But it’s all over now. A country that has basically ignored foreign affairs since the cold war ended has discovered that foreign affairs has not ignored it. Now suddenly people are ransacking their brains to see if they opened any envelopes with mysterious white powder over the past two weeks. Now upscalers who once spent hours agonizing over which Moen faucet would go with their copper farmhouse kitchen sink are suddenly worried about whether the water coming out of the pipes has been poisoned. People who longed for Prada bags are suddenly spooked by unattended bags at the airport. America, the sweet land of liberty, is getting a crash course in fear.
What we’re learning is that fear has no shape. Some people talk about building safe rooms in the basement and stocking up on antibiotics and gas masks. Others regard all these precautions as useless, or even hysterical overreactions. Most people, meanwhile, are afraid and not afraid at the same time. Daniel Creson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical School and a veteran of many disaster-relief efforts, describes a two-track response to terror. The daylight rational part of the brain is full of reassurance, but the deeper instinctual part is not so sure. Even when we are outwardly calm we are inwardly anxious.
In Israel, where this atmosphere is the normal state, people try to impose order on their situation. They strategize: this road usually gets hit in the mornings, so I’ll feel safe driving here in the afternoon. The rules are bogus but they make people feel better. Experts in the U.S., too, say it is important to do something to minimize the amount of randomness in your life. “Eat meals at a normal hour,” says Mitchell Jeffrey, president of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. “We need structure.”
But there is one essential fact that should help us get a handle on things. What happened Sept. 11 was no act of nature, like an earthquake or a storm. It was perpetrated by men who get up in the morning, who have weaknesses, who can be beaten. We are not passive victims of forces larger than we can control. We don’t just have fears; we have enemies. This isn’t just a crisis; it’s a problem that can be addressed. In a fundamental way, this is different than the risks we are used to facing–the risk of getting cancer, the risk of dying on the highway–because in this case, we as a nation can fundamentally change the odds.
When you look at countries that face this sort of crisis, you find a distinctive mentality. They think like a nation. The British remember the period of the blitz fondly because for a time their class-riven society was united. The morning after one of the first attacks, Winston Churchill, born in Blenheim Palace, climbed on some rubble in the East End and addressed the crowd, “Are we downhearted?” he bellowed. And the crowd roared “No!” The Brits knew that there was no way to individually protect your family from Hitler. One had to put one’s faith in the Royal Air Force, Churchill and the authorities.
In Israel today, the response is similar. In times of crisis, Israelis rally behind their leaders. They defer to the security guards who check their backpacks at the mall entrances and put their faith in the Army. “The security services get the benefit of the doubt,” says David Makovsky, former diplomatic correspondent for Ha’aretz. “They’re almost sacrosanct.”
It’s going to be hard for Americans to think like a nation. This is an individualistic society. We’ve spent much of the past few decades building little private paradises for ourselves. We withdrew from public life, often not voting. It goes against the American grain to defer to government. The hairs stand upon the back of our necks when we hear a politicians say, “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
But the other key fact about America is that this is a nation that is never actually corrupted by affluence. After the end of World War II, many thought that America would again withdraw from the world. But in fact Americans rose to the Soviet challenge with a patient, if contentious, resolve. Perhaps Sept. 11 will get people interested in politics and public life again–even foreign affairs. Already, the country has united around George W. Bush. There has been a surge in confidence in government’s ability to tackle this problem. So far the fear that is so prevalent in the country has served as a cleanser, washing away a lot of the self-indulgence of the past decade. It’s even caused some people to talk about courage, about the need to face fear and go on. The current anxiety may even remind us of the old adage that while our friends remind us of what we can do, our enemies remind us of what we must do.
