Note from our Editor-in-Chief: Friday marks 25 years since the horrific attacks on September 11, 2001. This essay is part of Zeteo’s special week-long coverage of 9/11 and its aftermath in America, across the Middle East, and worldwide. If you’re not already a paid subscriber, become one today to get full access to all of Zeteo’s 9/11 anniversary coverage and more. -Mehdi
When historians and storytellers look back on the decline and fall of the American empire, they might identify 9/11 as the beginning of the long end. The American empire did not collapse immediately, but 9/11 was the spectacular fulcrum, revealing the simultaneous power and vulnerability of it and its imperial citizens. Part of imperial privilege for average Americans is to deny that they are a part of empire. Another part of imperial privilege is to react with misguided fury and hubris, whether through demanding revenge for 9/11 or calling to make America great again today. A different kind of power can be found in renouncing empire and domination, but are Americans willing to embrace a power that acknowledges its own vulnerability?
It may feel impossible to do so after a tragedy like 9/11, a terrorist event and a human catastrophe so shocking that images of people waving from their windows or falling through the air are still deeply disturbing. The dead included the wealthy and the working-class, citizens and undocumented, drawn from the vast diversity of the country. Their deaths induced many reactions, including a solidarity that allowed Americans to forget, for a while, their differences and unite as a grieving country. In commemorating 9/11, we should remember not only the dead, but also that fleeting moment of possibility where we believed in ourselves as a country.
Unfortunately, that sense of solidarity, grievance, and vulnerability that provided a sense of community also led many to demand retribution. Speaking out against that impulse can still be difficult now, 25 years later, but was incredibly daunting back then. But not impossible.