When first reading David Harvey’s, Cracks in the Edifice of the Empire State, my initial reaction was confusion of need for an over complication of the interpretation the media took when analyzing the attacks on the World Trade Center. Simply, it was a terrorist attack. The immediate reaction of the American public was fear and anxiety about the safety of our citizens. Thus the attacks accomplished what they were set out to do, instill fear. Neither interpretation of Towers’ meanings was incorrect. For Americans it was the realization of the cold hard truth, they are vulnerable. The outsiders, such as BBC, might otherwise look at it as an international power struggle and the threat against the great American financial and military power. These two magnificent towers were struck because of their size, location, and their ability to be easily recognized.
The towers themselves, if we are going to go with Harvey’s BBC interpretation, should have had a broader message than to just Americans. It was here, where international trade brought together the worlds. It allowed for businesses to bloom and for the resulting culture, nightlife, and tourist trap to develop in New York City. Although with the booming economy, a largely separated lower income class developed. I do not find this to be any negative look on the way businesses in New York has grown, but rather it is the natural way of things. There will always be someone getting paid less than the CEO. Different jobs have different pays in the capitalist society in which we live in. I am not saying that there has to be people that are dirt poor, but it is understandable for there to be growing distance between upper and lower classes as the economy grows.
I thought it was unnecessary of Harvey to bring up some of the immoral issues faced in some of the businesses in the tower. The attacks were not done to individuals, but rather whole, it was done to send a message.
It is sad that it is a tragedy like this that unifies a city (and national) wide community. People from all over were offering sympathy and support in any, which way they could provide. It is during this time that people were able to put away the BBC’s only interpretation of the Twin Towers as a financial powerhouse and not advertise commercials and other financially beneficial modes. The attacks also had its aspect of the attack on freedom. It was the attack on capitalist free market that America is so prideful of. It struck fear in a culture that was so different from that belonging to the attackers.
The two interpretations of the attacks on 9/11 are both correct. The towers were a source of financial and international power. It also represented the loss of the façade of complete safety that most Americans believed they had. The freedom Americans speak so highly was now threatened. New York as a financial capital itself may not be so permanent. Throughout history, there has been many different center business cities that everything seemed to circle around. With increasing technology, and the natural order of things, in 100 years, there may be a new New York.
