The Black Tuesday: The Crisis of Civilization

11 Sep 2001. At 8:45 and 9:03 ET, two hijacked air liners with passengers rammed the twin buildings of the World Trade Center in New York City. At 9:43, in Washington DC, yet another plane ruins the Western wing of the Pentagon. Thousands of lives lost.

America's got what it strove for.

However terrible the loss of so many people and destruction of a whole city block may be, it is Americans themselves who made such acts of violence possible. The most powerful country of the world believed in its supreme right of judgement in the whole world, it worshipped force and terror, cultivated cruelty and aggressiveness. Hollywood has so many times ruined New York City on the screen, and it is no wonder that somebody would be mad enough to bring the movie in reality. All the American culture was based on a single law: kill the enemy. If you're strong, kill physically. If you're weak, buy a killer. If you cannot kill yourself and don't have money to make kill, then you are the prey, and everybody has right to kill you. Blood and terror were in the air, and the tragedy was not unexpected.

And the most terrible of all is that it did not teach people anything. The journals quote sociological data that 70% of Americans would support any act of revenge, anywhere in the world. They are ready to bring death to thousands of people they never knew, for a crime of just a few; one can be sure that those few will hardly be punished, simply because they have enough money to shield themselves, and the capital is worth much more than human life in this insane world. By different reports, from 70 to 1000 cruise missiles have been fired at bin Laden's camps after attacks on American Embassies in Africa (to compare with 300 missiles that hit Iraq during the "desert storm"). Was that any damage to bin Laden and his wealth? The generals of the ruined Pentagon are already dreaming of a "third world war" of the civilized world against the rest of the world, presumably not enough civilized --- or simply not obedient.

However, the USA has long since started that undeclared war against the whole world. Korea, Vietnam, invasion in Grenada, bombardment of Libya and Lebanon, recent aggression in Yugoslavia --- who will become the next target? What terrorist group has ever killed as many people as American soldiers overseas? Interference in economy and politics of any country all over the world is the worst kind of terrorism, state terrorism. And it is bound to provoke as violent reaction.

American politics like to talk about struggle against terrorism, using such talks to cover any dirty business at all. But, to be able to fight terrorism, they provoke it themselves, like in the well-known manipulation game "cops and thieves", described by E.Berne. American banks and industry need conflicts in other countries to make their well-being on human bones and blood. Now it is American blood that has been spilled.

Will that stop innumerable thrillers and westerns, star wars and computer fights? Will that temper the spirit of competition, the race for success by any means? Why should some people be the champions by the expense of the losers? When the humanity will stop living by the law of jungle, and start living by the law of reason, as it is appropriate to the conscious beings?

Maybe these questions will take many more decades and tragedies to answer. But we'll have to answer anyway, unless the conscious humanity will cease to exist.