World Trade Center Attack

World Trade Center Attack

Reactions to the events of September 11, 2001 run the gamut of human emotion and cognition. There cannot be any doubt of the crime's horrendous nature. Disgust and revulsion might be the best way to describe the sense one feels at the calculated murder of innocent thousands. What more, this was not an attack by another sovereign state. It was an attack by an organization in the shadows. In its aim, no one is sure. What does a terrorist organization gain by committing such acts anyway? In the confiscated tapes depicting Osama bin Laden, the violence surpassed his vision. The expected damage was to be far less worse. But it seemed as if the scale and scope of the onslaught did not faze him in the least bit. The martyrs were going to heaven.

And the United States had a lot to say about that. Most denounced the terrorists as cowards, but there were a few, such as Susan Sontag and Bill Maher, who did not feel the same way. There was a sense of overwhelming patriotism, and to say anything otherwise, was foolhardy. And the American flag was everywhere. Even shoes came in the red, white, and blue. Defiling the flag seemed to become downright patriotic. Courage became debatabe, heroism standard. Soon both Sontag and Maher were denounced, even called traitors. What kind of new war was this?

Albert Camus states that:

By attributing too much importance to admirable actions, one ends up paying indirect homage to evil. For one leads others to assume that such admirable actions are so valuable only because they are rare, and that human activity is far more frequently motivated by nastiness and indifference. (The Plague)

These words are full of implication. But to hone in on the media treatment of the events of 9/11 and the war on terrorism in general, one sees the role mass media plays in shaping today's heroism. It is difficult to turn to media and find information without some moral connotation. This after all, is not the proper role of mass media. Or is it?

The over-saturation of images and commentary regarding the terrorist actions in the United States is potentially dangerous. This is not to say the issue be taken lightly. That would be delusional. But with recent news of a documentary detailing the events to air on network television, one is left to ponder the merits of this.