How-to be a sheep article on the WSJ

[mean-green at hushmail.com]

[Reformatted for legibility:  linewraps and indent.  Please take the few
moments to present material in a clear and readable manner.  KMSelf]

    October 4, 2001
    Capital
    A Pivotal Point In American Life

    IT IS EASY TO ASSERT that Sept. 11 "changed everything." It
    certainly is redefining normalcy in New York and Washington, where
    the sound of a siren or the darkness of a blown fuse revives the
    anxiety of that terrible Tuesday. But life is changing irreversibly
    in peaceful places such as Tyler, Texas, too.

    The sting of the terrorist attack will fade, albeit more slowly for
    those whose loved ones perished. But Sept. 11 looks like one of
    those pivot points in American life. Its true significance will be
    clear only with the hindsight of history. Three weeks is time
    enough, though, to begin to see the magnitude of the changes -- and
    they aren't limited to New York and Washington.

    Before Sept. 11, Americans worried about the growing capacity of
    government and business to use technology to instantly retrieve and
    share intimate details of our lives. When the Department of Health
    and Human Services was drafting new privacy rules for medical
    records last year, it got 52,000 comments.

    Today, concern about privacy is displaced by concern about security.
    At Tyler's tiny airport, the screeners open every carry-on bag and
    examine every crevice. But no one complains, even silently, about
    exposing dirty underwear in a public place. Public pressure to
    protect the confidentiality of financial information, the subject of
    those small-print notices stuffed in bills and bank statements, is
    now countered by a more urgent need to track the terrorists' money
    trail.

    Technologies that seemed frightening to many last month -- such as
    the cameras and software that scan and identify faces in public
    places -- seem comforting today. Polls show a surge in support for a
    national identity card, especially when it is described as a way to
    combat terrorism.

    BEFORE SEPT. 11, the U.S. was striving for frictionless air travel,
    offering boarding passes at computer terminals and baggage check-in
    at downtown counters. Complaints about air travel weren't about
    fares, which were driven down by competition, or safety, but about
    delays caused by the popularity of air travel.

    Today, we are putting friction back into airplane check-ins -- and
    that, along with fear of hijacking, may drive American families back
    into their cars. "The generation that dominates most markets, the
    baby boomers, are obsessed with safety and their own well-being,
    more than any other generation that has preceded them," says Jim
    Bulin, a Northville, Mich., consultant to the auto industry.

    0See more information about some of the items mentioned in this
    column.

    * * *
    Please send comments to capital at wsj.com1. We'll post selected
    replies at WSJ.com/CapitalExchange2 on Sunday.  The generation that
    put bike helmets on kids and durable car seats in minivans will be
    reluctant to fly to Disneyland or Club Med. The attacks have revived
    talk of building a world-class high-speed rail network. But that's
    just talk. For now, many more families will be taking vacations by
    car.

    Before Sept. 11, the U.S. was, with some hesitation, erasing its
    national borders. A long-simmering dispute over allowing Mexican
    trucks to travel U.S. highways was nearing resolution. The border
    with Canada was all but invisible. President Bush was pondering ways
    to legalize the status of immigrants from Mexico who came here
    illegally.

    Today, we are fortifying our borders again. The aerial photos of
    trucks waiting to carry parts from Canadian factories to
    Detroit-area auto plants are just the most tangible evidence.
    Congress is moving to fortify the Canadian border. The power of
    globalization to wash away the nation's borders like ocean waves
    seems less inexorable at a moment when the president has created an
    office of homeland security.

    THE IMPORTANCE of government was widely questioned before Sept. 11.
    For a time, Washington was plain boring to many. Then, thanks to
    Bill Clinton, it became fascinating in the way a soap opera is
    fascinating. And Washington became a venue for sitcoms. The power of
    markets to produce prosperity was self-evident; the potential to
    privatize functions once reserved to government appeared unlimited.
    There was debate, but there was no doubt which side was winning.

    Today, the centrality of government -- particularly the one in
    Washington -- is unquestioned. The government is criticized for not
    foreseeing or preventing the attacks, and for the adequacy and shape
    of its military and economic response. But no one is calling
    Washington irrelevant. The widespread belief that a federal takeover
    of airport security is the best way to assure travelers of their
    safety suggests a slowing in the momentum to privatize everything,
    no matter how strong the economic case for privatization and
    competition.

    The lasting impact of Sept. 11 is likely to be greatest on Americans
    in their late teens and early 20s, "the people who are still young
    enough to have their values being formed," Mr. Bulin suggests. For
    them, Sept. 11 will likely prove as important in shaping attitudes
    and behavior as the traumatic Kennedy assassination and the divisive
    Vietnam War were for an earlier generation. And it is truly
    impossible to predict just how that will show itself in the decades
    ahead.

    -- David Wessel

    Write to David Wessel at capital at wsj.com3



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    Resources
    For recent polls on national identity cards, see
    www.fabmac.com/issues.html4

    www.people-press.org/terrorist01rpt.htm5

    ***
    6Out in the Heartland, the Word 'Normal' Seems Possible Again (Sept. 26)


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    URL for this Article:
    http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB1002146366879715800.djm

    Hyperlinks in this Article:
    (1) mailto:capital at wsj.com 
    (2) http://WSJ.com/CapitalExchange 
    (3) mailto:capital at wsj.com 
    (4) http://www.fabmac.com/issues.html 
    (5) http://www.people-press.org/terrorist01rpt.htm 
    (6) http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB1001450707867348600.djm