Even before it opened, the 9/11 memorial and museum at the world trade center site was already controversial, condemned by survivor families for commercializing the tragedy. The museum’s gift shop, offering a commemorative 9/11 cheese board, seemed especially grotesque to many. (But, as George Bush said, days after 9/11, the way to defeat the terrorists was to “go shopping.”) Examining controversies around various 9/11 commemorations we ask how this memory shapes the US today. What political projects do 9/11 memorials serve, and who is excluded from commemoration.
Special thanks to Claire Panetta for guiding us through the museum.
Honestly, we just wanted to do a normal episode that didn’t react to current events. We thought that the War on Terror would be a somewhat stable historical artifact. – Then Trump invaded Venezuela, kidnapped its president, and stole its oil. So this episode is unexpectedly relevant. While we don’t comment on Venezuela directly, there are some important themes in thinking about the aesthetics of war that are unfortunately topical.
