Nobel Literature Prize Winner : “September 11th Wasn’t that Bad”
Doris Lessing, who won the Nobel Literature Prize recently said the following:
“September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn’t that terrible,” the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily El Pais.
“Some Americans will think I’m crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They’re a very naive people, or they pretend to be,” she said in an interview published Sunday.
We are either naive or pretend to be because why? Because September 11th had a profound effect on many of us? Because we tend to put an attack on our soil above what happened with the IRA in another country? Of course we are going to put precedence on an attack on us above attacks on other countries, if this make me naive, then I am guilty.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. About 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were maimed in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.
Let me put this in perspective, 3,000 people were killed in one day on September 11th. 3,700 people died in thirty years of fighting in Northern Ireland. If my math is correct that would be about 123 deaths a year. 3000 deaths in one day versus 123 deaths a year, and we are being naive? I don’t think so.
Doris Lessing won the Nobel prize for literature, so I am no match for her in a literary sense, but I am going to try anyways. So, Doris, here is a little literary prose for you:
FUCK YOU
America's Watchtower 
LOL, Well said!! I’m sorry but this just infuriates me!!!!!!!!
LikeLike
Sorry for the language there, but this really gets under my skin. I couldn’t help myself.
LikeLike
I think she is slightly misguided, but I also think the point she was trying to make got lost by her poor choice of words (ironic, for a Nobel laureate).
I don’t think this is supposed to be a competition, who has had the greater suffering. It sure can’t be measured purely in body count, but on its affect on civil society.
I think the IRA campaign was sustained, and the threat was palpable to the British public. The IRA had a massive effect on the way the British lived their lives by virtue of their continued existance and willingness to carry out repeated attacks.
America is similar, but the subtle difference is that there have been no attacks on American soil since September 11th. The effects of September 11th are still just as far reaching, but in the sense that the American public are still trying to make sense of them. Our perception of the terrorists is based on that one event, and not a concerted campaign.
I think this is the point she was trying to make, but I think it got lost somewhere.
Thanks for listening 🙂
LikeLike
It annoys me to no end when people find the urge to compare. I mean, come on, that’s classic oneupmanship. Yeah, this was bad, BUT look at what happened to us! I mean, get real, yeah, 9/11 wasn’t that bad compared to other things. It wasn’t so bad compared to the holocaust or the Stalin prisons. Yeah, the IRA did some pretty nutty things and caused some pretty intense grief for a number of years. But ya know, if all you do is go around comparing, what will ever be accomplished? To me it’s just a matter of downplaying something to bring about sympathy for yourself, and THAT is despicable.
LikeLike
a double fuck you.
-great post!
LikeLike
Arclightzero, again you are right, the events through history have profound effects on all those involved. Why is it that we need to almost brag about the events that we made it through in an effort to show we are stronger than those that came before us? Maybe I am also guilty of that as well, as 9/11 had a profound effect on me, and made me change my whole view on the world.
Nick, thanks for contributing. You make some good points, but I will take issue with one of them, you said:
Our perception of the terrorists is based on that one event(9/11), and not a concerted campaign.
I disagree with that, there has been a concerted effort by terrorists over years, just not on American soil. Today is the 24th anniversary of an islamo-fascist’s attack on a marine barracks. We have been fighting them a long time, most of us just didn’t realize it because it didn’t happen here.
LikeLike
Can somebody please drive a Icepick through her neck?
LikeLike
This is not the first time someone’s pointed out, usually in a less public manner, that most of the rest of the world has experienced much worse than the 9/11 bombings. Of course it seems worse for those who live here–but come on, folks, America hasn’t suffered anywhere near as much as have other countries from wars on their home soil, terrorism, despots, and other horrors. For those who so eloquently responded to this great thinker and writer: Grow Up.
LikeLike
First, 9/11 wasn’t a bombing, the bombing of the WTC was in 1993. We have been at war with islamo-fascists for many, many years although too many people were afraid to admit it. 9/11 was the latest attack in this war that is being wage upon us by the Islamo-fascists.
Second, America hasn’t suffered as much as other countries from wars on their own soil, you are correct, but don’t forget that we have been attacked over the years abroad.
Third, I did grow up after September 11th, maybe you will too after the next attack when Hillary is running the country.
LikeLike