For better or for worse, myths have always been used to cement societies. What was the effective role of the “War on Terror” narrative after 9/11 and why is the American public so prone to endorse myth making?
| This post is part of a reading series on Democracy Incorporated by Sheldon S. Wolin. To quickly access all chapters, please click here. Disclaimer: This chapter summary is personal work and an invitation to read the book itself for a detailed view of all the author’s ideas. |
“In the aftermath of September 11 the American citizen was propelled into the realm of mythology, a new and different dimension of being, unworldly, where occult forces were bent on destroying a world that had been created for the children of light,” says the author. This chapter of Democracy Incorporated examines how the use of a myth is integral to totalitarianism’s political dystopia, where good and bad are opposed in absolute ways.
At the outset of the so-called “War on Terror,” invading Iraq to uproot the terrorist networks that committed the 9/11 attack made as much sense as invading Mexico. But a myth, as Sheldon Wolin points out, presents “a narrative of exploits, not an argument or a demonstration. It does not make the world intelligible, only dramatic.” Facts, reason, and human consideration could not matter, then, and they did not. The need to tally Iraqi civilian casualties was not even remotely felt like a necessity in mainstream media, for instance. In that “new and different dimension of being,” it suddenly made sense to disregard the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths brought as an answer to the thousands of American ones on 9/11, even though Iraq had had absolutely nothing to do with the attack on that day and terrorism in general.