Another message board is running this poll, and I was curious what the results would be here.
Be honest now. Which event affected you more deeply?
Is this a joke?
It’s terrible to admit, but definitely the election. My reaction to the election was about the same as my reaction to the start of the Iraq war (lots of embarrassing crying). It took me at least a week to cry about 9/11. I’m not saying that’s right (I feel bad about it), but it’s how I reacted.
I guess it isn’t.
I’d have to say the election, though I wasn’t too depressed about it.
The simple fact of 9/11 was that I wasn’t depressed at all. Astonished, maybe. Angry, certainly.
But not depressed.
Apples and oranges, really. I’m dissapointed about the election. I was horrified, angry, and depressed after 9/11. Anger was my biggest emotion then. So I guess *I am *more depressed about the election, but only because there isn’t as much anger.
The election affected me emotionally just about as much as oatmeal when I compare it to the emotions generated by 9/11.
Elections come and go. We all win by remaining Americans. No tragedy!! How immature it is to even compare the two events.
I realise this is really directed at Americans but I thought I might give a foreigners perspective.
9/11 really didn’t affect me emotionally at all. I don’t know many Americans, and those I do aren’t from New York. I’ve never been to New York or anywhere near it. Like the genocide in Rwanda or the problems in Bosnia, I was saddened that it happened but there was never any visceral emotional response.
The election results on the other hand angered me mostly because that, coupled with the Howard governments’ landslide victory pretty much ensures the Australian/American free trade agreement will go ahead and I’m seriously worried that it’s going to gut our healthcare system.
The election. 9/11 was more scary and bewildering so the fight or flight response kicked in leaving no room to get depressed - at least that’s my theory.
9/11 terrified me, stunned me, shocked me into numbness.
The election depressed the hell out of me.
Which affected me more? 9/11, no question. But no world event since then has affected me more than the election.
The effects were different.
Daniel
The anger, indignation and sense of loss following 9/11 was especially more intense for me, because I lost two friends in the World Trade Center. But this was an assault on all Americans, not just the ones directly affected.
On the other hand, as a gay Ohioan, the election left me more depressed than I’d ever been after an election. Not the presidential outcome so much as the passage of the anti-same-sex-marriage bill. For the first time I’m now a second-class citizen in my own state. And I was betrayed, in large part, by the black community - the very people who should have known better than to deny people equal rights.
So it’s a matter of comparing a horrible tragedy brought on by an evil ideology, as opposed to my fellow citizens stabbing me in the back, brought on by an evil ideology. There’s no way I can realistically compare the two.
I was angry and shocked by the events of 9/11. But depressed? Why on earth would I be depressed? depressed by the sad knowledge of what some humans are capable of, maybe, but I knew that along, long time before 9/11/01.
OTOH, that a majority of my fellow voters would choose to return to power what I have to consider the most feckless and incompetent boob to have held the office of President since before WWII, now that’s depressing.
By far 9/11. Far far by far. After the election I was disappointed, but only disappointed that the process didn’t work out in my favor. It was a bitter pill to swallow and the anti-gay platform was more distasteful than the fact that Bush actually won, but that’s democracy for you. One guy wins, one guy loses, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
9/11 though…yeesh. I remember watching “When Harry Met Sally” a little while after it and thinking how unreal it was to see New York as a whimsical place where people fall in love; it just seemed like a pall was cast over it, and over the whole country. After the election the talk shows could go right to making fun of it, but after 9/11 nobody felt much like laughing at anything for a good while.
I wasn’t depressed at all after 9/11. I was stunned. Completely unbelieving, numb.
After the election, I was pretty depressed. This administration seems bound and determined to bring another 9/11 upon us.
Election.
9/11 wasn’t a reason to be depressed for me. Tragic, yes, but it was also a reason to move forward and hope for a brighter tomorrow. The simple fact is that most people are terrorists for a reason and enlightened leadership can use the tragedy as a signal that something needs to change.
Unfortunately racism and the fundamental attribution error seem to have a hypnotic hold over people and, with the exception of trying to correct Bush I’s error of abandoning Afghanistan, the States seem destined to make the same mistakes that have failed so many times before. If the Nazis, Israelis, Sri Lankans, British, and French couldn’t strong-arm terrorists out of existence, it certainly makes sense that we can, right?
The election confirms the depressing reality that the world actually didn’t change on 9/11, but entrenched itself even more deeply into its dysfunctional ways.
IMHO, of course.
I’m glad I posted this poll. So far it’s quite interesting.
The election, no contest. 9/11 was surreal and numbing at the same time. But to think that this loss of life caused one of the most evil men in history to win the White House (even by rigging the election) is depressing. If Kerry had overcome the rigged election and won, you could have added up all the orgasms ever experienced in all human history and not come close to the exhilaration that I was expecting to experience.
The Election
Definitely the election.
9/11, which I saw without benefit of television by looking down 6th Avenue, had me seriously worried for hours.
The election, representing as it does the US ratification of the crimes committed in our name by the Bush administration, is a much more serious threat to our freedoms, our way of life, and the likelihood of the US continuing to make any viable claim to leading the world towards consensual & democratic organization.
The events of 9/11 did not change anything (although they apparently woke up many foolish people who had never contemplated domestic terrorism). It has been inevitable for decades that some small angry group with demands was going to do something like that in a dramatic enough way to precipitate the big “freedom or security” debates. We were extraordinarily lucky to have it happen on a Just Barely Big Enough scale. Could very very easily have been a cute little uranium fission device.
The US returning to unprovoked belligerent military invasion as a foreign policy practice changes lots of things, and none of them for the better. Coupled with the ascendancy of Christian fundamentalism in our government (the extent of which I’m afraid we’re about to find out), world opinion may soon dump us in the same category as the Islamic fundamentalists we’re trying to rid the world of.
I think the question obscures some things, by implying that the same emotion (depression) is appropriate for both events.
Here’s how I felt (all emotions on a scale of 1 to 100):
Following the election
Angry: 10
Depressed: 20
I felt depressed over the direction the country was going, and angry at the dishonesties of the Bush campaign (and the voters who stubbornly refused to acknowledge same).
Following 9/11
Angry: 100
Depressed: 10
I didn’t really know anyone who died in the attacks. If I had, I probably would have been more depressed.
I couldn’t have been more angry. My anger was directed completely at the scum who committed the attacks, not at any of my leaders, past or present. FTR, I voted for Bush in 2000.