9/11 and Premediated Normalcy

Listening to Kristen talk about being a young adult in the aftermath of 9/11 made me think about my own experience. I had just started my senior year of high school, so I was certainly old enough to fully register what was happening, and can use that moment as a marker of “before and after”. But perhaps it’s a testament to the insidiousness and totality of the premediation that went into effect immediately afterwards (and which still prevails) that I don’t think about what it felt like in the aftermath of 9/11 until I am reminded. Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017) jogged my memory in a striking way. In it, there are scenes of the main character Christine sitting catatonic in front of the tv, news coverage of the post-9/11 hunt for “weapons of mass destruction” washing over her. Watching the film made me meditate on stages or degrees of numbness.

“Premediation works to prevent citizens of the global mediasphere from experiencing again the kind of systemic or traumatic shock produced by the events of 9/11 by perpetuating an almost constant, low level of fear and anxiety about another terrorist attack.” (Grusin, 2).

While the initial shock of the event brought on a numbness that I used to self soothe, I in turn grew numb to the constant news coverage with which we were (and have continued to be) inundated. I think humor – particularly late night television like Saturday Night Live and the various late night talk shows – is a key tool in the premediation numbing process. I don’t mean this entirely negatively; I just think watching comedians spin the chaos around us into jokes nightly and weekly worked (in tandem or cooperation with other institutions) to initiate us into a “new normal” under the guise of “returning us to normal”.