Comments on: How would the Twitter generation have coped with 9/11?

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:34:32 +0000

I don’t see that the hysteria extends very far, to be honest: in fact, I’d say it extends strictly to the uninvolved. I had some good friends in the medical profession who did truly astounding work on 7/7 and then fell apart a few months later – but that’s not the vicarious, empty emotionalism you’re describing.

I do agree there’s a massive outburst of non-sequitur measures by the fearmongers, and I’ve had enough ‘Terrorist stops’ myself to be thoroughly aggreived by abuses of the law by grass-roots plod – but I don’t see that as emotions on behalf of the populace, as much as by the police. Just before the recent “stop the city” protests tis year I heard a group of cops exercising their black sense of humour because they had been briefed on what to do if – get this – the protesters had brought a *nuclear weapon* with them. That wasn’t my top concern as a City Resident, but Canteen Culture had the police in an altogether more panicky state of mind!

By: Anteaus

Anteaus — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:39:17 +0000

A worrying fact is that Western people are becoming more and more hysterical, and less and less able to cope with such events in a rational manner.

This fact is being exploited to the full by security moguls, as an excuse to introduce more and more restrictive measures on the populace, and invasions of civil liberties. In many ways this is the real and enduring cost of 9/11 and 7/7.

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:49:36 +0000

(and you’re quite right, anonymuss… what’s worrying me a bit is that I was in the middle of that attack. Not down in the tube, fortunately, but that day spent between Moorgate, Aldgate, and Russell Square, is one I’m unlikely to forget. The enduring memory is that we didn’t need to turn on the news, or get a call, or talk to people, to realise that something major was going on…)

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:46:51 +0000

…so is imagination all you need, Peter?

By: Peter Hindle

Peter Hindle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:48:25 +0000

Like you, I was “expecting this to be a sensationalist, intrusive sham of a documentary that exploited the final moments of people who died in one of the most horrible ways imaginable”. So I didn’t watch it. Why did you?

By: AnonnyMuss

AnonnyMuss — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:08:33 +0000

We do have a slightly more recent example in the London terrorist attacks in 2005 – broadband was prevalent by then but not social networking or media.

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:44:55 +0000

Unfortunately, I don’t think the sample in the show was necessarily representative: nor do I necessarily agree that the media were freaking out. I was in Arizona that morning and got up unawares – but not for long. The whole ranch sat and watched the coverage: Some of the people called by passengers on the planes (especially Flight 93) were at Raytheon, and turned up at the lunch tables that day and later in the week. I was hugely impressed by the job the US professional media – especially ABC, who we hardly ever hear from in the UK.

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:22:01 +0000

This was the only day the global internet stopped working because of high volume – half the world went online that morning to find out more information after news of the event spread. There would have been no social netwoking sites active as the internet packed up.

By: Nicomo

Nicomo — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:39:26 +0000

I mean like yesterday was the 9th of the 9th of the 9th. Surely the doomsayers would have been out in full force making dire predictions and various cults would have committed suicide. Maybe something did happen – but we haven’t been told yet and that Garyy is right and twitter is a buzz with news on Mumbai (do they use 999 too?) though I can’t find anything on it on any English news site

By: Nicomo

Nicomo — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:26:46 +0000

If you think 911 is the emergency number in the US, 999 is the equivalent in the UK – but nothing happened there – fortunately