The balustrade has inevitably become a shrine in memory of the people who lost their lives on the other side

The balustrade has inevitably become a shrine in memory of the people who lost their lives on the other side. Of the many tributes I have found there in these past few days, the one I found the most moving was a child’s picture of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. It showed the falling bodies – but they were flying with little wings, for they had become angels.It is the young who will determine the future of the world over the next 20, 30, 40 years; and it is particularly the young people of America. The United States is – and will remain – the world’s only superpower for another generation at least. Whatever unfolds in the next few weeks and months, the ideas, attitudes, beliefs and values of America’s youth will be shaped by the events of 11 September 2001. And those values will shape the world.
There could, I suppose, be two broad paths that the world might follow over the next generation We might go backwards. The 12 years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the terrorist assault on the US might be remembered as a high point of the liberal market economy.

The US would pull back into itself and this would herald the start of a period of withdrawal, of shrinking world trade and rising protectionism, of greater restrictions on the freedom of travel and a rise in repressive laws and regimes. We have had such periods before and we know that were this to happen, the hardest hit would not be the rich people or rich nations, but the poor.Or we may go forwards. In this scenario, the challenge presented to the liberal order by global terrorism will be beaten back. These attacks, and whatever is to follow, will sharpen US resolve in its defence of democratic values not just now but for a generation and more This is not simply a question of government policy. Rather it depends on how the whole country responds: its big corporations, its banks and other financial-service institutions, its media and entertainment industries, its universities, and especially its youth.Having spent the past few days in New York studying the key indicators, I am overwhelmingly convinced that this latter outcome will prevail.Start with the economy. America was almost certainly in recession when the terrorists struck.

Now that recession will been deeper and probably longer than it otherwise would have been. Demand had been held up by consumers, many of whom were financing their lifestyles by borrowing. But now the idea of borrowing to buy some luxury item somehow seems wrong Sales of big-ticket items such as cars have slumped. Meanwhile the disruption to industries such as airlines and leisure is throwing thousands of people out of work, with knock-on effects there.The economic damage is nation-wide, but in New York it is devastating. “I may not be here in a month,” a restaurant owner told me, looking at a roomful of empty tables. “I need to take $30,000 a week just to keep going and last week we took $20,000.”You see the damage in the hotels, the shops, even the streets Many small and medium-sized businesses will go under. But – and looking ahead this is the key point – there is also evidence of extraordinary resilience.