(Conspiracy Nation, 11/8/01) -- Where there is great hate, there is great love. Where there is great love, there is great art. Most artists sign their work, but some do not.
Art critic George W. Bush and other like-minded critics referred to the Sept. 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as hate-inspired, and therefore "not art."
But art includes amazing skill, it often shocks, and it is open to various interpretations. Art in the sense of mass murder is obviously wrong, but it can still be a twisted type of art nonetheless.
Art has many dimensions. For example, a statue by Pablo Picasso given by him as a gift to the people of Chicago appears to be a horse when viewed from one angle, and appears to be a woman when viewed from another angle. The hate-inspired acts of Sept. 11th are abhorrent; but the hidden love and degraded art of the Sept. 11th "Happening" has interesting facets.
Not only were the perpetrators of Sept. 11 odious thugs, they were also actors engaged in street theater. Their performance "brought down the house."
What occurred on Sept. 11 exemplifies twisted creativity, a love-force thwarted from creative expression and perverted into destructive expression. But there is a pathetic romance still in these fallen angels, authors of Sept. 11, and what they might have been.
Emcee for the 9-11 Happening was a fifth-grader in a Dallas suburb. On September 10th he announced to his teacher, "Tomorrow, World War III will begin. It will begin in the United States, and the United States will lose." [1]
Art critic Lee Robertson, a structural engineer who helped design the WTC twin towers, was stunned by the performance. "I designed those towers to withstand a direct hit from a Boeing 707," he is reported as saying. Here one can see an additional motif in the 9-11 Happening: the element of magic. [2]
The motif of magic which permeates the 9-11 Happening is further seen with a fire, burning upward, somehow melting steel support beams below and the entire towers both collapsing.
An additional magical element of the Happening involves a paper passport which was not incinerated within a cockpit inferno, but fluttered to the ground intact, where it was soon found amidst the debris. [3]
In the Salvador Dali painting, "Swans Reflecting Elephants," one sees swans reflected as elephants and elephants reflected as swans. In the 9-11 Happening, one sees jet airplanes, then one sees "a flying mystery object captured on video just moments after a second aircraft crashed into New York's World Trade Center." [4] A Gamma Press USA video clearly shows the unknown object, according to art connoisseur Matt Drudge. [5]
Kudos must reluctantly be given to the choreographer who mapped out the complex, ballet-like precision of the Happening. Four civilian aircraft were commandeered by rogue pilots carrying box-cutter knives, simultaneously, as in a well-rehearsed chorus line.
All great performances have producers who hope to earn money from their investment. The producers of the Happening reaped financial rewards through insider trading; they massively sold short on key stocks just prior to the 9-11 event.
Angel Luis Lara has observed that "war is a form of understanding, perhaps the most perfect form of communication." [6]
Former secretary of state Madeline Albright stated, as NATO bombs pounded Yugoslavia, "It's the only language they understand."
The 9-11 Happening was a form of communication. The frustrated artist(s) who choreographed the event would agree with Mad Albright: "It's the only language they understand."
The message from the as-yet unknown artist(s) clearly got through to their intended audience. From this perspective, their Happening was the Broadway event of the season, a "smash hit."
Stunned and awakened into new awareness by the event, Americans momentarily surged to life. In a sort of standing ovation, they took to the streets, waved flags, and eagerly discussed the 9-11 Happening.
Various reviewers soon offered their own perspectives on the Happening. Like the five blind men describing an elephant, each saw something different in the 9-11 inkblot. Law-making reviewers called for more laws. Israel-hating reviewers saw Israel. Arab-hating reviewers saw the Muslims. Retailing reviewers developed new advertising themes. Airline reviewers discerned a government bailout.
Yet ironically, despite all the acclaim, the true author(s) of the Sept. 11th performance have not stepped forward to take a bow.
In the 1960s, the Jefferson Airplane released an album called "Surrealistic Pillow." In 2001, the Jumbo Airplanes unleashed a Happening called, "Surrealistic Billow." Their degraded art showed amazing skill, it engaged viewers, and it is still being interpreted.
-------<< Notes >>-------
[1] Houston Chronicle. Article by R.G. Ratcliffe. Title and date
unavailable.
[2] United Press International (UPI). Article dated Sept. 11, 2001.
Title and author unavailable.
[3] "Strange Case Of The Black Box And The Indestructible Passport,"
by Sam Yousef. Sept. 21, 2001. (zic...@hotmail.com)
[4] "Mystery Object Caught On Tape Moments After Second Tower Hit," by
Matt Drudge. Sept. 16, 2001.
[5] Ibid.
[6] "La distincion imposible en la logica del Imperio" ("Impossible
distinctions in the logic of Empire") by Angel Luis Lara