One morning in LA
I very clearly remember this day exactly five years ago. Well, who does not really? 9/11 quickly became one of these icons, a larger than life moment. Me, I had arrived in Los Angeles just days earlier and was staying at a half-shabby hotel in Westwood. My plans for the day included learning to find my way around UCLA and finding a place to live for the next few months. I got up early in the morning, took a quick shower and turned on the TV as I was getting dressed — just in time to see the second plane hit the Twin Towers. I went through the rest of the day in some kind of haze, as did the rest of the people in the research group I was visiting at the Physics department at UCLA.
At first, of course I wondered what was happening, and what the consequences would be. Was this "just" an awful event in New York? Was this the first of a series of attacks all over the US? What would US authorities do? What was I supposed to do if things escalated? These worries soon faded, however, and were replaced by amazement at seeing an entire country come to a complete stand-still.
In America certainly, and also in much of the rest of the world, this was the day that Islamistic terrorism became real. Like Pearl Harbor and several other events of probably very small actual military or civil significance, I believe that 9/11 will be remembered as a day of great symbolic value. One of the biggest challanges in the early 21st century will be militant Islam. After fascism and communism, islamism is the prime oppressive ideology in the world. We should remember that islamism is an ideology. It is not a reaction to an unjust world — it exploits unjustices, perceived and real. It is not a religion — it is based on a religion. Secularisation and democratization of the muslim world is what must be achieved. More than anything, the struggle against islamism will necessarily have to be a struggle within the Muslim community. This is going to mean upsetting a few cherished ideas, not least in the western world.
9/11 2001 was not a day that changed the world. It was not even a day that changed very many lives. It took only a week until life was back to normal, more or less, for all of us. (Ironically, however, I note that for Thanksgiving in November 2001, many Americans opted to travel by car, instead of flying. In the time since 9/11, more people had then been killed in traffic, than were actually killed in the attack.) 9/11 is becoming an icon, a mytholigical symbol. The mythology of 9/11 is bigger than the actual event.
