ALIENATION IN POST 9\11 AMERICAN SOCIETY
9\11. Plainly looking, just a date on the Gregorian calendar. Just a way of putting into words a particular day of a particular month. But mention it to any aware & sensible person, especially to an American citizen & this small speck on the calendar of 2001 magnifies itself, staring in your face, reflecting a million emotions & asking a thousand questions. This date, marking one of the darkest days of American civil & social history, is perhaps the shortest expression & a universal label for global terrorism. That fateful Tuesday of the September of 2001, when two airplanes, led by terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda rammed into the World Trade Center & the Pentagon, killing scores of innocent civilians, shook an entire nation out of its comfortable slumber. People working in their offices, finishing routine jobs were caught unawares and unprepared. Some saw it as a manifestation of the age-old battle between Islam & Christianity, others as a cathartic reaction by the middle-east countries against American domination, & still others as simply a planned terrorist attack aimed at creating civil unrest in the world’s most powerful nation. Whatever it was, it definitely brought to attention the fact that terrorism was not merely a third-world problem, but a cancer that was spreading fast across the world, hollowing out whatever claims the world leaders had been making. Of course the event had global ramifications & hurt humanity at large. But more importantly it rattled the conscience of the average American, basking in the glory and pride of being a citizen of America-the land of the brave and the proud. It shattered their proud notion of being “untouchables”(the word has different implications in the American context-meaning somebody who “cannot” and not “should not” be touched). Citizens of the U.S.A. realized that their nation was no longer the safe nest that the media, the authorities and the national leaders had portrayed it as all along. And they learned it the hard way.
Alienation in the American civil society, historically, is not a new phenomenon. Be it the world wars, the great depression of the ‘30s or the Vietnam War, all these events triggered widespread alienation in society. But alienation in American society is so much more visible post 9\11, something that can be explained by the ever-increasing individualism of the average American citizen coupled with other factors like America’s post 9\11 wars. With fast moving times and rapidly changing social ethos, individualism has witnessed an alarming increase in the American civil society, as also in all other world societies. And this individualism has contributed significantly in creating conditions perfect for alienation. What’s more interesting to note is that this individualism is both the cause and the effect of the widespread alienation that American society has witnessed post 9\11. This alienation has manifested itself in many different and dangerous ways. Crime rate has increased, unemployment has gone up, there is a general feeling of mistrust among people and an increasing number of people believe that the government is not doing enough for their security. People have lost faith in the government. According to a survey conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center of the University of Ohio, More than a third of the American public suspects that 9\11 was an “inside job” assisted by federal officials. They believe that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so that the United States could go to war in the Middle East. This national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they "personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be. Widespread resentment and alienation toward the national government appear to be fueling a growing acceptance of conspiracy theories about the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The question is not whether these allegations against the government are based on any substantial evidence, but a more serious one - has the government lost the faith of its people? Why do people think that the federal government has failed them? Or is the federal government so incompetent that it cannot handle internal crises? The average American is feeling alienated form the government policies & the society at large. The fact that the memories of 9\11 still haunt the people of America shows that there’s still fear, confusion, uncertainty, mistrust & panic prevailing among citizens. This panic has sustained itself for all these years and has become even more pronounced after the U.S. decided to wage a war against terrorism, which was by all practical means a war against Iraq. The war, explained as an aftermath of 9\11 has outlived its superimposed “honest purpose” & the average American knows it, even after relentless justifications by Mr. Bush & Co. People now realize the reality of war & jingoistic explanations supporting the stance taken by the Bush administration are no longer workable. The nationwide condemnation of the Iraq war even after being justified as an aftermath of 9\11 shows that citizens are disinterested in its continuation.
Another reason why the American citizens feel alienated from the government policies and the society post 9\11 is that the war against Iraq has come to be viewed as a war against mankind in general. The large number of civilian deaths taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan are not a good step towards the cause of universal harmony and peace, a cause by which most of America’s educated & sensible population stands. The Bush administration’s explanations of collateral damage are no longer sellable even to conservative Americans. The human cost of war in the two countries has been substantial. A reasonable estimate is that, at minimum, 70,000 Iraqis and Afghanis have died due to war-related violence (including excess criminal violence). The people have realized that the US-led "war on terrorism" is addressing and solving nothing, neither American security threats nor the problem of global terrorism. Overall, terrorist activity and violence has grown worse, not better since 11 September 2001. Average levels of terrorist violence that would have been considered extreme in the period prior to 9/11 have become the norm in the years since. And there is no sign that this trend is abating. This much is evident from a review of the terrorism incident database maintained by the Rand Corporation for the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), which is funded by the US Department of Homeland Security. The rate of terrorism fatalities for the 59-month period following 11 September 2001 is 250 percent that of the 44.5-month period preceding and including the 9/11 attacks.
