Jendrysik: Jeremiah versus Jihad
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Jeremiah versus Jihad: 9/11 and the Idea of American Decline
Mark S. Jendrysik, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Political Science and Public Administration
University of North Dakota
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“This generation of Americans is at a
crossroads in our nation’s history.”
-- Victor Davis Hanson
‘“Quo vadis?’ Where are you going America?
-- Patrick Buchanan
“America is not to be Rome or Britain.
It must be America.”
-- Gore Vidal
One of the most enduring themes in American political discourse is the idea of
decline. Since the very beginnings of the European settlement of North America there
have been voices pointing to an inevitable regression of the people from the standards
set by heroic ancestors. This discourse of declension has often taken the form of the
jeremiad in which religious and political leaders, as well as public intellectuals, point to
the causes of decline and call for a return to older and nobler standards of conduct. In
its modern form in America however, the jeremiad has other purposes. The modern
jeremiad, especially in its post 9/11 form, is used to reassure the true believer that their
conduct is unblemished and that the sources of national decline lie in the unsavory,
irreligious and unpatriotic actions of others (both foreign and domestic). This reaction
can be seen in the infamous statements by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell blaming
9/11 on national immorality. It can also be seen in the writings of secular authors such
as Gore Vidal, Victor Davis Hanson and Patrick Buchanan. In this paper, I will examine
the question of how 9/11 and the events that followed have been used to ratify a certain
preexisting vision of American decline. I will identify where these authors place the
sources of decline and their purposed solutions. My analysis also reveals the central
problem faced by this form of writing: the need to balance condemnation of certain
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