Then what is to come after such a nationalistic movement? All of this patriotism? Just look at the broad aspects of our culture, and parts of the world's history and what do you see will emerge from all of this?

 

Hopefully we'll stick to only fighting amongst ourselves about the important stuff.

Judging from TV, radio, and print (including the latest Soldier of Fortune) lots of businesses will be looking to capitalize on the patriotic market niche. Pick up an SOF and read the two inside front full page ads. I've already had it with painted coins marketed as a meaningful response to tragedy. About every magazine publisher now has a commerative tragedy special edition.

Neither thing is bad. The first is much more important to me.

 

It is nice to see patriotism in all parts of society. I work in the city and even the shittiest of houses have flags and banners.

I think it is alittle fake that people hop on the bandwagon after a big tragedy. All of the sudden everyone gave blood because of what happened....then what happened.... they threw a bunch of it away because too many people gave at once. You think those people are going back right now (it has been more than 8 weeks, you are allowed to give every 8 weeks), or was that a 1 time deal?

There are american flag calenders, posters, etc... in just about every store, and not exactly cheaply priced either. Not sure who gets the profits, but I would imagine most is the store/manuf, and not a charity.

Scot

 

USA!

 

Over a hundred years ago, Germany had someone from the outside attack and they joined together, forgetting their differences in their communities and had a nationalist fever. Well, they weren't so 'attacked' from the outside, but it at least appeared that way through made-up propaganda about the French's hateful attitude towards Germany. So looking at patterns in history like this one, what else is out there to show what might happen next?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Schatten
[B]Over a hundred years ago, Germany had someone from the outside attack and they joined together, forgetting their differences in their communities and had a nationalist fever.

 

i'm sure imperialism is out of question - though i'm sure the Hamas and whatever-Jihad dudes will disagree about "American Imperialists" such as Madonna, Britney Spears, Levi blue jeans, and rock and roll . as a student of history, i can tell you bigger threats exist (in economic and military terms) in the Far East. when you have 2 countries with over 1 billion people each, most in poverty with only a select few running the state, running propaganda machines all day long, using nationalism to incite the young and the restless, and add nuclear weapons...

you don't need to read Tom Clancy's novels to see what's going on. just because the news is not reporting them doesn't mean things are not happening. remember what happened when we accidentally dropped that bomb on the Reds' embassy? they NEED shiznit like that to re-direct attention away from their own failure of that POS system that is proven to not work.

 

Loss of personal privacy. Governments around the world have seized the moment and are moving to initiate this.

 

I have nothing to hide, so I'm not too bothered.

 

Good point. For years, the U.S. government has used the "War on drugs" to slowly erode our personal freedoms - searches without warrants, increases in the amount (and method) of observation that can be made legally without a warrant, arrests based solely on suspicion, minimum sentances for all crimes essentially removing a Judge's power to evaluate the case at hand. I suspect our fine government, and many other governments around the world, will make terrorism their new platform for eroding our freedoms. "Big Brother" tries to look out for us, but what happens when the perception/fear of terrorism is low enough to no longer "need" some of the provisions being enacted since 9-11?

To answer the original question...

Long term, the patriotic fervor we've seen will slowly fade, as it always has in the past. Our airport security will lax, perhaps allowing people to make a flight without arriving 3-4 hours early. We will again go back to having the latest Hollywood/Washington scandal as our "main event" on the news. The flags will slowly dwindle, fading out or ripping or just being put away in favor of alternative decorations. People will again go back to complaining about every little thing we have wrong in this country, never looking at the big picture. This has already started to happen, to a small degree. An example: someone wrote in to the local newspaper complaining (for lack of a better word) about people driving import cars around with flags on them, saying if the driver was a real patriot they'd be driving an american car, never stopping to thinks about how many "made in (communist) China" and "made (by slave labor) in Indonesia" tags are floating around in our homes. It's a shame - I'm not one to hold back criticism of our government and our country, but at the end of the day I'm always happy I am an American citizen, and that I can wonder when I'll next get to drive my car, not whether my house will get bombed overnight...

My 2 hopes for this whole mess:
1) That Americans are reminded now and in the future of how fortunate we are to live here.
2) That Nobody ever forgets this, and that wenever let another extremeist get into a position to cause so much suffering.