9\11. Plainly looking, just a date on the Gregorian calendar. Just a way of putting into words a particular day of a particular month. But mention it to any aware & sensible person, especially to an American citizen & this small speck on the calendar of 2001 magnifies itself, staring in your face, reflecting a million emotions & asking a thousand questions. This date, marking one of the darkest days of American civil & social history, is perhaps the shortest expression & a universal label for global terrorism. That fateful Tuesday of the September of 2001, when two airplanes, led by terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda rammed into the World Trade Center & the Pentagon, killing scores of innocent civilians, shook an entire nation out of its comfortable slumber. People working in their offices, finishing routine jobs were caught unawares and unprepared. Some saw it as a manifestation of the age-old battle between Islam & Christianity, others as a cathartic reaction by the middle-east countries against American domination, & still others as simply a planned terrorist attack aimed at creating civil unrest in the world’s most powerful nation. Whatever it was, it definitely brought to attention the fact that terrorism was not merely a third-world problem, but a cancer that was spreading fast across the world, hollowing out whatever claims the world leaders had been making. Of course the event had global ramifications & hurt humanity at large. But more importantly it rattled the conscience of the average American, basking in the glory and pride of being a citizen of America-the land of the brave and the proud. It shattered their proud notion of being “untouchables”(the word has different implications in the American context-meaning somebody who “cannot” and not “should not” be touched). Citizens of the U.S.A. realized that their nation was no longer the safe nest that the media, the authorities and the national leaders had portrayed it as all along. And they learned it the hard way.
Alienation in the American civil society, historically, is not a new phenomenon. Be it the world wars, the great depression of the ‘30s or the Vietnam War, all these events triggered widespread alienation in society. But alienation in American society is so much more visible post 9\11, something that can be explained by the ever-increasing individualism of the average American citizen coupled with other factors like America’s post 9\11 wars. With fast moving times and rapidly changing social ethos, individualism has witnessed an alarming increase in the American civil society, as also in all other world societies. And this individualism has contributed significantly in creating conditions perfect for alienation. What’s more interesting to note is that this individualism is both the cause and the effect of the widespread alienation that American society has witnessed post 9\11. This alienation has manifested itself in many different and dangerous ways. Crime rate has increased, unemployment has gone up, there is a general feeling of mistrust among people and an increasing number of people believe that the government is not doing enough for their security. People have lost faith in the government. According to a survey conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center of the University of Ohio, More than a third of the American public suspects that 9\11 was an “inside job” assisted by federal officials. They believe that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so that the United States could go to war in the Middle East. This national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they "personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be. Widespread resentment and alienation toward the national government appear to be fueling a growing acceptance of conspiracy theories about the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The question is not whether these allegations against the government are based on any substantial evidence, but a more serious one - has the government lost the faith of its people? Why do people think that the federal government has failed them? Or is the federal government so incompetent that it cannot handle internal crises? The average American is feeling alienated form the government policies & the society at large. The fact that the memories of 9\11 still haunt the people of America shows that there’s still fear, confusion, uncertainty, mistrust & panic prevailing among citizens. This panic has sustained itself for all these years and has become even more pronounced after the U.S. decided to wage a war against terrorism, which was by all practical means a war against Iraq. The war, explained as an aftermath of 9\11 has outlived its superimposed “honest purpose” & the average American knows it, even after relentless justifications by Mr. Bush & Co. People now realize the reality of war & jingoistic explanations supporting the stance taken by the Bush administration are no longer workable. The nationwide condemnation of the Iraq war even after being justified as an aftermath of 9\11 shows that citizens are disinterested in its continuation.
