A moment of zen, it felt like, though perhaps for many here it will readily identify me as a belaborer of the obvious. I've been told that before, and I'll own it. It's Saturday afternoon, December 6th, and I've been watching Out Of The Clear Blue Sky, the documentary about Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm that was all but wiped out in the September 11th terror attacks. As a documentary, I found it riveting, though some critics gave it mixed reviews.
At any rate, it brought back the memories most of us have of that day, including but not restricted to the image of President Bush, with his arm around the fireman and his righteous megaphone. I remember but cannot immediately identify the political voices that said "this changes everything." And now I think I know what changed.
Please set aside all CT's about the fall of the towers. Please set aside concepts of a determined United States government declaring the war on terror. Now visualize the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, sitting on the Top two floors of tower one, a financial firm metaphorically on the top of the world. The Federal Reserve also had offices there, and vaults. The financial hub of the world was attacked that day.
What we've seen since then, politically, legislatively, and economically, is a financial war, and the erosion of rights, surveillance, the Patriot Act, and many other developments, are a result of financial power striking back. This is the corporate and financial world defending it's interests. Observe and learn. This is where power is centered. This is how it responds. The ones who pronounced that everything had changed did not go on tv and make speeches. They simply picked up the phone and made things happen. And now everything Is different.
6:36 PM PT: Not quite an afterthought, but for those not familiar with the documentary, Out Of The Clear Blue Sky is now streaming on Netflix. It was produced by employees of Cantor Fitzgerald as a testimonial for their losses, and as such it is very effective. It is what can be read in between the lines, so to speak, that intrigued me. CF was a big player in New York, but on a day after conference call, Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, relates how none of the powerhouse firms, such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Lehmann Brothers, and others, discussing who should reopen for business the next day, ever offered condolenes to the firm. After all, on the global playing field, despite being situated on the top floor of the Trade Center, CF was just a small fish, and the real powers made the decisions that day.