November 3, 2001 SEPTEMBER 11 -- Volume 1 The following are several thoughts I have had since 9/11. The Mossad -- Arab Heroes? In the days after September 11, numerous stories were published concerning the reaction in the Arab world. There were two main themes. One theme is that a lot of people hate the United States and were happy about the bombing. On the other hand, there were numerous stories about how the Arabs could never do such a terrible act, and that it was obviously an act committed by the Israeli Mossad to stir up anti-Arab sentiment. Now, it is not explicit in these stories, but it appears that there are a lot of people in the Arab/Muslim world who both (i) hate the United States and were happy about the bombing, and (ii) believes the Israelis did it. Which, if true, leads to numerous questions. Are these people happy or mad at the Mossad for killing Americans? Will the Mossad agents who died on the planes go straight to heaven and get down and dirty with the virgins? I think these are important questions and would appreciate some answers. You can take Muhammad out of Arabia, But can you take Arabia out of Muhammad? A couple of weeks ago, in my capacity as a bankruptcy lawyer, I auctioned off a chain of 21 laundrymats. The auction attracted the United Nations of laundrymat owners: several Kims, a Hong, a Hsiu, a Rahmanian, a Sariginadies, a Bekhar, an Alagobe. With a couple of exceptions, these entrepreneurs were all first-generation Americans who were willing to spend several hundred thousand dollars cash to purchase a laundrymat located in "South-Central" Los Angeles. Mr. Alogbe, who I presume was from West Africa, gave an impassioned speech about how America was the greatest country of the world because of competition (he was trying to convince the Judge not to sell the stores to the "Microsoft" of laundrymats that was also bidding). All very inspiring. (The evil corporation got the stores.) After the auction, my anger at Mr. Bin Laden and his compatriots just grew and grew. For most people in most of the world, life is crap. The government is either a dictatorship or corrupt, or if you are really lucky, both. If you live in a former colony of a European power, your standard of living is probably worse than it was forty years ago. You are probably suffering the effects of a civil war or strife that is rooted in religion, race or tribalism. However, for a lucky few, America beckons. You save and save what you can, and then come to America to share an apartment with your cousin so you, an engineer back home, can drive a taxi 12 hours a day for several years until you can afford your first laundrymat in a crime-ridden neighborhood, which you operate for several years and then leverage into another, until one day you find yourself living in a four bedroom house in Diamond Bar and driving a Lexus. And the amazing thing is that your neighbor, whose child goes to the same school as yours, is a member of the religion/race/tribe that your religion/race/tribe hates with a passion back in the old country. Now, you aren't exactly buddies, but he goes his way, and you go your way, and as long as your kids aren't dating, there is no trouble. And then along comes Osama Bin Laden with the message that there is no escape from the old country. You thought because you made it to America you were home free from the 1,000 year old conflicts that make everybody miserable back home? Think again, you gullible fool. The Attack on Civilization The terrorist acts have been characterized as "barbaric" and an attack on "civilization." While the words "barbaric" and "civilization" are usually used rather cavalierly, this is one time where the use of the word "civilization" is exactly appropriate. The word "civilization" comes from the Latin word "civis," which means the "inhabitant of a city." Therefore, in an important sense "civilization" is equivalent to urban life, the life in cities as opposed to rural life. City life is defined by an extreme division of labor, while rural life is defined by a high level of self-sufficiency. Farmers get up early to do "chores" -- fix a fence, milk the cow, harvest the crop. Farmers, in effect, are able to satisfy all basic requirements for living from their own resources, and then sell the surplus. City dwellers, on the other hand, are dependent on the farmer's surplus and dependent others to do their "chores." My dependence on the skills of others is the source of much comedic relief in my family. I have no real understanding of how electricity works, how my car runs, how my computer operates. I think I understand how my toilet works, but not well enough to make the simplest repair. I barely know how to cook food, let alone grow it. I have never hunted or fished. I have never fired a gun. When it comes down to it, I am totally dependent on the skills and services of others to survive. My dependence on others is the cost of my "civilized" life -- working as a corporate lawyer and spending spend my free time reading books, thinking big thoughts, writing email rants. The corollary of my dependence on others for my daily existence is the extremely high level of