A moment of silence…
I wasn’t going to write about this, but then John from Uncertain Times posted the picture shown to the left, possibly the most haunting photo since this one. It is so easy to get caught up in the rhetorics of the Situationist spectacle when discussing 9/11, that one tends to forget these “little” tragedies, such as the man jumping on the photo, whose last two seconds of life are worth a novel in itself. 9/11, that titanical and hyperreal event, has shaped us all and I really feel sorry for all concerned. But we will never be forgiven if – at the same time – we do not think about thousands dying every day of famine.
See also:
I think this image is so poignant because the man is alone. Most people feel alone when in emotional pain so this man’s desparation (hurling yourself into the unknown) strikes a chord.
For some reason, it is far easier to dismiss images of mass despair than it is one of individual despair.
I still can’t look at images of 9/11 having witnessed it firsthand
I’m sorry to hear that, I saw some of the expressions on the faces on the onlookers and it told enough witnessing second hand.
It was practically the first thing I saw in new york. arrived on the evening of september 10 and went straight to the apartment I was to be staying at. stepped out the door at 8.45 the next morning and got as far as Canal Street when I looked up and saw a plane flying into a building……
life for a little aussie chick doesn’t get much more surreal than that
I work next door to the WTC site (fortunately not there on that day) and have posted about it. I find all images of that event painful, and video unwatchable. The sequence that nursemyra mentions, often shown as video or a still, looks to me like a mass murder rape, and I have to turn away. I was stupefied for weeks after the event, but unlike some of the rest of the USA, I feel I’ve managed to regain my reason.
My office has a reception area with a new flat screen TV that usually shows news. On Sept. 11, it was tuned to CNN or something, and there was endless video of the smoking towers. I asked them to turn it off, and they did. People usually are reasonable when they take the time to think.
There are people in my office who were there that day – what must they have felt watching that on TV, continually? (We are on the 33rd floor – a perfect view of the atrocity.) Why is the DEFAULT position for media the ON position? Why do we have so little regard for our individual selves that we allow ourselves to be flooded with imagery and sound that is garbage, or positively disturbing for no good reason? What is learned by endlessly viewing the collapsing towers? Why do we need constant media input..?