Another reason why the American citizens feel alienated from the government policies and the society post 9\11 is that the war against Iraq has come to be viewed as a war against mankind in general. The large number of civilian deaths taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan are not a good step towards the cause of universal harmony and peace, a cause by which most of America’s educated & sensible population stands. The Bush administration’s explanations of collateral damage are no longer sellable even to conservative Americans. The human cost of war in the two countries has been substantial. A reasonable estimate is that, at minimum, 70,000 Iraqis and Afghanis have died due to war-related violence (including excess criminal violence). The people have realized that the US-led "war on terrorism" is addressing and solving nothing, neither American security threats nor the problem of global terrorism. Overall, terrorist activity and violence has grown worse, not better since 11 September 2001. Average levels of terrorist violence that would have been considered extreme in the period prior to 9/11 have become the norm in the years since. And there is no sign that this trend is abating. This much is evident from a review of the terrorism incident database maintained by the Rand Corporation for the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), which is funded by the US Department of Homeland Security. The rate of terrorism fatalities for the 59-month period following 11 September 2001 is 250 percent that of the 44.5-month period preceding and including the 9/11 attacks.
Another important trend that shows the growing feeling of alienation and mistrust towards the government is that a large number of Americans today think that America is wasting national resources, both human & financial, in a war that is against that has no practical benefits for them. The war is believed to be costing the U.S. very heavy. First among the costs of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom are the 3,000 dead and 20,000 wounded US service personnel. The monetary cost of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom to the end of FY 2006 has exceeded $400 billion (including reconstruction assistance). Additional cost is presently accruing at a rate of approximately $10 billion per month. Two economists who have attempted such an analysis, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Linda Bilmes of Harvard's Kennedy School, conclude that the total costs of the Iraq war alone may accumulate to between $1 trillion and $2.2 trillion -- on the assumption of a gradual troop drawdown between 2006 and 2010. (Bilmes and Stiglitz, January 2006).
There’s also a strong feeling that America’s post 9\11 wars have threatened and jeopardized national security. Citizens are living in a constant state of fear of terrorist attacks & they think that their safety is heavily compromised. A lot of this can be attributed to exaggerated media reporting and over-reaction by a panicking population but the facts cannot be completely denied. Of the total U.S. military strength, more than 220,000 i.e. 23 % are operationally deployed in or around Iraq, Afghanistan, and other foreign territories. Not since the Vietnam era has the United States had such a large portion of its active-component armed forces at work overseas or deployed in operations as today.
This implies that there are lesser number of troops available for American security purposes & thus the citizens’ fears are justified.
All these factors have instilled a strong feeling of alienation among the youth of the nation, springing from the idea that the government is concentrating too much on useless wars & not doing anything substantial to address the “real” problems, which the American society is facing. The society is loosing out on its cultural fabric and there is widespread normlessness. Problems such as teen pregnancies, drug abuse, school dropouts, unemployment, high attrition rates, employee burnouts plague almost all sections of the society. Apart from these, increase in divorce rates, single-parent households, breaking down of the institution of family & social apathy towards old-age people have all become features of contemporary American society. This has resulted in a general fragmentation of community ethos & the entire social structure in general. Community ethics, general moral principles and social safeguards required for the smooth functioning of a society are all breaking up in post 9\11 & Iraq-war America & this alienation is being reflected in all parts of American civil life, be it movies, music, television or the increasing trend of social pathologies.
REFLECTIONS OF ALIENATION IN AMERICAN MUSIC
All these factors have instilled a strong feeling of alienation among the youth of the nation, springing from the idea that the government is concentrating too much on useless wars & not doing anything substantial to address the “real” problems, which the American society is facing. The society is loosing out on its cultural fabric and there is widespread normlessness. Problems such as teen pregnancies, drug abuse, school dropouts, unemployment, high attrition rates, employee burnouts plague almost all sections of the society. Apart from these, increase in divorce rates, single-parent households, breaking down of the institution of family & social apathy towards old-age people have all become features of contemporary American society. This has resulted in a general fragmentation of community ethos & the entire social structure in general. Community ethics, general moral principles and social safeguards required for the smooth functioning of a society are all breaking up in post 9\11 & Iraq-war America & this alienation is being reflected in all parts of American civil life, be it movies, music, television or the increasing trend of social pathologies.
