The aftermath worries me than the event, in some ways.
Police are investigating an arson attack on a mosque in Leeds.
“As news of the attacks spread, gold prices rose from the $424/oz level to above $428/oz before subsiding slightly to $425/oz-$425.70/oz range where it continues to trade. Silver broke back above $7/oz, gaining as much as 10 cents at one point. Platinum also moved up and was last quoted at $865.10/oz. Palladium remains somnolent at around $167/oz.”
“…those who perpetrate these brutal acts against innocent people should know that they will not change our way of life.” The Queen, 8th July 2005.
That must be the royal “our”, surely? Her Majesty is never going to be bombed out of existence whilst travelling to work on a tube or bus, is she? Her way of life is not our way of life. I would actually be quite keen to alter her way of life entirely, by making the monarchy history. But of course now is not the time to talk of such matters, we must all pull together, yes?
Nationalism, these flags beginning to reappear, is a way of trying to obscure the differences between our way of life, and the way of life for those who insist we return to “business as usual” as soon as possible – because they need us to carrying on working for them.
The rest of should not try and rock the boat by talking of the role of the 2nd Iraq war in all this. We should not try to make political capital or further our own agendas out of the outrage…
You’ve taken the words out of my gob. Stoic? No, back to work for rent money, not love. Can’t be too sensationalist about this, after all, you’ve let the terrorists win if you admit to feeling vaguely sick because you can’t stop thinking, there’s still bodies in tube carriages. The terrorists, of course, won’t have triumphed if everyone keeps their mouths shut for fear of being reproached. You can occupy your time with work anyway, so what’s the problem?
I’m amazed how few people want to discuss this at work. Yes, the bombings weren’t unprecedented, and there’s been ‘worse’ (if you quantify it by numbers of lives lost) attacks. And I’m not calling for mass displays of public grief, group therapy or embittered outbursts. But with the exception of a couple of people, the shoulder-shrugging and ‘shit happens / business as usual’ attitudes are starting to piss me off today – mostly because they seem completely and unconvincingly contrived.
We were told we had to take annual leave if we didn’t come in on Friday, which I thought was out of order – especially when the cops were saying not to come into central London unless you had to.
I think this time it’s the lack of warning which is really freaking people out. In WW2 it just became routine and I guess with the IRA, whatever people think of them, there was at least the idea that warnings would be given (albeit with arguments about whether there was enough time or whether they were heeded, etc).
There’s also I think an idea that we got off a bit lightly compared to 9/11 so people are bracing themselves for the next installment. But of course we don’t talk about it…
John, I like your demystification of what’s going on — keep it up.