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The British resolve is something that those of us across the pond seem to have lost, or perhaps it is something that was developed in the British people during
by dpeck 14y ago
The British resolve is something that those of us across the pond seem to have lost, or perhaps it is something that was developed in the British people during the terrible days of WW1 and WW2.
We here tend to work more of a spirit of freak-outery and cynicism. And as much as it annoys me, I think its more a symptom of how relatively little most of us and our ancestors have had to worry about in the US as much of our history was as a mostly rural international backwater that quickly transitioned quickly to a world power with oceans and, almost always, peaceful neighbors on its borders.
Which is something to be thankful for, even if it has led to a fairly weak resolve.
- greenyoda 14y agoI saw no shortage of resolve in NYC after 9/11. Just as untog said of London, we all went to work the next day and carried on with our lives.
- dpeck 14y agoperhaps, and I in no way diminish the everyday heroism of doing that. I don't remember much about NYCs reaction, as I was in school in Atlanta at the time. But my father worked on an air force base at the time and reactions there and around that town were anything but carrying on.
- MBlume 14y agoThere was an excellent article by a New Yorker a while back contrasting the response within NYC with that of the rest of the country.
- jlgreco 14y agoI think that the proximity to the horror likely has a strong effect. The survivors know that they are survivors, and know that they must carry on surviving. Distant observers thousands of miles away are left only with the horror but little of the resolve that comes from experiancing survival. But that is just me making up a hypothesis that fits the data in retrospect. Maybe something else is going on.
- ranvir 14y agoWould love to read that article if you have a link.
- dankohn1 14y agoI don't know if this is what he was referring to, but I find this article inspirational, about what the NYPD has been doing to fight terrorism, while we New Yorkers continue living our lives. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/07/25/050725fa_fact2 http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/07/25/050725fa_fact2
- Shivetya 14y agoIf anything the people move on, its politicians and those in power who seem to want to exploit a situation. I tire so much of being told I should be scared, let alone how they very same people who could not prevent the issue suddenly more than willing to disrupt my life going forward and tell me its in my best interest they do so.
- adrianhoward 14y agoThe British resolve is something that those of us across the pond seem to have lost, or perhaps it is something that was developed in the British people during the terrible days of WW1 and WW2. Large chunks of the London population would have also lived through the various IRA campaigns in the 70-90s. One of the thing that seemed darkly humorous to me was that in the aftermath of the July bombings the tube/rail services rolled out the old warning messages used during the IRA campaigns which didn't really apply to suicide bombings (they were all aimed at suspect packages being left somewhere - rather than things being carried / suspect behaviour).