebody's got to find your trail,
I guess it's gonna be up to me.
It was like a revelation when you betrayed me with your touch,
I'd just about convinced myself nothin' had changed that much.
The old Rounder in the iron mask, he slipped me the master key,
Somebody had to unlock your heart,
He said it was up to me.
Well, I watched you slowly disappear down into the officers' club,
I would've followed you in the door but I didn't have a ticket stub.
So I waited all night 'til the break of day, hopin' one of us could get free,
When the dawn came over the river bridge,
I knew it was up to me.
Oh, the only decent thing I did when I worked as a postal clerk
Was to haul your picture down off the wall near the cage where I used to work.
Was I a fool or not to protect your real identity?
You looked a little burned out, my friend,
I thought it might be up to me.
I met somebody face to face, I had to remove my hat.
She's everything I need and love but I can't be swayed by that.
It frightens me, the awful truth, of how sweet life can be.
But she ain't gonna make a move,
I guess it must be up to me.
Now we heard the Sermon on the Mount and I knew it was too complex,
It didn't amount to anything more than what the broken glass reflects.
When you bite off more than you can chew you gotta pay the penalty,
Somebody's got to tell the tale,
I guess it must be up to me.
Dupree came in pimpin' tonight to the Thunderbird Cafe,
Crystal wanted to talk to him, I had to look the other way.
Now I just can't rest without your love, I need your company.
You ain't gonna cross the line,
I guess it must be up to me.
There's a note left in the bottle, you can give it to Estelle,
She's the one you been wond'rin' about, but there's really nothin' much to tell.
We both heard voices for a while, now the rest is history,
Somebody's got to cry some tears,
I guess it must be up to me.
So go on, boys, play your hands, life is a pantomime,
The ringleaders from the county seat say you don't have all that much time.
And the girl with me behind the shades, she ain't my property,
One of us has got to hit the road,
I guess it must be up to me.
If we never meet again, baby, remember me,
How my lone guitar played sweet for you that old-time melody.
And the harmonica around my neck, I blew it for you, free,
No one else could play that tune,
You know it was up to me,
janus
Tnx friend ;-)
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That was very good.
The need to believe in government.
The need to believe in anti-government.
The need to believe the official story.
The need to believe the unofficial story.
The need to believe in logic.
The need to believe in illogic.
Guilt is everywhere, self-reflection is not. Only “I” have thought it through, so those who don’t believe as “I” believe are asleep, foolish or co-opted. Guilt is everywhere.
Somewhere between the sides lies an issue on which the majority of both can agree: citizens have to decide what kind of country we want to be, and what price we are willing to pay to achieve it.
We have all been lazy, and through our laziness have granted tacit approval to what we have become.
Re: "Can the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set of a tornado in Texas?"
Hmmm... hard to say, but I'd guess probably no more likely than a hooker humpiing in Harlem setting off a seismic shock in Schenectady.
i'd green arrow you, mcyid (seriously, though, i guess that's close; tell me if that's too far with the teasin); NYFrankie is the best wit on ZH (well, very very close second).
but janus no longer votes.
unite and conquer, i sez.
metaphor is what you make it; or maybe it's 'where' it's made that matters.
Thank you for this material by Hayakawa!! It blends (emulsifies) with so much that I have been exposed to lately, particularly Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now) and his description of heightened consiousness, or Rob Bell (Love Wins) which rationalizes (makes rational, consistent, practical) the christian concept of salvation. In particular I am focusing on The Power of Now - the infinte expanse of the present moment - its uniqueness. To live in such a way seems to me to fulfill all of these characteristic of the self-actualized person, free and whole.
Precise and exact numbers of dead civilians in Iraq is ridiculous. As is the article and most of the comments. The world is a dangerous place and you all live in fantasylands where it is somebody else's fault. People died at the World Trade Center because some people thought honesty was a bad policy and lies was a good policy. The Orwellian language starts with Islam as the religion of peace. Has anyone read the Koran?
People hate and love, but they hate more than they love.
I have read many myths of many things and mostly these days about the hidden conspiracies of the US Government concerning 9/11 and Iraq. Unfortunately, the US Government is not the X-Files and the CIA is not the terrifying and all knowing organization created in the pages of the New York Times with the help of the CIA.
The story of September 11, 2001 is a story of incompetence where the keystone cops would have been an improvement and it has gotten no better. The head of the ultimate Orwellian organization DHS is a petty vengeful person that has no knowledge or experience securing even a public restroom.
