Jared Yates Sexton: The End of the End of History

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Jared Yates Sexton
@JYSexton
On the twentieth anniversary of September 11th, it's time we recognize the consequences of America's need for vengeance, the effect of militarism in fostering fascism, and how the illusion of American exceptionalism led to murderous self-destruction.

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The End of the End of History
Twenty years have passed since America was attacked on September 11th, 2001. The occasion demands we reflect on who we have become: a terrified nation hellbent on self-destruction
jaredyatessexton.substack.com
7:40 AM · Sep 8, 2021

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https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-end-of-history

*snip*

I was nineteen years old, watching the attacks play out on a small television in my dorm. The men on my floor buzzed from room to room, screaming obscenities, racial slurs, most of them expressing excitement that they might see military retribution before the sun went down. Hopefully, they said, a nuclear explosion that wiped a people off the face of the Earth.

Everything after is a blur. We started drinking heavily before noon, wandered the campus of Indiana State University, Terre Haute proper, watched people roll through the streets, honking their horns, leaning out their windows and screaming for vengeance. In the evening we kept one TV on for updates and a possible war while we continued pounding beers and massacring each other on GoldenEye, all while laughing about the upcoming eradication of the Middle East.

It’s something that makes me feel shameful. I lectured about it a few years ago at a Human Rights Day Event in Terre Haute and the room I delivered the speech in was a few dozen feet away from the entrance to the dormitory. I know because I counted. After the remarks a man about my age came up, admitted he’d experienced the day similarly, and told me it was one of his most embarrassing memories. I’ve heard this from a lot of men.

The attacks of September 11th will be remembered for generations because of the events they set in motion and the reality they destroyed. The fear that I felt, that many others felt, that motivated bloodlust and vengeance and a march to fascism, was triggered by the destruction of not only the Twin Towers, but of a world wherein America was and would remain the sole, undisputed, unchallengable superpower. As the buildings fell, that illusion crumbled with them, and our concept of life itself began to flicker.

*snip*