The globe-spanning event that defined the last generation was the demise of Communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Generation X, an ill-defined group generally agreed to be somewhere either side of thirty-five, knew what Communism was and how it came to fall by the time it did. Now we of Generation Y look back on the ten year anniversary of the event that defined our own worldview: the attacks of September  11th, 2001.

Since the attacks in Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and, most catastrophically, in New York City, our world has been changed indelibly. As during the Cold War, the world has been neatly divided into a "Them ‘n’ Us" scenario culminating in long wars in hot countries, a massive expansion of the security state, and villains speaking Arabic rather than Russian-accented English on television, in video games and in cinemas. Even our minds have been hijacked by the prevailing dogma of the War on Terror. When news of the atrocities in Norway broke this summer, I guiltily assumed that the perpetrator would have an Islamic name.

Suppositions like these are merely one facet of the most pernicious effects that 9/11 has had upon us. The ingrained Islamophobia that exhibits itself in our politics and on our city streets  has flourished and been allowed to grow with the aid of the right-wing media and rabid political pundits. We have all too quickly drawn the dots between terrorists and our friends and neighbours. Out of our fear, extraordinary rendition to, and torture in, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and the countries of recently-deposed dictators took place, with the tacit compliance of the British government. Still championed by then Vice President Cheney,  these practices still have not come to a close, despite the campaign promises of President Obama. The fact that they continue is antithetical to every moral code that we hope to espouse.

Not content with violating the rights of those overseas, we have also allowed our own to be intruded upon. Warrantless wiretapping and data-mining by the NSA under the umbrella of the Patriot Act emerged in the USA; control orders in Britain; methods which have since been condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU. The last of those organisations has said most recently in its report, A Call to Courage, that “these elements constitute a profound threat to democratic government”. To add to this sentiment, we might well invoke Benjamin Franklin: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

The death of Osama Bin-Laden was heralded as one of the greatest triumphs of the War on Terror thus far. And while I cannot blame anyone for celebrating his death, this year has produced far more heartening news. As the people of Tunisia and Egypt continue to strive for a truly democratic society, and those of Libya have succeeded in liberating themselves, we must foster democracy and reform movements in countries that still struggle with repressive and illiberal regimes, and we must reclaim the rights to privacy and due process that we deserve.

The War of Terror palpably exists, but its front cannot be fought in deserts and mountains, or in a shadowy CIA "black site". It is our own terror that most endangers us: the willingness to give up hard-fought freedoms and deny them to others. The reaction of the Norwegian government and the people of Norway offers us an example as part of the Prime Minister of Norway's solemn tribute shows: “Our answer is more democracy, more openness, and more humanity but never naivety. " It is indeed naive to think that there are not those out there who mean to do us harm, but it is equally naive to think that the problem will be solved with cruelty of our own. We owe it to the victims of 9/11, who we mourned this weekend, to make this world a better one than they left.

Originally published 13 September 2011