The CMAJ editorial on the events of September 111 and the superb piece by Anne Marie Todkill2 put into words far better than I can, and better than I have encountered anywhere else, the most compelling lesson of September 11: that the enemy is the perversion of belief to blind fanaticism and that by responding with hyperbole, rigidity, fear and intolerance we threaten to recreate the very process we are trying to defeat. Although the call for vengeance is understandable, our fundamental strength derives from our commitment to democracy and free thought, rather than from superior military technology. Terror is nourished by terror; it can only be defeated by understanding and changing the conditions that breed it.
References
- 1.The widening gyre: reflections on September 11 [editorial]. CMAJ 2001;165(8):997. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 2.Todkill AM. The gaze of history. CMAJ 2001; 165 (8):1076.