If we don't remember our history, we are doomed to repeat it. In fact, history constantly teaches us lessons of the way governments behave and the way people react within those governments to major and minor events.
Americans have taken a more and more jaded view toward history and intellectualism in general as elitist notions. In a generation, only the historians and intellectuals will be pointing to the events of 9/11. We will look at it in the way that Americans today remember the Maine or the Gulf of Tonkin incident among others.
As citizens, we are in no more danger today than any day before or after 9/11. When I get on an airplane I am more worried about it crashing due to poor maintenance practices on an aging fleet of aircraft, than whether or not some nefarious attack is about to occur.
The lessons should we learn from any historical event is, what was our government doing that led to the major event, how did it react immediately following the event, and what measures have been taken to lessen the likelihood of a repeat of the event. For a moment, let's forget that Al Qaeda did not claim responsibility for the 9/11 attack and focus on the complaints from Nations as varied as Germany, Japan and Saudi Arabia. In all of these cases, the complain is US militarism and the occupying of sovereign land by US bases and troops. Why do we spend so many resources on militaristic pursuits instead of focusing on education, innovation, and infrastructure? Since the days of the Spanish Civil War our government has increased it's militarism and used events like 9/11 to get American citizens to give up more rights to the government.
Are the US political parties corrupt and inept? Certainly, as certain as it is true that Americans have allowed apathy and excuses to keep from being well informed about how our Nation operates. The American system of government only functions properly when Americans are directly involved and fully educated about their inherent rights as citizens, and push politicians to do the right thing, when they have no incentive to do the right thing on their own. This means we all need to be activists and advocates for our rights.
Do I fear going to the grocery store? If I do, it is only because I fear my government. Thomas Jefferson said, "When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." We now live in a nation where torture isn't torture, where you can be spied on by the government without a court order and you can be detained and your property can be seized simply because the government decided to do so. Yet the government's color coded warning of terrorism always pointed outward and was never directed at itself as the terror maker. Until we learn the lesson of who the real enemy is, we are doomed to keep suffering calamities of our own making. Some conspiracy theorists believe 9/11 was an inside job. Whether or not history shows this to be true, it has become an inside job, because of the self destruction we've allowed to be imposed on our liberties, and because it was the charge of our founders for us to maintain self-rule.