Sorting it out

Sorting it out

Sept. 25, 2001

Booksellers report that tomes about Afghanistan, Islam and the politics of the Middle East have been selling rapidly, as people try to make some sense of what’s gone wrong in their world. Most of us recall images of Taliban soldiers using rocket-launchers to bring down huge ancient statues of Buddha. Those who remember the end of the Cold War, and those who collect rugs, may have had some rudimentary knowledge about Afghanistan. The rest of America is only now sorting out where it is, why it is willing to host international terrorists, and why it views the United States as an enemy.

Schoolchildren are looking at new maps, and adults are studying televised graphics of the other side of the world. To people who believe that the United States is the hub of all global activity, and who have worked hard to make it so, it’s natural to wonder how so much destruction can have been coordinated from an isolated bunker in the mountains of one of the world’s poorest countries.

Knowledge is power, and the more the American people understand about the complexities of this situation, the more likely they are to support a reasoned response to terrorism. The world is a big place, though, and learning seems to have become reactionary. Now we’re learning about Afghanistan; if bin Laden relocated his operations to Sudan we’d focus on that. Once the crisis is over, we should resolve not to return to the egocentrism that allowed us all to be so surprised that something like this could happen. For a few days there, we imagined that if we could just have invited bin Laden to dinner before he went off the deep end, we could clear up all the misunderstandings. Will we ever come to understand how deep the differences go?

"It’s one thing to read headlines, but it’s another to understand the forces at work that make those headlines. There is a tremendous need for public information," Joe Szyliowicz , a University of Denver international studies professor, told the Associated Press.

Not all of the information is useful. There’s been quite a run on information about Nostradamus, a 16th century French astrologer who wrote vague quatrains (in French) and, contrary to popular belief, didn’t mention metal birds, twin brothers, the city of York or the third big war. There’s been an unfortunate willingness to believe nonsensical rumors — for example, that 4,000 Jews were told not to report to work at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 (thus "proving" that the tragedy was wrought by Israel or the United States, not Islamic terrorists).

Yet the quest for knowledge remains a good thing, as people seek to apply their own intellect to a situation so different from past experience that it defies comprehension. Bookstores are a good place to start. Newspapers do their best to offer the most up-to-date information and analysis. The Internet can disseminate information almost instantly; unfortunately, verification can be difficult.

As always, Americans will read and watch and discuss in an effort to make sense of it all. That’s a national virtue, and it’s one of the primary differences between the United States and countries where censorship prevails.