There were many supposed “paranoiacs” who predicted that 9/11 would be used to create a police state in the United States. Like most, I thought this was ridiculous.
Yet, even if one dismisses the existence of a “them” (the subject of my next post), plainly one can extrapolate from the logic of bureaucracies, and see where the solution to one supposed problem can become a problem in and of itself.
Terrorism, because it is nebulous, and because the threat can never be quantified, as can, to a great extent, the danger of a conventional army, is the perfect foil for those who are themselves paranoid.
Take, as an example, the patting down of a tearful six year old, by the TSA.
Can any rational mind seriously argue that there was a threat here? Of course not. What, then, is the logic. It is simple, and technocratic, which is to say emotionless, and utterly disconnected from any desirable public outcome.
The logic is that all airline passengers are criminals until proven innocent. In Signal Theory, you always have a mixture of noise and signal. The only way to ensure no noise is to transmit nothing, and the only way to ensure no signal will fail to get through is to allow all noise.
The only way to make sure all innocent people get through is to allow everyone through. The only way to ensure no criminals get through is to treat everyone as a criminal. This is the logic.
Yet, when we speak of a “War on Terror”, we are speaking of aggressive overseas interventions designed to counter ISLAMIC terrorism. We are not worried about the IRA or the Tamil Tigers.
El Al uses a very simple method: it figures out who MIGHT be a criminal, and then uses a continuum on them, which in some few cases might END with the sorts of abuses the TSA visits on everyone, but only with regard to people who know damn well why it is happening, and not six year old girls who are being virtually raped in public for reasons both she and I are at a loss to explain, if our goal is integrate them into a framework of reason.
Here is the thing with terrorism: once you accept that all passengers are criminals until proven innocent–a patent abuse of our Fourth Amendment, which well understood the value of treating everyone as guilty, as well as the abuses to which such thinking led, and which considered them antithetical to the dignity they intended to provide all American citizens–then there is no limit to the extent to which you can go to try and prove them guilty.
I visualize discussions going on at the TSA: “You know, you can take somebody’s eye out with a plastic spoon.” “OK. Let’s ban spoons.” “You know, a baby was used a suicide bomb in Pakistan”. “OK, from now on we pat down all babies, and since explosives can be liquid, we need to look in their diapers”.
And so on.
Intended or not, it seems that the proper boundaries of State intervention in our private lives are being exceeded daily, and that the grab continues apace. The EPA is another good example: they are forcing the shut down of power plants which are causing virtually no environmental damage, and which will cause higher energy costs which will be most burdensome to those who can least afford it.
Our freedoms are very literally disappearing. Our ability to elect representatives who are ABLE to protect us is dwindling. I say this after much thought, and do not believe I am exaggerating in the slightest.
Plainly, our nation will end some day. It may be tomorrow, it may be a thousand years from now. All experiments end. But it would seem to me there are far too many who are eager for the release from personal freedom and responsibility that their more or less open embrace of Fascism grants them.
On that last word: Fascism is nothing more or less than applying military thinking to the whole of society. It is making sure everyone has a place and an assigned purpose. This is very comforting for those who are unable to find purpose and meaning in their lives. These people can be counted on to support all forms of government which purport to increase the quality of their lives, regardless of whether or not that outcome is in fact achieved.