Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion o/t 9/11

DD10 does know about 9/11 and what happened, but I was still somewhat unprepared yesterday. I was watching one of the morning news shows that was focusing on it. She came into the room, wasn't really watching (or so I thought). I turned to say something to her, and tears were rolling down her cheeks. I asked her what was wrong and she said "it's just so sad". It astounds me at times that as a child with so many issues herself (Cystic Fibrosis, AS, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder), she's so quick to see how others have it worse.

Prayers for your family, Lori. Hopefully you can move on and find peace and relief.

As for 9/11. No, Mr W would start screaming and crying if he saw any of the videos. He cries when any of his stuffed or rubber toys so much as loses a hair or he sees something violent on TV.

I very narrowly missed being involved in the principle events of 9/11 and a ex GF lost friends that day while I spent the next week consoling her. Friends and children of friends deployed all over the world - and some did not come back except in boxes. Its still fresh for me.

And I do not think its over with even though Usama BL is dead.

When Mr W and the Womb Raider get older, I will tell them that evil exists in the world and massacres are part of our horrible past in all human societies - and that everywhere and every time we have to be on the look out for it in all its forms - and then confront it when it is found.

Once they understand the general concept, then we can talk about 9/11 as being just another, extreme (modern) manifestation of it.

Other modern examples are the doomsday cults in Japan, the Jonestown massacre in the 70s, the Boer concentration camps, the Armenian massacre, the the Rwanda massacre, the Holodomor, and the Holocaust.

There is something very dark in the human soul. A strict darwinist interpretation of the paleological evidence suggests we are each survivors (the victors or young female captives) of stuff like this. That is not a pretty thought but its hard to get around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Before_Civilization

And its seeds are present in many of our fellow Americans, many of whom are highly educated, just like the 9/11 hijackers, almost all of whom were from well to do families and college educated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil

Then there's "The War Cycle". Always unpleasant.

Recently worse than ever thanks to modern technology.

Mike Alexander - War Cycle

Your explanation is missing something important. 9/11 was not an isolated attack but part of a jihad. My children will learn what that word means.

The evidence from history shows that wars between states are far less deadly than wars involving tribal societies.

This is what tribes do to each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow_Creek_massacre


Or what tribes do to civilizations. Even the Soviets in Russia or Cambodia or the Nazis in Eastern Europe did not rise to this level of total destruction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_%281258%29

I agree with you.

However, the amplitude of the state vs. state wartime deaths has significantly increased with the advent modern warfare of the 20th century, such as firebombing from the sky and nuclear weapons to name two examples of easy mass-killing.

That's more of an example of what tribes do to high civilizations that have peaked and begun to decline. Kind of like the Western Roman Empire.

For an example of what powerful, rising high civilizations do to tribes, see the History of the United States.

I'm sorry this got OT.

I think that in any group of people, no matter their education level or background, there are some capable of this. I don't think its specific to any one religion or belief system as it has been done in large and small ways by every nation. I think some ideas or linkages are triggers. That's how I intend to explain it to my kids - with 9/11 being a specific instance of a general behavior.