Eric Darton, who has taught "media, technology and cultural studies at Hunter College and Fordham University," and "currently teaches writing at New York University" wrote a book entitled "Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center"
In an interview around the time of publication in 2000 he was asked how the WTC had changed since the 1993 bombing. He replied...
It has certainly transformed as a symbol. One great irony of the towers is that they were built to withstand a 747 slamming into them - the disaster scenario of a more "innocent" era. No one in the mid-'60s, when the buildings were designed, could have anticipated that thirty years later the threat would not come from a stray airplane - a symbol of the machine age gone awry - but from modernity's discontents: terrorists who knew the building's true vulnerability was in its basement. Fortunately they didn't know how to build a bomb that would do what they wanted.
I guess this goes to show that it's not a good idea to reply on someone who teaches "media, technology and cultural studies" when trying to assess the nature of the threat posed by terrorists.
Full interview here...
http://www.basicbooks.com/winter2000/017010/interview.ht ml
[ 19 September 2001: Message edited by: stagger ]