Peter F. Crowley for BuzzFlash: Time to Drop the "Never Forget" 9/11 Mantra
Shouldn’t we never forget domestic acts of terrorism? (sporst)
September 16, 2021
By Peter F. Crowley
For the past 20 years, we’ve been told to ‘Never Forget’ 9/11.
But this mantra was not designed to prevent us from forgetting the memories of loved ones who perished in the worst terrorist attack in US history. Nor was it intended to ‘never forget’ the attack itself, for there is no way that Americans would forget the tragic events that day.
Instead, the slogan means to never let the 9/11 attacks stop acting as the impetus for violent US actions abroad and mass surveillance at home. It means the rage, confusion and thirst for vengeance that many felt right after the attack should remain at the mind’s forefront, interminably, in order to justify the nearly one million direct deaths and 387,000 civilian deaths caused by the US’s post-9/11 wars.
There is no similar ‘never forget’ mantra for the countless far-right, white, domestic terror attacks over the past 30 years, although since 2006, that has been main source of terrorism in the US. Also, before 9/11, white supremacist Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bombing incurred the highest terror death toll in the country. Yet it had little impact on US zeitgeist or attitudes towards terrorism. It’s no wonder, because forgetting far-right, white terrorism in American consciousness has long been a religion.
Although the FBI and President Joe Biden have acknowledged this domestic terrorism problem, when 13 members of the US military were killed (as well as 169 Afghan civilians) at the Kabul Airport on August 26th, the US immediately responded with state violence, killing ten civilians, including seven children. Such actions are illustrative of the cheapness of nonwhite foreign life to the US government. They stand in stark contrast to the government’s tepid response to white terrorism. Imagine the US military or police killing the family of the white terrorist Robert Aaron Long, who murdered eight people in Georgia, six of whom were of Asian descent. Luckily, this is unthinkable – just as the kind of mass-murder response to the Kabul airport attacks should be.
Unlike Freud’s method of digging up old memories and having patients confront them as a way to treat mental illness, today many psychologists believe that forgetting can be beneficial. Not being magnetized to specific memories helps with information recall and increases ghe ability to retain new memories. Forgetting also helps people not remain static, allowing them to evolve as they encounter new experiences. Furthermore, if one is to ‘never forget’, the adage of ‘time healing all wounds’ would be thrown a monkey wrench; for then, time would stand still and not be allowed to perform its magic.
20 years after 9/11, we should rid ourselves of the ‘Never Forget’ slogan. It will help us move forward, no longer shackled to sadness, confusion and the vengeful ghost that helped cause the US to set the world aflame.
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