REFLECTIONS OF ALIENATION IN AMERICAN MUSIC
9\11 has proved to be an important event in the history of American society; in the sense that post 9\11 American society is a totally different case- study in itself. Citizens see their lives almost divided into two distinct sections: pre-9/11 and post-9/11. And they are desperately craving entertainment that speaks to the uncomfortable post-9/11 feeling taking over them-- this surety that they are going to be warring with terrorists for years to come, this belief that wont be feeling safe for quite some time, no matter who wins the election. And American popular music attempts to bring out this split of times in the American society quite successfully by acting as a catalyst that serves to unite an entire generation against war. Artistes have taken up the case of fellow citizens and are voicing their disillusionment against the government through their music. And so one can see all major stars sounding off on the post-9/11 era: Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, Madonna, Paul McCartney, R.E.M., John Mellencamp & most notably Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young & Green Day. Songs composed by these artistes have themes of alienation, anti-war sentiments and a strong vision of peace and a world without wars.
Green Day’s album American Idiot explicitly condemns everything about the Bush administration, from its domination of world media to its post 9\11 reactionary measures and the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. Two songs-“American Idiot” & “Wake me up when September ends”- specially get the message across. In American idiot, the band screams, “Don't want to be an American idiot, don't want a nation under the new media. Welcome to a new kind of tension. All across the idiot nation. Everything isn't meant to be okay. Television dreams of tomorrow. We’re not the ones who're meant to follow. For that's enough to argue.” The song “Wake me up” is about a teenage couple unsure of their future. The video shows how the boy enlists in the troops fighting in Iraq expecting to make things better for both of them and how his and his partner’s life are affected by the war. The lyrics to the song say, “Summer has come and passed. The innocent can never last. Wake me up when September ends. As my memory rests, But never forgets what I lost. Wake me up when September ends”. The reference is of course to 9\11 and the message is that the trauma & disturbance caused by 9\11 is not ending, in fact its being continued by the federal government itself. Another song by rap band Fort Minor titled “where’d you go” is especially about the soldiers fighting in Iraq and the way it’s affecting the lives of their families. Another very important effort has been by Neil Young’s “Living with war.” The album is loaded with anti-war and anti-bush messages. The song “living with war” expresses, “I'm living with war everyday, I'm living with war in my heart every day, I'm living with war right now. And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man, and on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again, and when the night falls, I pray for peace”. The song brings out the disturbing reality that the American citizens are forced to live with the idea of war. Another of Neil Young’s songs “what are their names” expresses sadly,” I wonder who they are, the men who really run this land and I wonder why they run it, with such a thoughtless hand. Tell me what are their names, and on what street do they live…” which again very bluntly questions the competency of the government of the day. UB-40’s “who you fighting for” is another straight forward song asking, “sell the arms, suppress the truth, Create the fear, invent the proof, Wave the flag - don't tell the youth, Who they are fighting for.” Similar questions are asked by Slipknot’s song B.Y.O.B. that says, “Why don't presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?” these songs have bitter feelings of anger towards the government and the society has accepted them as true representations of the prevailing conditions. These and many other artistes have come out in the open voicing the feelings of betrayal and alienation. The songs composed by these acts are not confined to a collector’s edition disc-set but have penetrated the conscience of their fellow citizens & also of millions of others around the world.
In this way, the conditions of alienation, disillusionment, confusion & anger towards the federal government, prevailing in the American society all find a platform in the form of protest songs.
The fact that these songs are composed by mainstream artistes and not just some insignificant one-time act, ensures their reach and success all the more. This also proves that music in America is more than just a medium of entertainment, it’s a way of life and an important form of protest against all kinds of social pathologies & certainly reflects the mood of the American civil society. And its not just the recognized artistes who have created protest music, ordinary citizens have also joined in to voice their protests. This protest song scribbled on an Internet graffiti sums it all up,
I’m going to Camp Casey.
Gonna sleep beside the road And when you smirk and swagger here’s what I’ll say.
Too many died, because you lied. They crossed that river deep and wide.
Gonna sleep beside the road And when you smirk and swagger here’s what I’ll say.
Too many died, because you lied. They crossed that river deep and wide.
(Camp Casey was the name given to the encampment of anti-war protesters outside the George W. Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas during his five-week summer vacation there in 2005, named after Iraq War casualty US Army Specialist Casey Sheehan.)
-MAHIM P. SINGH
J.N.U.
NEW DELHI
INDIA
