A Conversation on: 9/11

A Conversation on: 9/11:  Country since Tuesday morning in 2001, tonight I will lead a discussion on political and cultural consequences of 9 / 11 in New York public theater program public forum. The evening will offer a reading by author Richard Nelson play new, soft and sad, and the ideas of the author and radio host Kurt Andersen, a journalist and author Carl Bernstein and playwright. The 2001 attacks remain resolutely frustrating for me. The US government's response to these events has seemed grossly insufficient and perhaps even negligent in terms of this country's long-term interests. I keep asking myself why the group responsible for 9/11 committed these acts. What is “is not the United States and its policies is for these people? Beyond a vague understanding of Jihad and other Islamic fundamentalist madness, which was introduced in the United States and has been kept fresh in our minds for decades, I often think: "What changes can we do here at home in addition to the changes aim to influence the rest of the world? Links to real changes, changes in the demands we do, as the U.S. energy supply, infrastructure, natural resources, environmental health and personal of what Americans have learned to wait their birthright : to go anywhere and do anything, buy anything, and as much as they want when they want. A birthright that is now slipping away and quickly,  Is the current, rapid erosion of our standard of living in part the result of our leaders' reactions to 9”11? Did a trillion dollars’ worth of wars with no tax hikes, in addition to a corrupt, usurious real estate lending market, Europe's financial collapse, China's currency hegemony and their invulnerability to other common market imperatives “e.g., little to no environmental regulation” and a spate of fierce natural disasters collectively bring us to this brink? Did our response to the 9/11 attacks need to lean so heavily on attacking others? 10 years ago, only a small percentage of this country's federal intelligence community spoke any of the languages of the Muslim world. Has our ability to understand that region, not just linguistically, but culturally and politically, improved? These factors and others like them matter, particularly in light of the Arab Spring and the recent widespread upheaval in that region. But perhaps most important of all is the question: has American Narcissism changed? By that I mean, how the US has spent so much of the post-World War II period believing we are always the dominant actor in world affairs and that others must always react the way we need them to. Tonight I would like to moderate the program page to open the shared horror and pain of September 11 Day in honor of lives lost and celebrates the heroism and integrity of so many Americans, in response to the tragedy. But I also want to talk about what we learned: that the 9 “11 is a reminder of how, after day, America is not the same and never will. I want to talk about how we must recognize this fact before it is actually possible to go forward. How vile and incomprehensible that the 9 “11 attacks were, the question arises, what we need to learn them. Not only terrorism but also of our country and ourselves.