Airport security is a scam. The TSA are the lead actors in this kabuki theatre.

[tavalon]

Is there any possibility that we could all just grow up and stop acting like scared children looking for the big Washington Daddy to make all the scary stuff stop? Life has risks. Until the Middle East doesn't have oil and/or America continues to be addicted to their oil, we will keep a constant military presence in the ME. Since this shadowy terror thing that we choose to call by a name Al Quaida wants us out of the ME, they will continue their terrorist acts. We can't stop them unless we pull out of the ME and we aren't going to. So, I just wish we could all grow up and realize that terrorist acts will continue and we can't do a damn thing about them. To quote Zombieland - it's time to nut up and shut up.

The only valid response is to force our government to leave the ME and since they are tasked with keeping the oil flowing, it's going to be one of the hardest things we ever do. But keeping us fearful keeps us docile, so again, our government has no interest in encouraging us to relax and look at this realistically. Your government wants you to be really, really scared. Do you think it's in your best interest to be that way? I don't.

[timeforpeace]

1. Just went through 3 airports in the last 2 days. TSA was quick, efficient, and friendly. Don't get

bent about the little stuff.

[seabeyond]

21. scanners that wont stop underwear bomber, rights being taken away, possible health problems

with xrays....

cause of illusional fears...

the little stuff?

could that be a bunch of big ole grownups looking for govt to keep them safe in a world of risks?

[HereSince1628]

2. Alttempts to invalidate fear are very likely to fail

DU has been peppered with similar posts, often in flurries surrounding news events, since 911.

Fear is not only a natural self-protective behavior for individuals, for social beings, like humans, it is communicated to others who quickly percieve it (even if they have no understanding of the cause). Having and sharing fear is a part of being human. It is so pervasive in humankind that it is tempting to say, as evolutionary psychologists sometimes do, that its wide biological penetrance in the human population is an argument for its past evolutionarily adaptiveness.

Fear, particularly fear of death, is a very powerful motivator. It is such a strong motivator that it has been exploited by radical, often right wing, political movements for centuries. When paranoid personalities, like Dick Cheney, achieve leadership positions, they can project that paranoia into society with the help of what the population sees as supporting events. Those events may be real or not, they just have to be percieved as when the hopeful war-starters in the US military and intelligence did for Operation Northwoods. And as the incubator baby-killing stories did for the first Gulf war.

Once primed to be fearful, as the US citizenry was following 911, it only takes infrequent reminders to re-establish that fear. The NW underpants bomber's failed attempt was actually sufficient to restore the general fearful state. (It's probably a mistake to think that Al Qaeda doesn't have at least a common street level e understanding of such a common part of personal and social behavior). Societies react to fear collectively, particularly when there is historic evidence that suggests continuing threats. That's how we came to institutionalize militaries, police and fire forces, medical institutions, and even public hygiene (water, sewage, pollution control). Reasonable reactions to fear of reasonable levels of threat? Maybe, but it seems that reasonableness depends upon aculturation as well as individual variability.

Disabusing people of their fear is no simple psychological task. One of the best ways is through recognition that the proponent(s) of fear are 'crying wolf.' One of the worst ways is to simply tell people that they are cowards. While those person's level of the fear may not be valid, telling someone to suck it up, to get a pair, to quit being a wuss isn't going to get rid of their fear. It just makes them angry about being called names. Dick Cheney is a classic chickhawk, many of us a DU assume it is his personal fear rather than his 'having better things to do' that motivated him to 5 draft deferments. Cheney's been called a coward by millions and it has made him angry but not free of his paranoia.

So, obviously it's just my opinion, but if fear is an emotion that is a powerful motivator and probably an evolutionarily adaptive psychological function, no amount of derision of the fearful is likely to extinguish it. Rather it is the behaviors that individuals, and society set in motion because of fear that must be argued about. The behaviors must be examined and scrutinized at both practical and ideological levels. For although we wish our fellow citizens safety, we also wish them liberty.

[hedgehog]

3. So, if passengers had been barred from carrying box cutters

on 9/11, it wouldn't have made any difference?

I'm not sure if Al Quaida would be satisfied if we pulled out of the Mideast, turned over Israel and gave back Iberia.

[Raster]

4. Probably not. The PNAC needed their new "Pearl Harbor-type event."

If it hadn't been 15 Saudis with box cutters, it would have been someone or something else.

[benEzra]

17. Hardened cockpit doors and bulkheads, as now, would have stopped 9/11...

but a ban on passengers carrying box cutters wouldn't necessarily have done so. There are plenty of cutting/stabbing instruments that could have been used in lieu of those, including reinforced nylon or ceramic blades that wouldn't set off a metal detector, had box cutters been prohibited by edict.