We have devolved into a crony capitalistic state that relies on thuggery at home and incompetence abroad. The no one is an innocent nonsense reads like a bad high school philosophy discussion on cheap dope. There is evil, good and stupidity. Figuring out which is which is the key.
What is crony capitalism? How is it different from what the US has been practising since its inception?
It's a convenient label to slap back onto the people who have been preaching against all over the world in a disingenuous and hypocritical manner.
The truth is that we, mankind, are not devolving. We were not any better in the past than what we are now, we were worse. Where there was prosperity there was just restraints on man's authority and power.
Small privledged groups have power that is beyond the bounds of authority in the law of liberty. Law makers and making has gone to the wicked extreme because they want to force their beliefs on everyone else and "lord over" them without the means of free speech.
Very enjoyable read. A truly useful definition of sanity and how one can maximize one's creativity and have that sometime illusive "joy of life".
Particularly his reference to the way the most mundane of tasks can be made interesting once again.
There was a time in the history of an kind, when getting a meal was an adventure...and for many it still is.
I just want to thank everyone for such a thoughtful thread.
What a fine way to pay our respects to the victims of 9-11.
Excellent post, chock full of delighting affirmations and cringing self-realizations.
Wonder if Japan's blogs are this resounding when they commemorate Hiroshima. Or Iraq's when they remember the thousands of innocents killed in our invasion. Lives lost. Ours. Thiers. All part of the same game. We got a taste of our own poison, don't you think. Innocent lives are just that. Innocent lives. Regardless of country.
I have been watching what is going on there. They are headed into a collision with their government.
Much to my dismay, American are indeed stupid
9/11 deaths(global financial workers): 2,996 (246 on planes, 2,606 in New York City, and 125 at the Pentagon)
US Iraq war deaths (US soldiers): 4,404 dead and 31,827 wounded
Iraqi war deaths: 104,924, including 92,003 civilian
Tells you which lives are deemed more valuable by political elites.
For all of those being brainwashed by the media to feel for the victims of 9/11. Those new yorker victims won't give a damn about you when you die in your shitty little suburb and the government certainly won't give a two hoots either given that Iraq war vets already are being outshadowed by 9/11 victims.
How much do the wives and families of a dead war vet get paid? 9/11 widows got $1.6M and they still complained for more.
When you get paid, you are no longer a victim.
Ah yes. That night, it was clear, and there was a crescent moon....symbol of Islam.
Just a coincidence, I reckon.
the crescent moon is also a symbol of baphomet..
Yes ironic.
Also ironic is all the recent news chatter about the high res images of the Apollo moon sites. As if to remind us of our eclipse.
William ,
Once again great work Bud. Americans are too gullible , at least most of them and live in the la la land as we know it. The time is now for the sheeples to decide how to live, I guess it is too late. Slughter houses waiting courtesy of the US Govt.
The heat is starting to increase too fast to slip past the frogs awareness.
2001 was life changing for two important reasons. First, The attack on the World Trade Center is obvious. But 2001 was also the time the internet allowed for globalization and facilitated the move to the lowest cost labor countries and outsouring in the developed countries. Currently the prevailing worldwide wage rate is about $5/DAY w/o health and retirment benefits for most manufacturing. Engineers can place plants nearly anywhere in the world with robots and guards. Because of the internet, there is now a growing, restless worldwide surplus of labor. Plenty of capital for high tech plants w/o many workers. So the labor rate is likely to decline as will the standard of living for the majority. Of course a few bright, gifted, lucky ones will escape the changes but for most living standards (house, toilets, water, electricity, a/c, 3 meals/day) will never be as good as today. So 2001 was a game changer but not because of 9/11.
"Because of the internet, there is now a growing, restless worldwide surplus of labor." I submit that this sentence in itself proves that there is no hope. Remember the person who wrote this can pay their electric bill, owns a computer, and can type. And yet he is capable of postulating that human reproduction is caused by the internet. The basic joke is that human beings imagine that they know how to think. They do not know how to think. They must be trained to learn how to think; when they are not; this is the result. Globalization and "outsouring" were enabled by containerized shipping and air freight; and their direct cause, is obviously; legislation. In 1964 nothing was imported from China; nothing. No dollars went to China. None. If you don't understand those two statements read them again. The US Federal Government decided, thru the mechanism of buying congresscritturs, to have "free trade"; There is nothing inevitable or fore-ordained about this; it is the result of human decision. It can even be reversed. It has absolutely nothing to do with the internet. There was once a labour surplus in Europe; it was cured by the Black Plague which resulted, of course, in higher living standards for the survivors. There is absolutely no reason why one fourth of the present population of China could not be today wading in leech infested rice paddys desperately trying to feed themselves as they were in 1960. The year 2001 has no significance whatsoever; aside from the fact that we had perhaps the worst ignorant wack jobs in the white house that it was possible to find; and they did everything they could to cause as big a mess as possible. The basic situation was already fucked at that time.
