Vigilant Paranoia:The American psyche 10 years after 9/11

Everyone not only remembers just where they were on the morning of Sept. 11th 2001, but everyone also realized in their heart of hearts that the game had changed radically. The world and how we as Americans felt about it and ourselves, had drastically been altered in a fashion that was quite confusing to us. We had suddenly in a flash become vulnerable victims, and it was a role that we didn't know what to do with at first. It was like that weird feeling you get when somebody tells you that someone close has died. You don't want to believe it at first, but it takes a moment for the reality of it to sink in, and then you start thinking of not just the death, but the ripple effect that will happen in your life because of it. That's what happened on that morning and throughout the day. Everyone walked around and could not believe what they saw, but realized between the tears and anger that somehow our lives were never going to be the same. And for the most part we were correct.

So much has happened in the ten years since 9/11 that it would be impossible for me to not get carried away writing some sort of chronological novel here, so I won't. I want to just focus on us as Americans 10 years later, and just what residuals this event left on our collective conscious. The immediate days after, America was unified. It was like we bonded together because someone had picked on a family member. We were one, and if you've ever watched Cape Buffalo surround the young during a lion attack, then you will understand what our mentality was for a brief moment in time. we were trying to protect one another, from something that seemed larger than ourselves, out of fear, and understanding that we were in fact more vulnerable than we thought we could ever be. For a brief moment in time American people thought of others, and our feelings were of brother/sisterhood, as all tragedies have a way of tempering harshness, and ushering folks into the reality that life is too short for strong negative feelings. Bottle those feelings up, and you have interaction amongst folks that would be almost like "peace be with you" time in church. That was what was on the surface. What was percolating in the psyche of quite a few Americans was something else.

Americans were asked to be vigilant, which is the right thing to be. After a traumatic event such as 9/11 it became,and is still imperative that everyone do their part to point out suspicious activity on their particular level of observation. We were very aware now that we were vulnerable, and fear of that became a motivating factor for protection. It was and is crystal clear that extremists were who attacked us. Extremists of any spectrum are to be watched, and guarded against, because there is no word such as "moderate" in their vocabulary. Remember that we had our own home grown terrorist extremist blow up a Government building some years earlier, so extremists on any level of activism are to be suspect wherever they may be. What was percolating in some Americans was not vigilance, but paranoia.

After the attack of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans in this country were rounded up and put into internment camps because they looked like the enemy, but were Americans. Paranoia has a way of doing that, and what transpired on a personal level was the confusion of extremism, and people. America has transferred their usual xenophobia, and streamlined it onto a particular religion, and race of people who happen to look like what we fear.
The new psyche of America ten years after 9/11 has produced wonderful things such as the seemingly ebb and flow respect for Firefighters and first responders (All sometimes acknowledged for the convenience of the moment that suits good feelings, and not always like they should be.) and the detailed appreciation for just how much freedom we really do have in the context of everyone else. There are still many loopholes that are in place that all of us see as soft underbelly that a terrorist could take advantage of, but haven't as of yet, but by at least by us being vigilant, they may have a hard time doing so.
But there are 2 very big negative factors that reside in the American psyche post 9/11, and the first is the reinforcement of physical characteristics to determine someone's agenda. I highly doubt that if Swedes attacked America, there would be an all out mental persecution of Lutheran White Blondes, but there it is. Some Americans are hell bent on not distinguishing people from ideologies, and they become everything that they are afraid of in the process. But you can never point that out to these folks as their twisted sense of patriotism, and hypocritical views of distinguishing Christian viewpoints and philosophy collide head on with their own paranoid bigotry. That is the pain of ignorance and fear ruling the visceral side of American thought. Go back to 1941, and you will find the parallels eerie. No German American camps were created. 9/11 has somehow created an outlet and excuse for intolerance. "It's ok because it's only those people I don't like. Remember what they did to us?" American fuel to dislike someone is never at a shortage, but you need something chic to hate. It's not really cool to hate Blacks anymore, Vietnamese are so 60's, Mexicans are so passe and we would lose Cinco De Mayo as a drinking day.. But then there are Middle Eastern folk, and you can tell them apart from everyone else, and they all hate us! How convenient.

The second negative thing that has happened to us was the residual effect of what I just described above. Since it became ok to not like folks, we also became more distant amongst the people that we do happen to like because of the conflicting ideas about other people of the world. It is like the family was upset by someone marrying someone of another race. Half of the family see nothing wrong while the other half try to disown family members and therefore not be a part of the situation that they don't want to see. America was this big cocky bully, and someone managed to expose the bully's weakness, and open the door for everyone to question the strength of him. So we go and pick a fight that has nothing to do with the problem, and we became completely in disarray, leaving everyone to wonder if we are really a bully worth fearing after all.

That is America right now. Still trying to deal with a world where they are not really in charge but believe they should be, and somehow can't get their own mind wrapped around that fact. America is still the greatest place in the world to live, but it is still reeling from that September morning, as the new world of evil ideology came crashing onto land when the towers fell. And we must remember that it is ideology, and evil people who spew it, rather than peaceful people who love as we do, that broke our hearts that day. We are in "Vigilant Paranoia" mode as we still are trying to distinguish between people and ideologies, separate the concepts of vigilance, and prejudice, and sort through the rubble that distinguishes protection from xenophobia.

What fell when the towers fell was not only our aura of invincibility, but our fearlessness of the rest of the world and what can happen if we don't pay attention to how people feel, and how dangerous they can become when dismissed in our minds. When we say "God bless the United States of America" it is with a different tone since 9/11..We are very blessed here, and the people who died on that day did not die in vain if we continue to remember just what we are being vigilant against, and conduct ourselves accordingly. The unified feeling we had when Bin Laden was killed could never have lasted because it was unification born out of a feeling of vengeance. We Americans need to unify out of the desire to make each other and ourselves better. And in turn we will make our country better. We are Americans, and America is as good as it can get. Americans need to prove it, and honor this day by treating one another as such, and acting like we are as good as it gets. And not letting the psychological effects of that day give us Carte Blanche to be as bad as we can be.
America...No other place I'd rather be.