The answer lies in adding up the minutes of that fateful September 11th morning, and just how long did the authorities know that hijackers were at the controls, and what does that have to say to us about the way that America was, and continues to be protected. In her new book “Who Defended the Country?,” Elaine Scarry states that “the Pentagon could not defend the Pentagon let alone the rest of the country.”
She goes on to argue that the passengers of Flight 93, the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, provide a model for a new kind of security, and new kind of citizen soldier; an independent, democratic, home grown activist that all Americans should emulate and imitate. Elaine Scarry and political scientist Dana Villa on citizenship, security and American independence. Next on the Connection.
Guests:
Elaine Scarry, professor of aesthetics at Harvard, and author of “Who Defended the Country.”
Dana Villa, an Associate Professor of Political Theory at the University of California Santa Barbara, and author of the book “Socratic Citizenship.”