What's Next? 9.11.01 - observations on the effect of World Trade Center attacks on Americans

American Demographics, Oct 1, 2001

By killing and injuring thousands of people and laying bare an unprecedented new dimension of American vulnerability, the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon seem destined to provoke changes of seismic proportions in U.S. public attitudes.

To take a look at how these events may shift public perception and outlook, American Demographics interviewed 24 historians, economists, psychologists, sociologists and public opinion specialists. We sent them questions as a starting point, but allowed them to range widely in assessing how the attacks might affect the way Americans think and live. We conducted these interviews in the days immediately after the attacks. At the time, polls suggested widespread support for military action, and indicated that Americans were willing to alter their lifestyles and sacrifice some civil liberties to fight terrorism. The experts we interviewed provided insights into possible changes in public attitudes regarding not only war and civil liberties, but urban life, immigration, travel, law enforcement, government, the stock market and personal safety.

The loss of a sense of security was cited by almost everyone. Many spoke of the attacks as the end of our national innocence, a harsh awakening to the fact that the array of possible deadly threats far exceeds our ability to protect ourselves. "We never had to feel before that everyone is at risk - your family, your children, your neighbors," says Alvin Poussaint, psychiatry professor at Harvard. "We have to figure out ways of protecting ourselves and forever being wary that something can happen."

Among the long-term effects that are particularly difficult to predict are the economic aftershocks. While economists say the uncertainty is harmful, others say that large-scale expenditures, on the military and construction, may enable the country to avert recession. One lasting impact may be that Americans will have more compassion for the struggles of others, says Siamak Movahedi, professor at The Institute for the Study of Violence at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. To Movahedi, terrorism is born of frustration and helplessness. "In the long run, this will breed a more sane and rational foreign policy," he says. "[People in the U.S.] won't be able to watch events in other parts of the world without empathy."

Edited transcripts of these interviews appear below.

BENJAMIN R. BARBER

62, KEKST PROFESSOR OF CIVIL SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND. AUTHOR OF JIHAD VS. McWORLD: HOW GLOBALISM AND TRIBALISM ARE RE-SHAPING THE WORLD (BALLENTINE BOOKS, 1996) AND OF THE FORTHCOMING THE TRUTH OF POWER (W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, 2001).

What is most significant is that this will bring to an end, once and for all, the myth of American innocence and American independence. For two and a half centuries, we've been the city on the hill, the second Eden, protected by two oceans from evils and deprivations and violence. Our national missile shield wrapped America in a cocoon of innocence. This has made clear that the myth is over. This brings to an end the myth of America's exceptionalism. New York is Jerusalem. Washington is Beirut. Pittsburgh is Belfast. We are no different. We're exposed to the same violence and intrusions.

What will be profound is the change in our psyches. Will any of us get on an airplane again without thinking of the airplane that was turned into a bomb?

Whether this is likely to encourage more or less expansive diplomacy is the $64,000 question. There are two possibilities. One is we try to retrieve and revive the myth. We withdraw from more global organizations and act in more unilateral ways. You join us and do it our way. Or we can embrace our interdependence. We can only lick terrorism in collaboration with one another. We will have to wait and see how this crucial question is answered.

LARRY J. SABATO

49, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR GOVERNMENTAL STUDIES. AUTHOR, MOST RECENTLY, OF OVERTIME! THE ELECTION 2000 THRILLER (LONGMAN, 2001)

The end of the Cold War fooled Americans. We took foreign policy off the front burner, where it had been since December 7, 1941, and we didn't even leave it on the stove. America turned inward, and we started to believe that the most important thing we had to do was to preserve a silly, imaginary "lock box" for Social Security. As of September 11, 2001, we are much sadder but considerably wiser. Just as the lessons from Pearl Harbor remained in the collective American mind for almost 50 years, so too will the terror of Tuesday's acts last for decades. Americans are often accused of having memories with a shelf life of two weeks - and that is usually true in the MTV age. But no longer. Not about this. The cost of our lack of vigilance was enormous in 1941, and it is enormous now. We make terrible mistakes, but we learn. My late father, a proud World War II veteran, would recognize both the angst and the resolve of our countrymen today.