Last January I wrote an essay title "As Long as It Keeps Us Safe" in which I predicted that the American public would submit to the newly installed pornoscanners in order to be "safe" from terrorists. I concluded that essay saying:
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?
I never did allow myself to engage in such wishful thinking so I was quite suprised and encouraged when many Americans actually did resist the scanners and groping enhanced pat downs. I believed that there would be some resistance, but I never imagined that the anger of many Americans would penetrate the mainstream media and even unsettle our masters.
But I also wrote in that essay:
The fact that so many people [are] 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. [emphasis added]
Not to boast because I know that boasting is useless but I was dead-on with this prediction. Many people are opting out, pun intended, of airline travel due to the scanners and enhanced pat-downs. Matt Welch at reason posted a list of newspaper editorials which berated Americans for actually resisting the pornoscanners. Government officials and politicians have been doing their best to persuade Americans to obey the TSA because "it will make the country safer." And I learned today that the heroic John "Don't Touch My Junk" Tyner, whose videotaped act of defiance possibly ignited this rebellion against the TSA, has suffered so much odium for his rebellion that he is taking a break from blogging. He writes
Doing what I did though has also elicited some of the most vitriolic responses that I've ever witnessed, let alone been the target of. Someone even took the time to find my home address and send me a piece of hate mail (anonymously, of course). It's one thing for people to hurl insults at me over the Internet. It hurts, to be sure, but I realize that the "cost" of doing so electronically is low, so I can dismiss it to a certain extent. To actually receive something in the mail, however, is unnerving. So, to all of you who have called me a loser, a moron, who have questioned my patriotism, the size of my genitalia, and who have called me an attention-seeking whore: you win.
Readers can view a plethora of comments here, here, here, here, and here. I'm pretty sure you will see examples of everything I emphasized above. Mr. Tyner was also the victim of a vile attack by two writers at The Nation that has drawn the ire of many journalists including the heroic Glenn Greenwald who tore both writers apart. And the fact that someone would find out where he lives to send him hate mail, I think, illustrates my point that "the moral fabric will continue to disintegrate...." In what kind of "free" country do we live when people are harassed by the general public for standing up to government tyranny?
While I was pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of animosity toward the TSA, I still have little reason to be optimistic at our short- and medium- term future. While some resent being treated as criminals to fly, a sizable number of the American public willingly and happily submits not only to the scanners I wrote about in January, but also to sexual assault just to board a plane. And they do so when the holes in centrally planned airline security are obvious to anyone with a pulse. In addition, it does not appear that most Americans care much about the very foreign policy that creates the terrorists who wish to harm them. I simply have a hard time being optimistic when these things appear so obvious to me yet elude most Americans. And even worst, when people point these things out to the American masses, scaredy cats and State apologists heap such vile animosity on them that many wonder whether its worth speaking their mind.
But in spite of my pessimism and in spite of the enmity that may come my way for my "extreme" belief in liberty, I believe in the motto of the Mises Institute-"Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito" which can be translated as "Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it". I will always be an enemy of the State and I will continue to fight the State the best way I know how. I'll stop writing when the president and his minions pry my laptop from my cold, dead hands.
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