Anthony Freda
I recently visited the monument at ground zero in New York that was built on the footprints of the original twin towers.
The 9-11 monument, designed by Israeli citizen Michael Arad
is a monument to death and destruction.
According to the designer’s own words:
“This design proposes a space that resonates with the feelings of loss and absence that were generated by the death and destruction at the World Trade Center.”
His intent is immediately and viscerally understood by the viewer.
Two square acre fountains plunging water into an absolute abyss that reflects no light and seems to
depict a black hole or gateway to hell. The fall into darkness is as inevitable and unavoidable as gravity.
That was my immediate interpretation of the pit, but there may be other, more sophisticated symbology at work.
Symbolically, the hypercube, or a cube within a cube represents control in occultist iconography.
Also known as the tesseract, the concept can be depicted in several different ways.
The inner cube represents the spiritual nature of the world.
The outer cube which envelopes the opening to the infinite acts as a prison cell.
The timeless, true nature of the universe is blocked and cannot be seen through the veil of the material prison walls that surround it.
The square within a square symbolizes control.
Control of information.
Control of the perception of reality itself, and ultimately,
Control of people.
This is the perfect symbol to represent the legacy of 9-11.
The lesson we learned is that we must give up control, in the form of our rights,
to authorities. We must let the establishment build a panopticon style, permanent, ubiquitous prison grid of surveillance around us.
We must be watched at all times, because we cannot be trusted.
This is prisoner training on a societal and global scale.
I can’t know with certainty if this was the deliberate intent of the designer,
but this monument stands as a concise and chilling manifestation of the dark,
authoritarian world view that 9-11 has been used to justify.
A world of endless war, fear, and no hope for real change.