The "passengers as the enemy" approach to security (strip everyone of every comfort/convenience/dignity and treat them like cattle, and oh, no more books, blankets, or iPods in your lap or going to the bathroom when you need to anymore) is a whole lot better at killing air travel than it is at stopping terrah-ists, IMO.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. No easy answers.

We pull out, China pulls in. A country which, apparently, has no pollution controls. We will eventually get blowback, one way or the other.

Unless someone comes up with a clean, cheap energy alternative

[stray cat]

6. You think we will be loved by all if we just leave the ME?

[tavalon]

11. No, to be loved by these people would require much more than that and much more than we are willing

to give, both in time and effort. Therefore, getting our knickers in a wad every time one of them tries to scare us plays perfectly into their hands. They didn't even need to actually bring a plane down to have us running around like little scared kids. As long as we are going to stay and as long as we're going to antagonize them while we're there, they are going to attempt to get us to leave by terrorizing us. But it requires our cooperation to be terrorized.

Am I personally going to change any of my flying abits because of their terrorism? No. Am I going to change any of my flying habits because of the asinine response of the TSA? Absolutely. I am tired of their fearmongering and pretending that they are protecting us. They wouldn't ever have been able to do that even if they were competent, which, they are not.

[stray cat]

7. Police and laws don't stop crime and firefighters don't stop fires from starting

kids still get abused even with social workers - maybe we should support anarchy and get rid of government services that are not perfect?

[tavalon]

14. I can see you're really invested in the idea that the TSA is protecting you

I'm sorry I sowed doubt in this part of your world view.

[MineralMan]

8. And you fly how often?

Anyone criticizing the TSA should disclose their flying habits, IMO. We need to see how many dogs you have in the hunt, you see.

[tavalon]

9. I used to fly regularly

Now, I plan so I can avoid flying whenever possible. Even when I know the idiots on the front line aren't the TSA per se, I have trouble not mocking them and I have trouble playing their games without getting very annoyed. I've rearranged choices a lot in the last few years so the last time I flew (I really hope it is my last time) was for a family vacation back in September.

I don't see at all how this is pertinent to what I discussed but you asked. I hope the answer helps you in some way to decide whether what I said has some gravitas or not. Of course, your tone was so dismissive, I'm thinking you're just looking for places to mock.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. I have a customer who is a Chicago cop K-9 officer at O'hare.

When I asked her about the effectiveness of the dogs she laughed out loud.

She's not part of TSA but she is part of the kabuki theatre.

I still laugh at the National Guard men they had roaming the airport UN-ARMED after 9/11. Not that being armed would have been a good idea for kids not trained in anti-terrorism/hostage and/or close order assault in a crowded airport.

[tavalon]

12. The really scary thing is that people take real comfort from bullshit theatre

instead of facing up to the dangers inherent in being a walking, talking, motor vehicle driving monkey.

[Individualist]

13. K&R

[Greyhound]

15. How many times has El Al been hijacked in the last 30 - 40 years?

And how do they do it? Well I know it's Un-American, but they employ highly trained professional interrogators that speak directly with every passenger on every flight. It takes a few seconds to a minute. Unfortunately, paying a bunch of people a respectable wage and benefits isn't going to make any parasites rich selling whiz-bang super-duper technology that doesn't work.

How can a Michael Chertoff become uber-rich if he can't fleece the American people?

You silly frightened people.
:silly::crazy:

[PVnRT]

19. That doesn't jive with the "do everything on the cheap" government mentality

Plus, it doesn't enrich defense contractors in some way, so we can't hire human beings to speak with a passenger. That's what far more expensive and intrusive gadgetry is for.

[Greyhound]

22. "Do everything that involves the proles on the cheap, gift billions to the connected"

is far more accurate.

[tavalon]

16. Kicked for further discussion

[Jennicut]

18. For quoting Zombieland alone I would kick this. But you also pointed out that we have to

stop acting like babies. Life does have risks, dammit! And flying is a choice you can make or not make. Personally, I am driving to Florida for our next vacation, from CT. Yes, with a 4 and 5 year old. Yes, we are crazy but we hate flying.

[TwilightGardener]

20. I don't feel that this administration trumped up the fear factor. I think

they don't want to get blamed (and undergo certain political death) by having a successful, fatal attack on their watch. The Obama WH knows that Republicans WANT terra to happen in order to have a political weapon at hand. IMO, they're taking the incident seriously, but not because they want it blown out of proportion or to scare us into submission.