At the risk of offending my countrymen, I feel like the media's need to capture attention to generate sales of ad time, combined with the particularly American unwillingness to look away from things that we say horrify us, is on the verge of creating a fetishistic attitude towards 9-11. The attacks on the World Trade Center were indeed terrible events. That much said, we're giving al-Qaeda exactly what they want: a long-lasting feeling of fear and anger. From the standpoint of psychological warfare, the enemy is trouncing us with our willing--nay, eager--complicity.
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"We're not innovating. We're selectively imitating." June Bernstein, Acting President of the University of Arizona in Tucson, November 15, 1998.
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