How 9/11 Made a European Upper-Middle-Class Radical a Conservative

[endicom]

National Review
Annika Hernroth-Rothstein
Sept. 11, 2018

On September 11, 2001, I was sitting on the floor of my sister’s living room, babysitting her one-year-old daughter. We were lazily playing, with the afternoon news on the TV in the background. The first thing I noticed was how the anchor’s voice changed. The woman was saying “Wait, wait,” while staring to the side of the camera. There had been a horrible accident, she said, as I watched the smoke pour out of the first tower. When the second plane hit, I hoped beyond hope she was right.

I had just gotten back from a year in France. A few months earlier, I’d been standing in a crowded bar on Place de Clichy, celebrating my 20th birthday. I remember that night, although several bottles of bad white wine say I shouldn’t. I was surrounded by my peers, other upper-middle-class liberals who had fled to Paris to fulfill their fantasy. We had come to this historical city to live the life of songs and books and Technicolor movies. We were radicals. We were heroes. We were going to change the world.

The people with me in that bar were a random sample of the political atmosphere of Europe at the time. Militant feminists, pro-Palestinians, members of the autonomic environmentalist movement, and your run-of the-mill anti-government thugs. Having a friend who had been jailed for rioting was as necessary as a Malcolm X T-shirt and a back-pocket paperback of Catcher in the Rye. I gladly picked up that uniform, just as I picked up rocks and banners knowing that this was the ticket to ride.

More... https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/09/9-11-changed-european-radical-to-conservative-president-bush-speech/

[aligncare]

Beautifully written moment of self-revelation by the author.

Echoes of Reagan’s 1964, “A Time for Choosing” speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater.

[mountaineer]

Great article, thanks for posting.

... On September 12, 2001, the headline of the largest Swedish newspaper read, “We Are All Americans.” A few weeks later, that beautiful creed had already been forgotten. The one time my country could side with the U.S. was when America was on its knees, but when it refused to stay down it quickly went back to the smug relativism of World War II, the icy efficiency of a country never having to fight for either ethics or its existence.

Gee, I'd say Sweden should start fighting for ethics and its existence before it's too late. Instead, they permit hordes of Muslim men to rape and kill the women and children of Sweden, and they do nothing. They're not fighting for their existence, they're handing it over meekly to lunatics and terrorists.

[endicom]

Beautifully written moment of self-revelation by the author.

Echoes of Reagan’s 1964, “A Time for Choosing” speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater.

It says quite a bit about the smug, cocooned world of her former set.

[endicom]

Great article, thanks for posting.Gee, I'd say Sweden should start fighting for ethics and its existence before it's too late. Instead, they permit hordes of Muslim men to rape and kill the women and children of Sweden, and they do nothing. They're not fighting for their existence, they're handing it over meekly to lunatics and terrorists.

It seems that the fight went out of them some time ago.