3
3
3
"It's time to emerge from fear and separation, see we are all one with the same One, and gather under one big intent."
--Swami Beyondananda
It's been ten years since the Twin Towers attacks initiated the never-ending War on Terror. In the Orwellian logic that can only take hold in an atmosphere of fear, we have been collectively "convinced" that only totalitarianism can preserve our freedom. However, there is a deep awakening afoot, an "evolutionary upwising" as people from all sides emerge from the matrix of politics as usual to seek real answers, and more importantly ask real questions. For as some wise person once suggested, if we don't ask different questions, we will never get different answers.
So, in this brief reflection on a world-changing moment, I suggest we consider three questions:
What's so?
So what?
Now what?
What's So?
There has been much speculation about what really happened on 9/11, and many well-respected individuals from across the political spectrum have called for a re-investigation of the original investigation. Certainly there are enough unanswered questions (not to mention unquestioned answers) to cast doubt on the official narrative.
There's at least one new book that explores anomalies in the official story and former Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) is now at the forefront of a campaign to put the call for a new investigation on the ballot in California.
Meanwhile, the progressive and conservative mainstream continue to dismiss any alternative stories about what happened that day as "conspiracy theories." I have often said that a "conspiracy theory" is something which, were it true, most people couldn't deal with. I see the "dismissal attacks" as defensive maneuvers to keep us from facing the horrific possibility that we were betrayed by elements in our own government and ruling elite. Meanwhile, there is a certain personality archetype that thrives on conspiracy theories, and those of us who are not that type tend to be repelled by the darkness and negativity.
But since this article is about shifting our perspective from a state of emergency to a state of emergent seeing, let's put aside for a moment the speculation about what might have happened, and let's instead focus on what we all know did happen. In the days following the attacks, America had the sympathy of the entire world and along with it the potential to initiate a truly healthy new world order. Consider the (largely unreported) response of Norwegians to the recent right-wing terrorist attack in their country. Some 200,000 people 20% of the population of Oslo gathered to silently reaffirm that the attack would only make them more determined to create a loving and peaceful society.
In contrast, the Bush Administration on behalf of the corporate state used the attacks pretty much as Hitler used the Reichstag Fire to mobilize the country into a "religious war" against terrorists. (I am reminded of the quote from writer / actor Peter Ustinov that "Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.")
Less than 48 hours after the 9/11 attacks before there had been any real investigation of the who, what or why -- President Bush addressed an audience at the National Cathedral in Washington, and in the presence of a minister, priest, rabbi and mullah declared the "war on terror." Until that time, no American war had ever been declared in a house of worship. (Theologian David Ray Griffin has some very astute insights into the psychological reasons for doing that and I refer you to this article I wrote about him five years ago.)
So What?
So what? So what are the implications of our government's response to the Twin Tower attacks? The first wave of response to the attacks was the passage of the U.S.A. Patriot Act (emphasis on "act"). In the guise of acting patriotic, a panicked and manipulated Congress voted for a 342-page bill that few of them had even read. While a few legislators stubbornly refused to sign freedom's death warrant, a little anthrax in the mail was all that was needed to change their minds. Interestingly, a document produced in the late 1990's by a neoconservative think tank, Project for a New American Century declared that what was needed was "a new Pearl Harbor" to convince ordinary Americans to sign up for the perpetual warfare state.
