"As Long as It Keeps Us Safe..."

The truth is that the common man's love of liberty, like his love of sense, justice and truth, is almost wholly imaginary. As I have argued, he is not actually`happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. He longs for the warm, reassuring smell of the herd, and is willing to take the herdsman with it. Liberty is not a thing for such as he. He cannot enjoy it rationally himself, and he can think of it in others only as something to be taken away from them. It is, when it becomes a reality, the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority of men, like knowledge, courage and honour. A special sort of man is needed to understand it, nay, to stand it—and he is inevitably an outlaw in democratic societies. The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.-H. L. Mencken

There are days when I allow myself to become optimistic about the prospects for liberty in my lifetime. Then I read an article like this in USAToday and skim the comments, and I am quickly brought back to reality. According to a recent USAToday/Gallup poll,

78% of respondents said they approved of using the scanners, and 67% said they are comfortable being examined by one. Eighty-four percent said the machines would help stop terrorists from carrying explosives onto airplanes. The survey was taken Jan. 5-6 of 542 adults who have flown at least twice in the past year.

Joel Skousen, a poll respondent, said "It would seem much more thorough than the process that we're doing now...It would put me more at ease getting on a plane." One comment on the article reads

Yeah most are ok but the aclu will lock this up and cost us millions of tax dollars while some monster blows up a plane. I hope one of those aclu pukes is on the plane when it smashes into the ground. I wonder if he will be thinking, "Hmm I am glad we fought this right to privacy" SPLAT.

Free free to read more of the comments if you have the stomach. There are plenty more like this there.

It saddens me that so many Americans cannot see the fraud that is government-provided security. The 9/11 attacks are clear evidence that the Federal Government cannot protect its citizens. The Department of Defense budget in 2000, the year before the 9/11 attacks, was about $293 billion. Nevertheless, hijackers armed with only box cutters were able to take over four planes and use three of them as missiles. Of course, if the FAA had not banned pilots from carrying firearms on the planes in July 2001, perhaps we would have read about the failed attempt of terrorists to hijack four planes.

In addition to the underwear bomber who was stopped, not by government officials but by passengers who realized that they are responsible for their own security, we have also witnessed three uninvited guests appear at the White House. It seems that even reading a list of names has become a challenge for the Secret Service whose primary job is to protect one person. And yet Americans still believe that our government can protect all of us.

Moreover, Americans do not seem to realize that the Federal Government itself is to blame for the actions of these terrorists. If the US government would stay out of the Middle East, the chances of terrorists attacking this country would be significantly lower if not zero. Airport security would not need to be the embarrassing violation of privacy and risible theater that it is today. But to even suggest such a cause and effect is to speak blasphemy against the US of A. Warmongering conservatives immediately yelp their Pavlovian responses to such heresy. They accuse anyone of making such a logical connection as being "unAmerican" and "unpatriotic". In their minds, they are emotionally and intellectually unable to separate the American government from the American people. And it does not matter if the president is a Republican or Democrat. As long as the president is sufficiently belligerent, conservatives are happy. Liberals are not much better. Aside from a handful of exceptions, the liberal antiwar train has come to complete stop now that Obama is president. (Have you seen a Code Pink rally since Obama has been in office?)

What is most depressing to me, however, is that the American people are proving Mencken correct. Many people are willing to trade off any amount of dignity or modesty for the illusion of security. "As long it keeps us safe" is the chorus of the State's Siren Song and the people sing it with vigorously uplifted voices. The fact that another person is looking at naked bodies all in the name of security is irrelevant-"As long as it keeps us safe". The fact that our government is always fighting the last attempt of a terrorist attack is irrelevant-"As long as it keeps us safe". The fact that the government can shut down an airport and force everyone to go through security a second time because an agent failed to stop a man going the wrong way through a security gate who posed no threat to anyone is irrelevant-"As long as it keeps us safe". One wonders just what the American people would not submit to to keep us safe. Will mandatory cavity searches become the future if some terrorist tries to detonate a bomb he planted in his rectum? You may think that I am engaging in hyperbole, but the truth is that people can get used to anything. And if a terrorist ever attempted such an attack, be assured that some op-ed writer somewhere will suggest that these cavity searches are necessary "to make sure this never happens again."

The fact that so many people willing to subject themselves to such ignominy for the appearance of security does not bode well for those who love liberty. Eventually someone will refuse to go through one of these scanners and will have to pay the consequences. When this person rebels, however, she will not be met with cheers of approbation or with approval from the masses. In fact she will be derided as making us all less safe. She will be an outlaw in our democratic society. That she wishes to protect her dignity from some TSA goon who is salivating at the chance to scan her "for the safety of fellow passengers" will be viewed as threat to national security because it may inspire others to wake up to the fraud being committed in plain sight. Thus, the moral fabric will continue to disintegrate as modesty gives way to voyeurism in the name of security. The few people who demand to be treated with the respect and decency they expect from other humans will be mocked as irresponsible individualists who will not give up some of their liberty for the safety of the collective. This will compel many people to skip air travel unless absolutely necessary because they simply do not want to be ogled by strangers just to board an airplane.

Frederick Douglass once said

Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress

Each year it seems that Americans increase their tolerance of oppression. Despite so much empirical evidence before them that the State fails at security, the one task even minarchists believe should be the only task assigned to government, they continue to run to the protective arms of the State every time it fails to protect them. They have been indoctrinated with nationalism and disabused of the notion that they are responsible for their own security; thus, they willingly disgrace themselves in exchange for security theater. I can hope that the USAToday/Gallup poll is only indicative of the type of people who read USAToday and the comments also only reflect the thoughts of the same sample. But why should I subject myself to such wishful thinking only to be brought crashing to earth after reading articles like this?

Comments

[Jerry]

Reading the comments on any of the articles on the USATODAY and they are pretty much the same, so I too hope they are just indicative of the people who post online.

No one seems to want to take responsibility for their own actions, safety or anything. Every percieved injustice requires government intervention and after a while you just want to throw up.

[KBible]

Don't know if you saw this article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/11/yeffet.air.security.israel/index.html

No amount of throwing dollars (i.e. machinery) at this problem is going to solve it. We need human INTELLIGENCE on the ground working this issue. Too bad our country lacks this resource in the right places.

[LN Shapely]

I proceed to say again,again, again:
We are using Atom Bombs to Kill Rats.

Came in here through Heartland.
Bravo, Sir.