For those, such as myself, who primarily grew up during the early 2000s, thinking of how we were brought up, with the current media and overall attitude throughout society, this time and its values would obviously seem normal, and filled with good, clean fun. At the same time, a lot of people would agree that the tragic attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001, dominantly shaped the American culture and social feel going forward. That being said, maybe life in today's society may not be so "normal." Every single American citizen, over the age of, let's say five, has at least heard about what happened on that day, and most know the outstanding impact it had on our nation and it's people. But today's youth will never grasp how different life was, pre-9/11.
I moderately remember life in the mid-to-late 1990s (2000 counts), and if I can describe how the new millennium is unalike the 90s, I'd say that it is more socially paranoid. In the years following September 11th, the Patriot Act was passed, the Department of Homeland Security was created, and there has been a noticeable lack of McPlaylands. Notice, every time you hear a plane that sounds like it's flying seemingly too low, your heart rate increases, and life sort of flashes before your eyes. Is it just me? I don't think so. Everybody seems to have this overwhelming awareness of terrorism, and an unhealthy overload of revised patriotism. I call this awareness, paranoia. I'm not saying that everybody should ignore the events that happened on 9/11, and we should kind of just brush it off; not at all. I will say that we shouldn't let it affect our daily lives as American citizens, or the social upbringing of our children.
Former mayor of NYC, Rudy Giuliani, recently claimed 9/11 to have positive effects on our country. He stated, “I believe we're better protected... We hear about these threats now. Before we didn't hear about a lot of them. And we prevented them... It changed the country mostly in good ways. … I think spiritually we're stronger. We have to remind ourselves of that. We were attacked with the worst attack in the history of this country and we survived it.” He also proceeded to talk about "homegrown:" terrorists, and how those are the ones we should really fear. I respect the fact that he is recognizing the unity of our nation after these horrible attacks, but I can't comprehend how he could say something good out of it came for our country; and i think the families of 2, 977 people would disagree, also.
Even when my brain retrieves memories from the 1990s, and the 2000s, the senses and feelings of those memories are different. The earlier memories seem colorful and filled with non-threatening excitement, while the post-millennial memories seem more sensitive, erratic, and negative. This may just be attributed to growing up and going through other inevitable, life altering bad experiences, but I can't help but associate those negative feelings from the ones I had felt on September 11th. Even pop culture changes can be attributed to the date. American country music has never seen better days, and has never been so mainstream. All of this patriotism and renewal of the American way has had a direct impact on the popularity of crappy music. On the other hand, I listen to old country music, not the new pop-country (I'll say it again) CRAP. Most popular music, not just country western, just lacks substance and, more openly has a negative influence on today's youth. It's all about sex and "going hard" at da club, yo. Sorry to start ranting , but pop music is my biggest pet peeve of the 21st century. Remember the days of the 1990s where there was bad music, but at least it was funky, or justifiably depressing, but more positive and substantial; such as "The Sign" by Ace of Base.
Imagine if life were more like this video?
I won't even go into the issue of racism and scapegoating caused by 9/11, for both have always been a huge part of our culture anyway; it's just going in a new direction. When it comes down to it, most would say that September 11th was the worst day in American history, and the paranoia and negative social consequences were inevitable. Hell, even the uprising of fecal matter-esque music and celebrities may have been inevitable. But, perhaps the days of crowded, costume-filled streets on Halloween, and surplus of birthday parties at Chuck-E-Cheese, could have survived longer, with the right amount of positivity and reassurance from those in charge. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, we, as a people, can thrive, without having to worry about our everyday safety.