I would posit that 9-11 facilitated the rapid scaling. How? Greenspan went to town and all those who should have been disaffected suddenly became house builders and credit card millionaires. When that all disappeared everyone realized they were pick pocketed.
the time has come, the walrus said to talk of many things.
of shoes and ship, and sealing wax
and cabbages and kings.
anyone remember what happened after that?
PiiGs can fly you say?
And the walrus was Paul and we were squinting up through the rain...
If you didn't care what happened to me,
And I didn't care for you,
We would zig zag our way through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain.
Wondering which of the buggars to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CHoWx_D2AI&feature=related
Damn it's hard to play MP3s backwards. ;-)
lol...number nine...number nine...number nine...
"Keep on digging."
You know it baby...its all we can do at this stage.
Just expose it...the reality of it all...I've never lost my faith in us and never will.
9/11 happened and the subsequent restrictions on our pitifully short list of freedoms happened because THEY [our leaders] wanted them to happen. Is this a great country or what...
...unfortunately, this is (largely)the Amerikan condition.
But, we get the governments we deserve, and Amerika's permitting their dumbing down over 50 years has led directly to the destination you are now at.
I truly believe that on Friday, November 23 in 1963 , America's descent began. A cancer was contracted and the truth of that day is stll yet to see the light. Nearly 50 years, two generations!! . I will be dead when the truth behind 911 finally is revealed...but one day it shall.
God bless Zero Hedge annd its community
A fitting antidote to the mawkish fetishism metastasizing around 9/11. Whoever was responsible for this still unexplained event, we can clearly see those responsible for the subsequent totalitarian assault on individual liberties supposedly secured by the Constitution. These people are the real enemy, not some boogeyman in a cave in Afghanistan.
Just stopping in to compliment WB7 on the final image in this post, which I would call "Liberty In the Ashes". In my eyes it is truly a piece of digital fine art.
As far as the state-sanctioned wall-to-wall wankathon, I have been studiously avoiding anything pertaining to it. I have little interest in wasting precious time on masturbatory death-cult worship, so I have focused on spending this weekend celebrating life. I hope that all free, right-thinking people out there have attempted to do the same.
"I held off on this post until the main memorial services were finished."
The respect was noted here. You're a class act Banzai ;-)
Civility is the one thing they cannot confiscate.
Too many oysters! Sane men are treated as deviants and freedom and liberty as dangerous in our new post 9/11 culture.
Honor the dead with the truth about 911
Indeed.
But do not expect that of your leaders.
Not only are we exaggerating the historical significance, but by continuing to do so, we are perpetuating a lie and the means our own demise. The truth of what really happened on 9/11 is that the official narrative, at best, is lacking. Whatever that truth is, it pales to what has been done in the name of 9/11 to destroy this country and make war in its name. We and our liberty are bludgeoned into submission with fear and the deaths of the innocent in the Towers and the first responders, all conscripted martyrs for the New World Order or whatever the #@$% you want to call it.
Congratulations America, you're a nation of victims.
There is a difference between projecting self motivated importance into an event and evaluating historic impact.
If you look at the TV today you will see plenty of the former.
As a matter of history. It will be difficult to argue against the significance of the event 100 years from now.
I don't disagree on your point regarding projecting self motivated importance into an event. Meaning no disrespect to those who perished or to diminish in any way heinous nature of the attack, the historical significance of 9/11 in my view is less the actual attack and more the response to it - 9/11 as a catalyst.
a strange attractor?
that works. Kinda like WB7's butterfly wing representation in pic #2.
The IHT (Internation Herald Tribune) front page headline: "9/11, the Day that Never Ended". Damn right. We're reminded of it every day. Rumsfeld was on Fox News saying that at 4% of GDP the MIC isn't big enough, it should be 10% like when Ike was president.
When the Nielson ratings for all this 9-11 fluff come out and they are close to zero, maybe the media will move on to something else.
I like to watch the replays of the live feeds (like CNBC did for years, and MSNBC is now), because I missed that stuff. I was on a plane from Zurich to DFW when this went down. I ended up driving a rental home from Chicago a week later.
I have a feeling we are going to have to wind down our existence listening to that crap.