Life in a Post-Terrorist Attack World

In September 2001, Islamic extremists hijacked four commercial jets and coordinated simultaneous attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York City.

The ensuing years of the collective American psyche have been beset by fear and irrationality. There have been overreactions on the small and large scale, everything from the waterboarding of suspected terrorists in secret prisons to the day-after effect of very shocked, very scared people not wanting to stand next to a man in a turban at a bus stop.

In many ways, the American populace lost its innocence that day. For years before the attacks, people enjoyed the idea that the U.S. government was some kind of big nefarious entity with shadowy three-letter acronymed organizations hellbent on deceiving the American public and pulling wool over eyes. It was a simplistic viewpoint, one reminiscent of the classic tinfoil-capped conspiracy theorist telling us the moon landing was faked and Oswald had help. In this old era, there were no real bad guys, so people naturally went about inventing them. In the absence of an actual threat, the human mind will create a perceived threat. It is how we operate and is intrinsic to our nature.

Then, suddenly, there was a very real threat and we grew aware that there were people from somewhere else who very much wanted to hurt us. Without much resistance, the idea that Uncle Sam was the bad guy fell out of fashion. Though the conspiracy theorists were still around, it was not appropriate to disparage the government that, provably, wanted to protect you and defend the American way of life.

So now we find ourselves in 2009, mired in an endless war against terrorism and chronically unable to free ourselves from occupying Iraq. The terrorists are still out there and there is much debate over how well we've handled the treatment of our various suspects and persons-of-interest. Is now the right climate for an X-Files porn parody?

Back in the 1990s, when Jon Stewart had his own goofy cable (non-news) talk show, having an X-Files porn parody would have been timely and appropriate. Now, however, the world is a very different place. I have my doubts that the American people have fully recovered from that ill-fated day in 2001. Assuredly, Americans are impatient. We want very badly to have won by now, and our disdain for our government stems from that wish for haste and heavy action. Perhaps in that narrow channel of irritation with our leaders there is just barely enough room to nestle a film that expertly fuses a healthy mistrust of the federal government with big-titted girls who need to be fucked and fucked hard.

I'm not sure the population is ready for this, but I am optimistic. I want to believe.