I was in college when 9/11 happened. A pretty shocking day all around but I had one experience that has stuck with me ever since. Just anecdotal and probably means nothing... but later in the day I went with a friend of mine into town to pick up some t-shirts for a school event. We were talking about it all when my friend said:

"It's kinda weird but, I actually want the death toll to be higher"

For context, to this day my friend is one of the most ethical, good-hearted people I know. He's also fairly non-political and definitely isn't a "death to America" type. What he was telling me was a confession. He knew he wasn't supposed to think like that, but his brain couldn't help it.

And when I think back to the day it happened and shortly after when the death toll numbers were flying around... I feel like a lot of people felt like this but wouldn't dream of verbalizing it. I think A LOT of Americans wanted to see a huge death toll and ultimately were a bit disappointed at the final numbers.

What this says about Americans if true... I don't know. Maybe nothing. But it seems meaningful to me somehow and I've never quite parsed out what that meaning is.

  • Shishnarfne [comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I think it has to do with disasters as media events. In Debord's words, we live in the society of the spectacle. We have learned not to experience calamities as the real life tragedies they are, but as shows, sporting events, blockbuster movies, and therefore they're reported in terms of records - "yesterday we had the highest death toll in the pandemic!"