How-to be a sheep article on the WSJ
mean-green at hushmail.com
mean-green at hushmail.com
Thu Oct 4 11:45:49 PDT 2001
[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
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
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