"Things Go Better" was published on Annoy.com on September 11, 2002, on the first anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, inspiring a slew of hate mail and threats. Still fresh in the memory of many, few understood the intention of the piece.
The accompanying text, a reworking of The Gettysburg Address titled The Forgettysburg Redress envisioned the inevitable crass commercialization of September 11th, imagining the nauseating prospect of the government packaging fear, and companies making money off the tragedy, slapping their brands onto anything resembling twin towers, from key chains to currency.
"We are met on an already abused symbol of that war. We come to desecrate a portion of it, as a neatly packaged placation for those who never died here, creating pitiable tokens for those who live. This may, in pop psychology, give “closure”. But, in a truer sense, we aggrandize -- we embellish-- we cheapen, this ground -- The ordinary people, living and dead, who struggled here, are trivialized, lost beneath our superior power to dehumanize and brand."
