Bigger, Better, More Beautiful

WE need to replace the World Trade Center towers with something bigger, better, and more beautiful. Some people are nervous (some people are always nervous)—in the age of terrorism, they say, a Manhattan skyscraper is a mere gross provocation, and dangerous. It is a raised fist or middle finger directed at the sulking sultans and all their violent, misfit friends, the creatures who danced in the streets when the towers fell. A new WTC skyscraper is bound to be attacked again, they figure, and will again prove hard to evacuate. So we should lower our sights.

These same people would probably have argued in December 1941 that it would be foolish for the U.S. to risk replacing her Pacific fleet, because navies are a provocation and are always getting into wars. But no American in December ’41 was willing for Japanese warlords to shape the U.S. military. Few Americans today are willing for al-Qaeda warlords to shape the Manhattan skyline. Not to replace the WTC with a bigger and better WTC would be dishonorable and, ultimately, cowardly.

DG

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David Gelernter

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WE need to replace the World Trade Center towers with something bigger, better, and more beautiful. Some people are nervous (some people are always nervous)—in the age of terrorism, they say, a Manhattan skyscraper is a mere gross provocation, and dangerous. It is a raised fist or middle finger directed at the sulking sultans and all their violent, misfit friends, the creatures who danced in the streets when the towers fell. A new WTC skyscraper is bound to be attacked again, they figure, and will again prove hard to evacuate. So we should lower our sights.

These same people would probably have argued in December 1941 that it would be foolish for the U.S. to risk replacing her Pacific fleet, because navies are a provocation and are always getting into wars. But no American in December ’41 was willing for Japanese warlords to shape the U.S. military. Few Americans today are willing for al-Qaeda warlords to shape the Manhattan skyline. Not to replace the WTC with a bigger and better WTC would be dishonorable and, ultimately, cowardly.