Between a Rock and a Hard Place?

Following 11 September, the Organisation for Promotion of Understanding in Society (OPUS), convened a special study day on ‘The Day that Changed the World’. This was held on Saturday 6 October at the Tavistock Clinic, London. There were 29 participants; the majority were British citizens living and working in London; there were two people from Spain, two Argentineans living in London and others whose origins were from middle and Eastern Europe. The meeting was convened by Tim Dartington, Amal Treacher and Lionel Stapley; two Englishmen and a woman with an English mother and Egyptian father. This short note has been prepared by the convenors.

It was difficult. We were ambivalent about coming. Perhaps, what else could we have expected? This was a discussion that we were about to embark on that was to be an exploration of the disruption to our ordinary relationships and relatedness to the world we are in. We can argue the toss whether 11 September was a day that changed the world, or the day we woke up to changes that we had not wanted to know about, or a day that set in progress changes to come. Whatever, the day impacted on us all.

It is a premise of OPUS study days that similarities and differences that emerge in the group have some relevant parallels to wider societal dynamics. The first discussion took place in a large group, called a ‘listening post’ of 75 minutes. Listening posts are occasion for reflecting upon, listening to and exploring social and psychic dynamics from the position of being a citizen. Small reflection groups and a concluding plenary followed the listening post during the day. The day was organised and facilitated to offer some clues about the issues of identity, leadership and followership that the terrorist attack in New York and Washington have exposed, in the context of what may or not be a war against terrorism, or a war of civilisations. The military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan was about to start when the study day took place