In the Clear Morning of September 12, 2001

"A day cannot live in infamy without the nourishment of rage. Let�s have rage. What�s needed is a unified, unifying, Pearl Harbor sort of purple American fury�a ruthless indignation that doesn�t leak away in a week or two, wandering off into Prozac-induced forgetfulness or into the next media sensation (O.J. � Eli�n � Chandra �) or into a corruptly thoughtful relativism (as has happened in the recent past, when, for example, you might hear someone say, �Terrible what he did, of course, but, you know, the Unabomber does have a point, doesn�t he, about modern technology?�).

Let America explore the rich reciprocal possibilities of the fatwa. A policy of focused brutality does not come easily to a self-conscious, self-indulgent, contradictory, diverse, humane nation with a short attention span. America needs to relearn a lost discipline, self-confident relentlessness�and to relearn why human nature has equipped us all with a weapon (abhorred in decent peacetime societies) called hatred."

-- Lance Morrow: " The Case for Rage and Retribution" Time Magazine, 9/12/2001

Posted by Vanderleun at September 11, 2003 2:06 AM | TrackBack