Martin Amis comments in The Guardian:

‘Their aim was to torture tens of thousands, and to terrify

hundreds of millions. In this, they have succeeded. The

temperature of planetary fear has been lifted towards the

feverish; “the world hum”, in Don DeLillo’s phrase, is now

as audible as tinnitus. And yet the most durable legacy has

to do with the more distant future, and the disappearance

of an illusion about our loved ones, particularly our

children. American parents will feel this most acutely, but

we will also feel it. The illusion is this. Mothers and fathers

need to feel that they can protect their children. They

can’t, of course, and never could, but they need to feel

that they can. What once seemed more or less impossible

– their pro-tection – now seems obviously and palpably

inconceivable. So from now on we will have to get by

without that need to feel.

…Our best destiny, as planetary cohabitants, is the

development of what has been called “species

consciousness” – something over and above nationalisms,

blocs, religions, ethnicities. During this week of incredulous

misery, I have been trying to apply such a consciousness,

and such a sensibility. Thinking of the victims, the

perpetrators, and the near future, I felt species grief, then

species shame, then species fear.’