Our suspicions have been proved: the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) doesn’t secure much of anything; it is mere “security theater.”
After revelations that TSA screeners failed to find weapons and other deadly contraband in 96 percent of tests, David A. Graham, writing for The Atlantic, asked “what kind of theater this is. . . . A period drama, satirizing the 2000s? Vaudeville farce?”
Easy answer: the genre is “statism.”
Statism is the worship of government, or the reliance upon government to do many more than a few tasks. It is very old.
The ancient states arose from conquest, developing as a way to milk the masses for the benefit of the few. That’s what states traditionally do: use force to move wealth from one group to another.
Along the way, the states did do some good. Amidst all their horrors.
But mostly rulers just leveraged myth and bluster to cover crimes.
In more recent times, in this great country, the idea arose that the state should be limited to a few necessary jobs, tightly controlled by the people so that government might actually defend rights, not abridge them.
But this revolutionary democratic-republican ideology did not alter the basic nature of reality, turning the sow’s purse of the conquerors’ art into the gold of the Public Interest.
Without our vigilance, government always reverts back to its roots.
The TSA is simply the latest myth-and-bluster-backed scam aiding the ludicrous notion that government is all-powerful . . . while providing only faux security. Get rid of it; let its people go. Then watch airlines come up with more effective, less intrusive, more passenger-friendly security systems.
Want theater? Try “vigilance theater.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Political Theatrics”
Remember when some Democrat Senator said, “You can’t professionalize unless you federalize”? I think about that “professionalism” every time – and, there are many – I read about some TSA screw-up.
I quite agree with what was posted, but where is the outcry from the flying public to get rid of the TSA? I hear on the radio (KFI 640-Los Angeles) how ideotic, and overbearing the TSA is yet I don’t hear the politicians or anyone who represents the traveling public cry out to rid us of this useless elephant. It’s also odd that that we haven’t followed the Israeli security system of random checking. Perhaps we’re married to political correctness to the point that it’s more important than common sense security. (referring to profiling)