trust I place in others and the machinery of civilization. For instance, how do I obtain food? I go to the market and purchase the food with money. As a practical matter, if for some reason I could not access an ATM or use my credit card for an extended period, it is difficult to see how I could function. Therefore, I necessarily must place great trust in those who maintain the ATM/credit card infrastructure. Furthermore, I must have great trust in the industry that supplies the food to the city that I purchase with my ATM/credit card. I place trust that the refrigerators at the market will work. I place trust that the trucks will arrive on time. And so on and so on. Because of the trust, I can completely ignore the basic essentials of how to feed and clothe my family from my own hand. Precisely because so many rather complex things must go right for me to obtain food and other essentials in the city, urban life is fragile. Rural life survives, if not flourishes, everywhere in the world under extremely varied conditions. Precisely because the farmer is not dependent on anything other than the weather, rural life is predictable and can remain unchanged for generations, if not millennia. Urban life, however, is much more complex. Precisely because urban life is dependent on the complex interaction between thousands, cities rise and fall. Cities are directly affected by war, disease, economic dislocation. For instance, the Western Roman Empire fell for many reasons in the 5th Century . But the "falling", as an experiential fact, was the sacking and then abandonment of its major cities. As the cities were no longer able to defend their inhabitants, significant portions of the population left for the countryside and the protection of the major rural landowners. Because the cities depopulated, Europe entered the Dark Ages -- the absence of significant levels of commerce, art, education -- everything good that cities have to offer. Ironically, while the fall of Rome took place over several hundred years, Europe did not hit bottom until the late 7th Century when the Saracens (i.e. the Muslims) were expanding rapidly from the Arabian peninsula to Spain and then into France. The Roman Empire as an advanced culture was based upon the ease and safety of using the Mediterranean sea for commerce. Once the Saracens went into high gear in the 7th Century and dominated the Western Mediterranean, European trade using the Western Mediterranean essentially ended and the trading cities of Southern France were completely abandoned and Western Europe was culturally isolated for several hundred years. Now, I am not going to compare Osama Bin Laden to the Visigoths who sacked Rome, or the Saracens who threatened Paris. However, there can be no mistake -- we are facing an attack on civilization in the truest sense of the word. There is no more "civilized" place on Earth than Manhattan. Manhattan is filled with professionals, businessmen, artists, writers, etc. -- all people who are entirely dependent on others for food, clothing and shelter. And Osama, by demonstrating the fragility of Manhattan's tallest buildings and the possibility of unpredictable death, has broken the trust that enables life in Manhattan to thrive. He has revealed the fragility of urban life. He has forced urban dwellers to contemplate the breakdown of the machinery of civilization. Our entire financial system was disrupted and the economic ramifications will take years to work out. Thousands lost electricity, phone service, access to their homes and businesses. Manhattan specifically (and our national economy generally) can rebuild and recover from this blow, but how many blows can it survive? Which New Yorker has now not wondered if things might be safer across the river? Will investors be willing to continue to risk billions of dollars in the construction of economic infrastructure that is concentrated in large urban areas? Trust in the urban experience takes generations to build -- but it may only take one or two twisted minds to destroy it. In the ultimate twist, Osama is exploiting the fragility, the density, the complexity of urban life, to accomplish his goals, which is the destruction of Western civilization, meaning Western urban life. Modernity, which is what Osama is reacting against, expresses itself most clearly and fully in the Western city, and New York is its greatest example. The emancipation of women is the clearest example of the dividing line between the pre-Modern world and the Modern world. Female freedom is most evident in the Western city -- think of "Sex and the City" as an example of Western civilization at the beginning of the 21st Century. That is what Osama hates and wants to destroy. I don't know the answer. What I do know is that I am a completely civilized person. I am not prepared for the breakdown of civilization, nor will I ever be. I am not going to stock up on Cipro, or buy a gas mask, or avoid tall buildings. I am not going to learn how to hunt. I am not going to buy a shack in Montana and become a survivalist. I am going to live the fragile, trusting life I know and hope for the best. David Shemano |