The Middle Way, Part 3 (al Qaida vs. moderation)

Marinoff makes a striking point about what it was al Qaida attacked on 9/11. We have heard they attacked us because of our freedoms (partially true, as we will see), and we have heard that they attacked us because of our excesses -- specifically our opposite excesses to their excess of abstinance. But if we had been attacked because of our excesses, we would have likely seen much different targets. Marinoff points out that "extremes of religious and political authority do impose abstinences on everyone, precisely because they will not tolerate moderation. That is why al-Qaida did not target the French Quarter of New Orleans on 9/11. They were not attacking their opposite extreme, namely excess consumption of alcohol; they were attacking something much more important, namely the culture of moderation, which tolerates both extremes" (61). Indeed, the French Quarter at Mardi Gras is an excellent example of numerous extremes. When I went there during Mardi Gras, at one end of the street was a gay bar with numerous gay men out in the street, many of them wearing assless chaps. Going up the street, I saw people in various levels of undress -- including women who were for all intents completely naked. And at the far end of the street, I sawa solemn procession of Catholics carrying a huge wooden cross marching slowly into the crowd. If al-Qaida were truly interested in attacking American excess, and getting a few devout Christians to boot, Mardi Gras in New Orleans would have been the place to do it.

So excess is not what they were attacking. Marinoff explains further: "The virtue of moderation tolerates extremes that are voluntarily chosen, but which do not seek to impose themselves forcibly on others. But moderation cannot tolerate those who use moderation as a weapon against itself. Extremists do not attack our vices; rather, our virtues, such as moderation in the liberty, trust, and tolerance we accord to our fellow travelers. Moderation and tolerance themselves were the primary targets on 9/11, as they are in all such suicide bombings, big or small" (61). Their goal was to push us toward extremism. Their war is against moderation and tolerance. Thus, if we remember Aristotle's golden mean of virtue, we see that their war is against virtue itself. More, it is a war against life itself -- the middle way between death and cancerous growth. They seek to be a cancer on the world, to make everyone like them -- their method is death.