My memory of 9/11 is pretty vivid. I won't go into details about what happened, we all have our personal views on how/why/what all occurred. These views are based on where we were, what we were doing, and what we choose to believe.
I don't believe the 'truthers' and their conspiracies. All you need for a good conspiracy is a couple of willing believers and some good memes that are logical fallacies. But I'm not going to share what I believe happened, either. We're all allowed to believe what we want, even if I don't agree with what someone else believes. That's called a marketplace of ideas. Sometimes there are lemons being sold in that marketplace. The nice part of the marketplace is this - I don't have to buy the lemons.
Getting past that, I have other memories. People coming together. People pulling together. Without any impetus from a 'leader'. Spontaneous organization and commitment to each other. Race differences disappeared. People cared about each other and making sure they were getting what they needed. I remember it as a "lockdown" of sorts. I didn't go back to work for 2 weeks, working remotely from home, just like the last 6 months. Of course, my office was by 14th Street, which had limited ability to cross. Our office felt it best to let the responders have as much space as possible. I saw similar behaviors in the Northeast Blackout of 2003, 2 years later. Spontaneous organization, not something we needed leaders for. People working together, finding solutions to issues we all faced.
These all happened without leaders. That is to say, we didn't need someone to stand there and 'pull us together', which seems to be a sort of rallying cry today for anti-Trumpers. "We need a unifier." To them, somehow, he is creating the divisions. I disagree. He hasn't created them, they've been there for a long time, festering and being utilized for political gain. It takes leaders to create, and expand, divisions. Trump is taking advantage of these divisions, but so are his opponents, and that's where their hypocrisy is laid bare. They are not unifiers, they are dividers, too. I'd argue they are intent on creating worse divisions.
The deep divisions we see today are things that require leadership for individuals to adopt them as mantras. People are naturally tribal, but in difficult times will abandon degrees of tribalism to pull together and find common ground. The divisions today were created, over time, by leaders who want these divisions. It helps them gain and retain power. No, the divisions are not Trump's fault. He's not helping things, but he's no worse than any of the hundreds of other people who have worked over years to make things worse. Intersectionality is a real Progressive application, and it is essentially a message of division. It is designed as a concept to find 'common ground' but only by highlighting and acknowledging differences. Politicians use this to engage in 'wedge' politics. Obama utilized it to great effect. He did not "pull us together" as his sycophants and acolytes believe. Obama made things worse. Nobody can wave a magic wand and improve things or unify using these concepts.
Trump is, for better or worse, the flip side of the same coin of Obama. What I'll say is that it's not a coin I particularly want...but if it's currently in my pocket, then there certainly is one side I prefer. While Trump is no unifier, he's never claimed to be. He certainly never failed at it as miserably as Obama and other politicians have, using their unique brand of 'unifying intersectionality'.
I am reflecting on this point on 9/11 because we do have, despite our differences, the ability to come together and work together. Naturally. Spontaneously. We do not require, and we should not need, a 'leader' to get us to work together. That's what the free market does. We work together for mutual benefit and mutual gain. People don't make deals because they know they are losing in the deal, they expect to gain from deals. It is spontaneous organization. We definitely do not need a 'leader' to help us believe the same things - that's what a marketplace of ideas is for. The only real common ground we should all share is the Constitution, its limitations on government, and our love for our nation. We don't have to put these above ourselves and our natural individual desires. We should remember that our nation was designed to live with disagreement and division and (hopefully) survive and thrive despite their existence.
Waiting for, or wanting, a 'leader' to unify us is a lazy person's approach. I believe most political activism is for lazy thinkers. Modern activism seems to say "I absolve my need to do something about myself and my life at a fundamental, individual level. Instead I will force others, through my actions in stirring up, or pointing out, divisions to do what I think is right and just." These politically active actions will be couched in caring, kind words, but the laws and regulation produced will frequently damage lives and livelihoods. People will say "oh that activist cares so much" until they are affected by the damaging legislation.
For me, the lesson of 9/11 is this. If you want to 'fix' things, fix yourself, and fix how you live and what your basic life tenets are. The smallest minority is one person. If we really care about diversity, then we need to care for minority views, which means the individual, even if we happen to disagree with them. That doesn't require any rules, laws, or regulations. It just requires being a decent human.
