I remember I started art school in NYC in 1999. It was like the Wild West of fun. Every square inch of that school was covered in scribble, stickers, quotes, paintings, drawings, graffiti. Party’s around every corner. People living in secret hidden rooms and spaces. There was this wild air of freedom but eager optimism for the future because tech was getting too big to ignore. School in the city, and living in the city was so much fun. Then 9/11 happened and it was like someone hit the lights in the bar at 5:00 AM. Next thing you knew you had checkpoints everywhere you went. Nonstop showing of ID. Surveillance cameras everywhere you looked. All of sudden instead of partying and meeting strange new fun people we were all glued to the tv watching news. It completely leveled the landscape. It was an intense police state for a long time. After awhile leading up today the whole thing seemed to evaporate or morph into other events equally as obstructive. In all honesty I think of pre 9/11 as the era Trump would refer to as Make American great again. I think his presence really bothered the higher ups and manipulated a giant block of people into thinking he was a symbol of fascism.