Thinking the unthinkable: exploring taboo concepts and forbidden ideas

¶ … Unthinkable," Glenn Bowman reflects as an anthropologist on the events of September 11, 2001. This person normally works doing ethnographies of people and places. This was a personal ethnography of a day in the life of a person and a nation. It was definitely interesting to look at anthropology from this viewpoint. It is not one which one normally thinks of in terms of approaching the subject matter. While it is interesting for the college student, it is a bit over the head of the average person. My reading comprehension was good. It definitely made me want to find out more about the subject matter.

It was interesting to think that an academic would also think that the change in people's normal reactions in New York City were profound. As they noted, before the tragedy, these people that never acknowledged each other were now so shocked by the event that a spontaneous kindredship came over them. They now embraced the other human beings in their paths as if this was the most natural thing in the world. This reflected the change in the author himself. In the beginning, he thought it was almost humorous and he was amazed that America was finally receiving a metaphoric punch in the nose (17)."

However, as the shock of the event wore off and the enormity of what happened on that day sank in, they lost the knee-jerk reaction of the left-wing academic and remembered that the people who "got the metaphoric punch" did nothing to deserve it. Most of them were guilty of nothing other than going to work that day and minding their own business. To say the least, whatever a person's view of America and its actions overseas, the lack of the ability of the author to step out of the political agenda initially was shocking. The fact that almost 3000 Americans had to die to arouse their sympathies is shocking.

The author though falls into this mentality again when they were being interviewed. While it is understandable that they would react against American jingoism that ranks all acts against America as being pure evil, their attitude of "understanding" the terrorists is too much on the other extreme. Truly, there are not enough people simply rooting for and thinking about the little people that simply have to make a living or get to where they are going. Most people do not have the political sophistication or are too busy to think about the broader picture.