3 Contradictory Legacies of 9/11
Twenty-two years ago, the 9/11 terror attacks changed everything and nothing about American society; revealed America’s decadence and Americans’ selflessness; and traumatized me without altering my life.
The attacks changed everything about America’s culture by changing nothing about America’s society. Day-to-day life for 99% of Americans was not significantly altered during the ensuing two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. World War II required all-out effort from literally everyone in America, from the GIs overseas to the Rosie Riveters to the kids picking up scrap metal and tending Victory Gardens. The War on Terror’s biggest impact on American life was the transformation of pre-game ceremonies into jingoistic military recruiting events.
We did not experience a draft, rationing, or price controls to sustain the war effort. Our government spent trillions sending less than 1% of its population to fight halfway across the world, yet the prices and supplies of food, electricity, gasoline, diesel, tires, vehicles, clothing, and other essentials remained stable. The one exception, gasoline, never had to be rationed or price-controlled. 55-inch flat-screen TVs became cheap.
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