Supposedly it is easier to manage groups in the grip of fear than groups of marijuana smokers.
In fact I think the latter is an oxymoron. In order to get normal human beings to accept being treated like animals we have to introduce excessive amounts of fear and an icon for that fear. This practice works because we are a mindless herd animal even if no one likes the description.
After recently objecting to a body search in Toronto and being as sarcastic as legally possible some passengers suggested that I was frightening them by objecting to the intrusion. That was interesting; the fear quotient was high enough that members of “The Group” were willing to attack each other in the absence of a clearly identifiable enemy. My threatening action was simply to question the security guard as to whether stripping naked in the line up would make him feel better, very loudly!. I then asked the crowd if they would feel safer after seeing me publicly naked.
That did not amuse anyone, and sensing my over eagerness to strip my aging carcass in public was deemed very offensive while a probe up my nether regions was perfectly acceptable?
My brother, who had to endure my theatrics, later suggested that if Alcohol was not recommended for anyone required to think or operate machinery, then we should have found ways to prohibit the incitement of fear as even more threatening to public safety. Yet we still protest that being in a state of fear excuses all our inconsiderate actions. Personally no one should ever make decisions of any significance if their minds are obscured by phantom fears. Traveling is not as much fun as it used to be.
We live in a new society where it is normal to dehumanize everybody. We talk about human rights all the time but in fact those few rights are about all that we have left to distinguish us from inanimate things. We now have fewer rights than at any time in the history of mankind. Perhaps that is why we try so hard to guarantee the few that remain to us in Legal Proceedings.
All men are assumed to be guilty and attempting to prove otherwise makes us appear even guiltier. This is exactly as life under a totalitarian regime has been described.
On another note Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog” has been set to music and opens in London. Interesting that after all the talk of fiction, that our society is reconsidering Stalin’s Regime with some nostalgia. Believe me in the depth of the darkest days of Hitler and Stalin, no one strip searched babies and Nuns or cranky old men.
In some respects this excess of caution is an experiment to determine if humanity has any remaining vestiges of personal dignity. It appears that we have none by accepting willingly being treated like objects and being happy complying with authorities, we deserve no better.
If we do not object then we deserve what we get. Now I understand how the Jews walked into the death camps without protest. That always struck me as out of character. Now our entire society is incapable of protest. The psychology of human degradation is very intriguing.
Once upon a time people stripped naked and chained themselves to railings in Trafalgar square protesting Nuclear weapons deployment in Britain. Public nakedness has been a widely accepted form of public protest.
Nothing will change until a bus load of retirees strips naked for a junket to Las Vegas.
I will lead the charge of the bare-assed geezers. Is it still acceptable if I keep my cane? I’d feel naked without it.
Vladimyr Ivan Burachynsky
Ph.D.(Civil Eng.), M.Sc.(Mech.Eng.), M.Sc.(Biology)
120-1053 Beaverhill Blvd.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
CANADA R2J 3R2
(204) 2548321 Phone/Fax
-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf
Of Victoria Hughes
Sent: November 20, 2010 4:20 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied
Complexity Coffee Group; [hidden email]
Subject: [FRIAM] TSA, security
technology, and opting out
link to great blog post, comprehensive with lots of links, useful for all who travel by air-
first few paragraphs-
Things are happening so fast that I don't know if I should bother. But here are some links and observations.
The head of the Allied Pilots Association is telling its members to avoid both the full body scanners and the patdowns.
This first-hand report, from a man who refused to fly rather than subject himself to a full-body scan or an enhanced patdown, has been making the rounds. (The TSA is now investigating him.) It reminds me of Penn Jillette's story from 2002.
A woman has a horrific story of opting-out of the full body scanners. More stories: this one about the TSA patting down a screaming toddler. And here's Dave Barry's encounter (also this NPR interview)......
Yesterday, the TSA administrator John Pistole was grilled by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on full-body scanners. Rep. Ron Paul introduced a bill to ban them. (His floor speech is here.) I'm one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit to ban them.
Book for kids: My First Cavity Search. Cover seen at at TSA checkpoint.
Michael Chertoff, former Department of Homeland Security secretary, has been touting the full-body scanners, while at the same time maintaining a financial interest in the company that makes them."
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