tp205.xml
Title
tp205.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-03-10
TomPaine Story: Story
Toward A More Perfect Union
Nothing characterizes our age more than its inevitability. Only a child
would not expect another terrorist attack. "It is not if but when." And it
is only always a matter of time that "our resilience" will prevail to
everywhere accommodate ""our destiny."" Nothing is more inevitable than "our"
destiny.
Why all the talk of inevitability? Since 9/11, the official eschatology has been mostly pronounced by those who have the power to make it so. The rhetorical masterstroke has been the unity of Americans to embattle the "evildoers." Our destiny means "we will prevail" just as surely as we will be offered reasons to prevail. It is around these reasons that the Great Men convene to meet our destiny.
Caught up in this inevitability have been disparate evildoers: illegal aliens who remain detained without charge, some others held incommunicado, to citizens who don't-watch-what-they-say enough to evade detection of TIPS volunteers. But these are, we are told, the costs of our destiny.
With so much inevitability to preserve, one wonders about the culpability of the Great Men. Our destiny requires blood. About this inevitability we'd do well to recall that not long ago 58,152 persons were destined to die inIndochina. To be sure, these dead were no Great Men. Only one person from the Harvard class of '70 served in combat. Only one Congressman's son ever saw battle in Vietnam.
It turns out that who is either with us or against us is just as possible as our collective future. One thing we can know--even as Iraq and elsewhere become inevitable--is who makes history behind our backs. Often we'll findit has not been, inevitably, "us," but some others whose blood will neverflow eagerly to meet our destiny.
Nothing characterizes our age more than its inevitability. Only a child
would not expect another terrorist attack. "It is not if but when." And it
is only always a matter of time that "our resilience" will prevail to
everywhere accommodate ""our destiny."" Nothing is more inevitable than "our"
destiny.
Why all the talk of inevitability? Since 9/11, the official eschatology has been mostly pronounced by those who have the power to make it so. The rhetorical masterstroke has been the unity of Americans to embattle the "evildoers." Our destiny means "we will prevail" just as surely as we will be offered reasons to prevail. It is around these reasons that the Great Men convene to meet our destiny.
Caught up in this inevitability have been disparate evildoers: illegal aliens who remain detained without charge, some others held incommunicado, to citizens who don't-watch-what-they-say enough to evade detection of TIPS volunteers. But these are, we are told, the costs of our destiny.
With so much inevitability to preserve, one wonders about the culpability of the Great Men. Our destiny requires blood. About this inevitability we'd do well to recall that not long ago 58,152 persons were destined to die inIndochina. To be sure, these dead were no Great Men. Only one person from the Harvard class of '70 served in combat. Only one Congressman's son ever saw battle in Vietnam.
It turns out that who is either with us or against us is just as possible as our collective future. One thing we can know--even as Iraq and elsewhere become inevitable--is who makes history behind our backs. Often we'll findit has not been, inevitably, "us," but some others whose blood will neverflow eagerly to meet our destiny.
Collection
Citation
“tp205.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed May 19, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/783.