Sunfish
23rd May 2008, 05:14
Mods may wish to move this, and if you are a person who thinks "Liberal" is a swear word, you may not wish to read the link at all.
From "The left coaster"
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012566.php
Enabling Authoritarianism
by paradox
I was immensely gratified last Sunday to see Eschaton hotshot pinch-hitter Jay Ackroyd nail what I hate so much about American flying post-9/11: almost all of the infuriating “security measures” at the airport have nothing to do with flying safety in the least, and everything to do with implementing authoritarianism on the American public.
For the life of me I cannot understand how humans so blithely accept some Jack in a uniform making them take off their shoes in a pathetic ruse of safety, when it’s always been crystal clear to me it was nothing more than an act of degradation, a form of humiliation from the Man that you aren’t even free in your clothes in America, we can make you do anything.
Rationalization and self-deception are the eternal handmaidens of the human mind, so ancestors of rebels and their Bill of Rights tell themselves, well, we need to fly. If we don’t do every stupid, irrational, freedom-stealing tactic to employ yet another self-deceptive ruse of “safety,” big scary bad guys might to terrible things to us.
Americans need to use all forms of public infrastructure and communications and don’t willingly give up their rights and freedom to employ them, but just at the airport it’s okay for some asshole to take your shampoo after rifling your bag.
............................................................ ....................................
Total safety and absence of risk is nowhere to found in the human condition, not hardly. Giving up rights and freedom at the airport simply opens the door for them to be taken away everywhere else, sooner or later.
Thankfully I’ve been employed recently where zero travel is required, I haven’t had to endure what used to be one of my favorite American experiences—deliberately watching humans hours before takeoff in thunderously cool jets—be utterly ruined and wrecked in an insulting, degrading act of “security” that humiliates us as it softens us up for more theft of freedom. The worst part is that I silently go along with it, I need to get where I’m going, defiance seems futile as I seethe in my socks.
...........................................
I wonder if the vociferous proponents of “security” and “safety” would still be so strong in their support to have their shoes taken off if some uniformed hack was reading their sexy love notes with pics attached five minutes later. They probably would, the bad guys are still terrorists. Right?
From "The left coaster"
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012566.php
Enabling Authoritarianism
by paradox
I was immensely gratified last Sunday to see Eschaton hotshot pinch-hitter Jay Ackroyd nail what I hate so much about American flying post-9/11: almost all of the infuriating “security measures” at the airport have nothing to do with flying safety in the least, and everything to do with implementing authoritarianism on the American public.
For the life of me I cannot understand how humans so blithely accept some Jack in a uniform making them take off their shoes in a pathetic ruse of safety, when it’s always been crystal clear to me it was nothing more than an act of degradation, a form of humiliation from the Man that you aren’t even free in your clothes in America, we can make you do anything.
Rationalization and self-deception are the eternal handmaidens of the human mind, so ancestors of rebels and their Bill of Rights tell themselves, well, we need to fly. If we don’t do every stupid, irrational, freedom-stealing tactic to employ yet another self-deceptive ruse of “safety,” big scary bad guys might to terrible things to us.
Americans need to use all forms of public infrastructure and communications and don’t willingly give up their rights and freedom to employ them, but just at the airport it’s okay for some asshole to take your shampoo after rifling your bag.
............................................................ ....................................
Total safety and absence of risk is nowhere to found in the human condition, not hardly. Giving up rights and freedom at the airport simply opens the door for them to be taken away everywhere else, sooner or later.
Thankfully I’ve been employed recently where zero travel is required, I haven’t had to endure what used to be one of my favorite American experiences—deliberately watching humans hours before takeoff in thunderously cool jets—be utterly ruined and wrecked in an insulting, degrading act of “security” that humiliates us as it softens us up for more theft of freedom. The worst part is that I silently go along with it, I need to get where I’m going, defiance seems futile as I seethe in my socks.
...........................................
I wonder if the vociferous proponents of “security” and “safety” would still be so strong in their support to have their shoes taken off if some uniformed hack was reading their sexy love notes with pics attached five minutes later. They probably would, the bad guys are still terrorists. Right?