Keeping the Rhetoric Civil

• queencitybuckeye

  BGFalcons82;893065 wrote:I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.[INDENT]
  
  [/INDENT]

  That you're a coward, Mr. Krugman?
• BGFalcons82

  

  I'm not sure where to post this, but this thread seems as good as any.
  
  I keep seeing the phrase, "Never Forget", associated with the 911 observances yesterday. I've been scratchin my head thinking about what this means.
  
  1. Is it an instruction or a demand? If it is, then it pre-supposes that Americans would forget. If you lived through 9-11, then who could possibly forget that day?
  2. Does it make the presumption that Americans easily forget? Have we forgotten Pearl Harbor? Or Kennedy's assassination? Or MLK's? Obviously the answer is no, so why use this term?
  3. Is it an event we would just as soon forget? Like a person would like to forget a bad day at the office? Why would anyone ever forget where they were the morning of 9-11-2001?
  4. Will the relatives of the nearly 3000 innocent people ever for a moment think about forgetting?
  5. Should we never forget the feeling afterwards, on 9-12-2001, that unified our nation for such an historically short period of time?
  6. Or is it like the Holocaust, wherein a growing number of people (like Iran's Achmedinejad) would like to re-write history to claim it is a lie and the instructions to "never forget" are using the Holocaust as a backdrop? Or should we be worried about those that would like to re-write what happened?
  
  Anyways, I've been baffled by the phrase. The 300,000,000 Americans that lived through that day will certainly never forget. The beautiful reflecting pools and park won't allow forgetfulness. The farmland in Shankland, PA won't ever forget. Why do we have to be told to remember the events of September 11, 2001?
• I Wear Pants

  Because "Never Forget" is a nifty little slogan and a way for companies to sell us shit while seeming like they care.
• Writerbuckeye

  

  People said, "Remember the Alamo" too back in the day. I don't see anything subversive about it.
• jhay78

  

  BGFalcons82;893298 wrote:6. Or is it like the Holocaust, wherein a growing number of people (like Iran's Achmedinejad) would like to re-write history to claim it is a lie and the instructions to "never forget" are using the Holocaust as a backdrop? Or should we be worried about those that would like to re-write what happened?
  
  Anyways, I've been baffled by the phrase. The 300,000,000 Americans that lived through that day will certainly never forget. The beautiful reflecting pools and park won't allow forgetfulness. The farmland in Shankland, PA won't ever forget. Why do we have to be told to remember the events of September 11, 2001?

  I think your last reason hits home with me the most. I'll never forget the facts about what happened, or what I felt like that day, but for the sake of practicality you just naturally push the emotions beneath everything else. Sometimes it takes effort to "not forget", particularly if you didn't lose a loved one. I made sure I watched news coverage this weekend to remind myself how lucky I am and how painful that day was for so many ordinary people.
  

  Writerbuckeye;893408 wrote:People said, "Remember the Alamo" too back in the day. I don't see anything subversive about it.

  Agreed.
• BGFalcons82

  

  Writerbuckeye;893408 wrote:People said, "Remember the Alamo" too back in the day. I don't see anything subversive about it.

  I'm not looking for anything subversive in particular. Just trying to figure out what was meant by the organizers and sponsors of it.
  
  In regards to, "Remember the Alamo", that is a positive thought. "Never Forget" is a negative use of the language. Maybe someone is trying to coin a phrase similar to the Alamo saying, which is quite memorable. I don't know. The connotations of even conjuring thoughts that would allow one to forget the events of 9-11 is striking to me, however.
• tk421

  

  It's a way for the government to remind the American people that it is needed. If we forget 9/11, then all the security bullshit, all the TSA nonsense of searching little girls and old women, all the hysteria and hype will be for nothing. The more scared of the bogeyman they can make us, the better off for the government.
• tk421

  

  That's what I think the "unconfirmed but credible" (if it's unconfirmed how can it be credible?) threat of car bombings yesterday in NYC was about also. I don't think for a minute that there was any actual plot for someone to use car bombs, the DHS used the anniversary as a way to create a threat and be able to point and shout about how much we need this security and about how unsafe we still are.
• believer

  

  tk421;893532 wrote:It's a way for the government to remind the American people that it is needed. If we forget 9/11, then all the security bullshit, all the TSA nonsense of searching little girls and old women, all the hysteria and hype will be for nothing. The more scared of the bogeyman they can make us, the better off for the government.

  This.
  
  The Feds have done a marvelous job of co-opting and capitalizing on 9/11. It's all about relinquishing personal liberties to the nanny state.
• Manhattan Buckeye

  "He's such a piece of sh-it."
  
  
  Incorrect. Trey and Matt got it wrong, it wasn't Bono who is $&%&, it is Paul Krugman. The hilarious part is all of the griping he was pushing during the last administration he is pimping now. Princeton must be shaking their heads.