Peggy Noonan on Being Herded--suitable for reading by us, the cattle.
America is in line at the airport. America has its shoes off, is carrying a rubberized bin, is going through a magnetometer. America is worried there is fungus on the floor after a million stockinged feet have walked on it. But America knows not to ask. America is guilty until proved innocent, and no one wants to draw undue attention. America left its ticket and passport in the jacket in the bin in the X-ray machine, and is admonished. America is embarrassed to have put one one-ounce moisturizer too many in the see-through bag. America is irritated that the TSA agent removed its mascara, opened it, put it to her nose, and smelled it. Why don't you put it up your nose and see if it explodes? America thinks.
And, as always: Why do we do this when you know I am not a terrorist, and you know I know you know I am not a terrorist? Why this costly and harassing kabuki when we both know the facts, and would agree that all this harassment is the government's way of showing "fairness," of showing that it will equally humiliate anyone in order to show its high-mindedness and sense of justice? Our politicians congratulate themselves on this as we stand in line.
(No different, might we add, than Our Politicians' Smug Satisfaction at making us stuff food into orifices actually meant for fuel. But what's the difference?)
All the frisking, beeping and patting down is demoralizing to our society. It breeds resentment, encourages a sense that the normal are not in control, that common sense is yesterday.
That happens to be more than a passing complaint. The mood is darkening toward surly, justifiably so. With food (fuel? food? fuel?) now inflating at about 13%/annum, some politicians will be very unpleasantly surprised at the reception they get while Parading Around on the Fourth of July.
In fact, the Fourth of July might be the very WORST date for politicians to be parading..
Mnemonics, and all that.
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3 comments:
Yea, I stumbled across this article on Drudge today and I was really struck by her analysis.
Granted, I think she inappropriately begins to slam W at the end of the article - for the most part - she was spot-on.
Frustration against the entire system, not just W, is more like it.
The terrorists hate our freedoms. If we have fewer freedoms, they'll hate us less, right?
Yeah. We have a government solution to the Islamic suicide/murder problem that says let’s treat everyone as a suspect. We have a policy that says you can not bring weapons onto an airplane and unionized unskilled workers that apparently can’t be trained to understand that everything metal, like a belt buckle or eyeglass hinges, is not a weapon. We have a bureaucratic response incapable of understanding that box cutters did not cause 9/11. It was decades of “negotiate with hijackers” thinking the Muslims exploited.
The political elites of both parties are contemptible and it is time the “consent of the governed” is withdrawn from all of these out of touch politicians. I apologize, D29 if my bitterness is showing.
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