The Art of Politics

9/11 and the Rise of The Erinyes

Had this under wraps for a week, time to let it see the light of day...

9/11 and the Rise of The Erinyes

Grave cares of public trust claim we
With sudden, swift appearing;
Let hell's contention set heaven free,
Discharged without a hearing.
---- The Chorus of Furies, from Aeschylus' Eumenides

The increasingly partisan non-partisan 9/11 commission's public testimony and the emergence of the election season have refocused public attention on the September 11th attacks and surrounding public policies. Increasingly before us during this time on news broadcasts and in various roles of commentary have been a vocal group of the widows of 9/11 who lost their husbands during the 9/11 attacks.

The righteous indignation of public opinion following the attacks has among several widows synthesized into a particularly public anti-Bush Administration invective worthy of the Erinyes, "the angry ones", mythological women sent to avenge the dead and deliver justice. Chasing the matricidal Orestes at the beckoning of the ghost of his mother Clytemnestra, they hear her call for vengeance and retribution and seek to avenge her death. Like the Erinyes, their modern incarnation seek justice but without objectivity.

The President's campaign commercials, some of which used evocative but not provocative imagery and references to 9/11, brought near-immediate indignation that was seemingly canned, pre-packaged in a container labeled "break in case of political opportunity". It was several days before other 9/11 families were heard from, some in a letter to the New York Post, declaring the images appropriate and honorable to the memory of those lost. But the Erinyes, yearning to make sense of senselessness, found an immediate outlet for their indignation with a media attuned to fomenting and reporting conflict and controversy.

There has been a hesitancy to engage the post 9/11 Erinyes - an understandable one. But stepping forward from behind the veil of tragic loss to act as advocate means there cannot be a double standard in discourse - sensitivity must give way to sensibility. There has been an unwillingness to engage the Erinyes on any level other than reticent sympathy - which is a grave disservice to the issues of the day.

Perhaps the penultimate occurrence was viewable in immediate commentary reaction to Condoleeza Rice's public testimony before the 9/11 commission on MSNBC. Among the plaintives of if and maybe, and with a clear precognition of blame toward the government and especially the Bush Administration, were undisputed and uncountered innuendo. Understandable immersion in the 9/11 tragedy has unfortunately given rise to the notion among the Erinyes that the plot against the nation was blindingly obvious - the Erinyes decry the Rice claim that she couldn't imagine the use of hijacked planes as cruise missiles, when they state US personnel knew of concern in 1996 of such a use of an aircraft at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. But there is no balanced examination of the four previous intervening years since 1996 - when cockpit doors could be strengthened, air marshals hired, screening procedures enhanced - only whether that one day could have progressed differently, if foresight had revealed what perfect hindsight envisions.

The Erinyes perspective is shaped by a sense of grief. Just as we cannot directly empathize with the pain of their loss, the pain of their loss certainly informs their belief that surely someone must have seen what they so clearly see and feel now. They evoke that it should be obvious that Al Qaeda was going to use hijacked aircraft to attack the WTC, now that retrospection let's us find the right needles in a stack of needles.

The ready willingness to impart partisan blame on the current administration, and to ignore the potential partisan nature of this willingness, gives the Erinyes an unopposed voice on serious issues that affect the entire nation. While 9/11 was a grievous day for the families, it is an event that belongs to us all. The September 11th attacks weren't an attack on specific people, but on the entirety of the United States itself. Time heals all wounds, and with it's passage perhaps a greater willingness to see past grief toward more measured objectivity.

And of the original Erinyes? Orestes, hounded by the Erinyes, is brought before a tribunal, and on a split vote - Athena casts the deciding vote for acquittal. The Erinyes are reborn as the Eumenides, "the kindly ones". Let us hope such a peaceful guise awaits souls whose loss deserves such a contentment.

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An even more detailed article appeared today, a great read by Dorothy Rabinowitz, indicating the ripeness of the topic... I'd held it for publication, but the iron will get no hotter, so let the hammer fall...

Posted by MEC2 at April 14, 2004 09:42 AM