[Industrialblog,
September 18, 2006]
Sept. 11 + 5
One of the best bloggers out there is David Foster of Photon Courier. His piece on the fifth annivesary is Sept. 11 is typical of the intelligence he brings to bear on whatever subject he chooses.
I've been frustrated with the reality deniers for quite some time. In fact, since Sept. 11 itself. I was in the press room and began to hear the defeatism right away -- the denial that we could do anything. I thought it was war -- but most of my colleagues thought it was an unfortunate attack, a huge crime, that's all. Not an act of war.
Unfortunately, we haven't progressed much since then.
A couple of days, I visited an old industrial facility that has been restored to operating condition. One of the machines there, dating from around 1900, was called an attrition mill. It contains two steel discs, which rotate at high speed in opposite directions, crushing the kernels of grain between them.
I fear that our civilization is caught in a gigantic attrition mill, with one disc being the terrorist enemy, and the other being the reality-deniers within our own societies.
I've been frustrated with the reality deniers for quite some time. In fact, since Sept. 11 itself. I was in the press room and began to hear the defeatism right away -- the denial that we could do anything. I thought it was war -- but most of my colleagues thought it was an unfortunate attack, a huge crime, that's all. Not an act of war.
Unfortunately, we haven't progressed much since then.