\n| \n The Dowbrigade considers himself a normal, red-blooded American
\n news-junkie, not sick or subversive or overly enamored with schadenfreude.<\/p>\n Lately, however, we have had to question our taste if not our sanity,
\n for when we look deep into our soul, God help us, dear reader, part of
\n our heart is actually hoping for the next terrorist attack to hurry up
\n and happen.<\/p>\n Before you go all Ashcroft and drop a dime on your poor correspondent
\n for baring his soul in a public forum, let me say that in my waking hours
\n the Dowbrigade is a committed pacifist, and a patriotic defender of the
\n values and form of government that made this country great. Yet
\n many mornings, when we awaken in our warm and cozy bed and reach for
\n the remote control, pre tuned to Fox News Channel, a tiny voice in the
\n back of our mind whispers, "Maybe it’s happened while we were asleep…"<\/p>\n The Dowbrigade, believe it or not, is no stranger to little voices at
\n the back of his head, and over the years has learned to at least consider
\n what they are saying, and so we set out to analyze what could be behind
\n such
\n a sick and sorry sentiment. Somewhat to our own surprise, we came up
\n with a number of grounds on which, although a horrible and all-too-real
\n possibility, a new terrorist attack on the homeland could be eagerly
\n anticipated. To wit:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n- The Boy Who Cried Wolf Syndrome – If something doesn’t happen soon,
\n people are going to stop paying attention when the government raises
\n the terrorist threat level. Many are already questioning the value
\n of a system that just gets everybody all excited and makes them feel
\n less, rather than more secure. If there was an attack, at least
\n they would have a REASON to feel less secure, and to pay attention
\n to warnings in the future.\n <\/li>\n<\/p>\n - 9\/11 Nostalgia – It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. America
\n came together in those terrible days, and it was a beautiful thing. We
\n felt proud to display the American flag for the first time since our
\n childhood. Neighbors talked to neighbors, there was national focus and
\n consensus, and it was clear what we had to do. Resist. Overcome. Fight
\n back. Then we got bogged down in the details, and the Bush-Hussein
\n family feud. Another attack would bring things back into focus.\n <\/li>\n<\/p>\n - Gripping TV – TV has become the spiritual center of the American
\n family, the icon at which the masses worship. 9\/11 and its aftermath
\n were the most gripping Reality TV mini-series in human history. Ratings
\n went through the roof. We rushed home from the office or store to check
\n on the latest updates. We didn’t sleep for days on end, so engaging
\n was the coverage. For the true news junkie, extended national
\n preempts like this are what we live for. Life takes on a clear, hard
\n edge and
\n things MATTER for a change. The whole news game is taken to a
\n higher level. It’s sick, but its fascinating.\n <\/li>\n<\/p>\n - The NASCAR Effect – Why do you think car racing is the second most
\n popular spectator sporting event in this country? Its not because they
\n want to
\n see a gang of grease monkeys change a set of tires in less than 30
\n seconds. Its
\n because they want to see if there is a spectacular crash and burn.
\n Not that they actually WANT any of the drivers to get hurt, heaven
\n forbid,
\n but the possibility of a fiery disaster is a sure way to attract
\n a crowd. The same is true of a terrorist attack. No one but the terrorists
\n actually
\n wants it to happen, but when it does, no one wants to miss it.\n <\/li>\n<\/p>\n - Flushing Out the Enemy – This is in line with one of the most cynical
\n and controversial theories about what we are doing in Iraq. Some critics
\n of the war say that while there were not many international terrorists
\n and rabid America-haters in Iraq before the war, there are sure a lot
\n there now, and we are attracting more every day, sneaking over the
\n borders from Iran and Turkey. Some defenders of the war reply, what
\n if that is
\n part of the plan? To attract all of our enemies to a desolated,
\n God-forsaken shooting gallery where we can line them up and shoot them
\n down without worrying too much about collateral damage. Easier
\n than tracking them down one by one in spider holes and embedded cells
\n in dozens of different countries. By the same token, we know there
\n are numerous sleeper cells in cities and towns across America. Only
\n when they attack will we have the leads, the threads, the chance to
\n root
\n out them and their ilk and excise them like cancer cells on the body
\n politic.\n <\/li>\n<\/p>\n - Waiting for the Counter Punch – As any righteous person who has been
\n drawn into a fight knows, you don’t want to throw the first punch. And
\n we didn’t. But sometimes, when provoked, even when attacked, one cannot
\n immediately locate the enemy. One
\n stands, primed for action, every muscle tensed, every sense alert,
\n waiting for the slightest clue, sound, smell to betray the enemy so
\n that one’s
\n devastating counterpunch can be delivered. As a nation, we are
\n standing thus. C’mon, give us your best shot. Hit us again, so
\n that we can see where you’re coming from, and show you what’s what.
\n We won’t get sucker punched again…\n <\/li>\n<\/p>\n - The Dentist Effect – Waiting for the appointment is much worse than
\n anything the Dentist actually does to you (usually). It is the
\n ANTICIPATION that is soul-wearying and stress-producing. When
\n something bad is coming it is natural to want to JUST GET IT OVER WITH, all
\n the waiting and wondering makes it very hard to concentrate on anything
\n else or get on with your life. "\n <\/li>\n<\/p>\n - Homeland Insecurity – Finally, in a somewhat unhealthy mental health
\n trait, the Dowbrigade would love to see all of the preparation and
\n paranoid rights infringement endorsed by Mr’s Ridge, Ashcroft and Cheney
\n proven utterly inadequate and off track for facing the real threats
\n to our nation’s security. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\nPlease, don’t get me wrong. The Dowbrigade is not endorsing, or
\n hoping for, or encouraging another attack on America. We hate war, and
\n love our country. In addition, even the hint of another attack
\n on the homeland would end any slim hope we have of retaining our job
\n as foreign students return for the bargain basement rates on American
\n higher education. We can only imagine the pain and grief of families
\n who have lost loved ones in terrorist attacks, and sincerely hope than
\n none of them are personally offended by these sentiments.<\/p>\n But we have to confess. Every morning when we flip on the TV we
\n are reminded of that morning in September that changed our lives and our
\n world. Maybe because the world so clearly needs to change and we are
\n so short-sighted and impatient, we are always a bit disappointed to see
\n that Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart are still at the top of the headlines.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Dowbrigade considers himself a normal, red-blooded American news-junkie, not sick or subversive or overly enamored with schadenfreude. Lately, however, we have had to question our taste if not our sanity, for when we look deep into our soul, God … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-screeds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |