Canadian's reaction if CN Tower had been hit on 9/11

[Antiloop33rpm]

That is, there'd have to be a whole variety of circumstances beyond a mere bombing to gauge the net effect upon Canada--and it also hinges upon the kind of attack.

The problem with this hypothetical situation is that one has to create a similair situation to that of the New York attack. The World Trade Center was picked for its symbolic strength of America's financial and capitalist strength. The CN Tower may be tall, but it does not have that same powerful status that the WTC did. One could then create a set of criteria and determine what would be the most symbolic structure in Canada to attack. But why do that? Its energy wasted on thinking about something that is really quite irrelevant.

And there is not much need to wonder just how Canada might react to such an attack. Simply look at how we dealt with the attack ourselves. While not in our own country, it was close enough and on our only neighbor and did have an emotional effect on many Canadians. Our reaction might best be summed up in the vigil held on Parliment Hill where 100,000 mourned the victims of the attack. There were minimal calls for outright revenge, and the process by which Canadians tryed to make sense of the attack tended to be one of careful, rational thinking as opposed to purely reactionary. Yes there was some backlash against Muslims, Arabs, and others from the Middle East, but luckily this tended to be minimal.

How would Canadians deal with any terrorist attack? Who knows. Humans are a complicated species and it is almost impossible to predict what reactions might be. If I had to wager a guess though, I would say we would apply the same Canadian sensibilities by which most people live their everyday lives with and openly weep and express their emotions and come to terms with the human lose while making rational attempts to understand better why it happened, what could be done to prevent another attack, and how can it be done in a peaceful way that still ensure justice against anyone who would commit such murderous acts.

 

[bizorky]

^Good post! It probably should be the final word on this topic.

 

[EnviroTO]

^ You can say that again.

 

[adma]

Well, in immediate terms, the most parallel hypothetical situation would have been nearly four decades ago, during the FLQ crisis...

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Abeja:

You'd probably know this better than I do, but didn't PM Aznar's government pointed the finger right at ETA after the bombing, and that, on top of his already unpopular contribution to the war in Iraq, being what brought about his defeat?

AoD

 

[scarberiankhatru]

"The CN Tower may be tall, but it does not have that same powerful status that the WTC did."

It would also not burn as well on live TV and not result in many casualties...WTC was a perfect compromise between symbolism and mass destruction.

 

[wonderboy905]

If they really wanted to hit us where it hurt they would drop a bomb on Niagara Falls. I don't know the physics/logitistcs etc of taking it out, but if possible that would be devastating for both sides of the border. Of course we would then have to ask why our own government would want to bomb niagara falls :hat

 

[adma]

If Toronto had a 9/11-style attack, who'd be our Stockhausen? Michael Snow?

Okay, okay...

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

There is an irony in discussions like these. That being all those who wonder about the 'what if's' and 'how would we react' and 'what would be the target'. Those who express the jingoistic, macho bravado towards terrorism and immerse themselves in conspiracies and simplistic ideas. Those are the people who if an attack should place, will act the most irrationally and have the least understanding of what just happened.

This is not too say that there isnt a place for reflection and for personal introspection to come to terms with the emotinal aspects of the attacks in New York, Spain and London. If after almost 5 years since the NYC attack you have not yet come to terms with the event and are still pondering 'what if's', I would seriously recommend therapy or talking toa counsellour about these feelings. Otherwise, maybe picking up a book or two and attempting to educate yourself on the issue more will also help. It wouldnt be unhealthy to spend your time thinking how you would deal with being raped, or having a family member murdered, and it seems equally unhealthy to spending a lot of time wondering how you or the country would deal murder through act of terrorism.

 

[adma]

Does that mean Elizabeth Wurtzel sex fantasies are verboten?

 

[bizorky]

^Only if they imply disaster, or end with premature evacuation.

 

[adma]

In her case, they probably would

 

[dan e 1980]

:lol


premature evacuation is the direct result of not conducting enough regular fire drills.

 

[mpolo2]

I am not sure I agree with Antiloop's earlier post about how our reaction to 9-11 is sufficient to gauge how we would react if we had been similarly attacked. I think there is something inate about the difference in our reactions when things happen to you. Especially given the emotionally/socialy detached world we live in, it is too easy to see horrifying news and move past it 2 minutes later as our own life does. It should not need saying that our response, and even yes our irrational desire for revenge, would be different if we hear about a child being molested and killed versus something this horrible happening to one of our own children. Sorry for the unpleasant example, but just that these things do tend to impact us differently when they hit us personally.

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

mpolo: I never stated that you could exactly predict what our reaction would be. In fact I did say that predicting how people would react under a similair event would be very difficult since emotions are nearly impossible to predict. But in terms of how we as a society would deal with it on a medium or long term range, looking back at history can at least give a general framework in which one might be able to get a general idea of how people are likely to react to it.

A lot of it boils down to how much you understand what is taking place and what past experiences you have witnessed and dealt with allready. Before the attacks on NYC and Washington, how many people understood in such vivid color and stereo sound what an attack on North American soil looks like? How it would feel to witness such an event? Terrorism was something that happened to others, but never to the US and Canada. And while those attacks did not take place on Canadian soil, they were within continental North America, in a place not so far away from us, to a country that was supposedly safe from such events. That still had a very big impact on Canadians, not just emotionally, but also how we see our neighbors.

But in a sense you are right because there is no way to predict what we would do or how we would react if something as seemingly unexplainable or random took place on Canadian soil. How would we react if something extraordinary such as American terrorists or their military attacked Canada? These are things that no one can predict. These are also things that are not worth worrying about either. We would be scared, frightened, surprised, angry, in denial. In other words, we would act as all humans react in momments of panic. Beyond the basic reactions we would experience, there is not much else one can predict given the speed at which society can change from day to day.