In these post-election days - when we are supposed to be more polarized than ever, less able to find common ground - it's nice to see that Americans on all sides of the political spectrum have found something to unite around: opposition to the idea of full body scans.
(I know, I was hoping we coud all unite around disdain for Dancing With The Stars and the weird fame of Bristol Palin... but that's for another post.)
The near universal derision for the installation of the body scanners, and the accompanying howls over "too much intrusive security at airports" says to me that our long national nightmare is finally over: we all tried really hard to be scared out of our wits and fearful of terrorism at every turn... but frankly it was hard and kind of annoying, And so, apparently, we've decided to just stop.
Oh sure, we've decided to retain our dopey, extreme prejudices about some Arabic customs and "Radical Islam", but the past couple of weeks have made clear that the passion to enshrine safety and security at every turn has simply died. I'm not sure if it's a good thing - I'll get to my own counterintuitive security sense in a momment - but if it means we're moving past "fear of terror" as a way of defining our politics... I'm pretty sure that, by itself, will be a welcome shift. In particular, I think we're seeing the moment when fear of "the next 9/11" became a footnote, rather than our operatins stance.
I just think the opposition to the "full body scans" is just so... weird. Which, of course, is just so us, so USA.
The unity of concerns over the scanners has, I think, caught everyone off guard. All of the complaints about invasiveness, about scanners seeing too much, about "pat down" inspections by TSA screeners that would be like some sort of sexual assault (it's the new "gay panic" to hear some of these vivid complaints, if you ask me), all of the complaints seemed remarkably accusatory, as if someone, clearly, favored giving passngers a hard time. Slowly, I think, the unity on the subject is clear: left, right and center... there's a near universal disdain for x-ray specs. And having your screener get all handsy.
Objections to the security process up to now have been a better natural fit for liberals. a mix of ACLU righteousness and hippie free spiritedness; but at the same time, it's the left that has held, since 9/11, that the way to fight terrorism in a sensible, practical manner was to be responsibly vigilant. With the right law enforcement, and the right security tools, we said, there was no need for the scaremongering of right wing shouters seeing the next terror event at every turn.
The flip side is that while conservatives made approving noises about the need for all kinds of invasive security efforts - warrantless wiretaps? It's keeping us safe! - much of that approval has been an abstraction: there's been a long-simmering line of complaint from the right about "TSA incompetence" and frustration with, well, searching those of us who are clearly not terrorists. How do we know they're not terrorists? Because, well, you can just tell. Or you should be able to tell if you have common sense.
Indeed, I find myself, suddenly, at the precipice of the conversation between Bill O'Reilly and Juan Williams that got Williams fired from NPR. And this is the thing that I don't think got enough examination: when Williams said he was worried when he saw people in "muslim garb" not being searched, I wondered... "what's muslim garb?" What was dopey about the point Williams was trying to make - a clumsy "I have irrational fears, too" argument for why anti-Islam prejudice is understandable, if vaguely tacky - is the idea that "spot the terrorist" just requires a long robe and a funny hat. Conservative support for enhanced security begins, and ends, with harrasing the idea or appearance of being Muslim or Arab (or possibly, just tan). Secuirty that involves stopping and searching white people... not so much.
I've said before, the frustration with security efforts is natural and kind of absurd: it's the feeling that someone should be searched and delayed... just not, you know, me. It's obvious that I'm not a terrorist. Why don't you search those other, suspicious people? But the bodyscan/patdown brouhaha is a serious moment for unification of the forces against the heightened security efforts. It's the moment when "I don't care if it does find a terrorist, I still think it's a terrible idea" trumped any idea that security, first and foremost, was what we wanted. And that shift, as much as anything, will be consequential. It will change airports and our lives generally. It's clear that the scanners were, for many, a surprising last straw, a realization that we've just gone too far trying to stop every possible notion of a terrorist on our shores.
It is, in some ways, a welcome, overdue development; it's been too long that we've been too willing to let fear trump our better natures and instincts. But at the same time, the reaction to the scanners dismays me. I don't think the scanners are a bad idea. I'm not even sure the intensive patdowns are a mistake. It's all the invasive things we take for granted - the places where "show your ID" is meaningless, or "give me your name" is actually none of their business. I would feel safer on a plane, I have to admit, if I knew there was a scanner that saw through us. All the way through. I don't feel safer when some guard in a uniform takes a couple of seconds to look over my driver's license. I just feel used.
But I think the cumulative effect of one too many failed terror incidents - whether Times Square, or panty bomb, or weird toner cartridge bombs sent via FedEx and UPS - has led us to a sense that all this security is overkill (or lulled us into the sense that, yes, we've got the potential for future incidents covered, when we kind of don't). We are not a patient people; we are not a people who, just for safety's sake, want to put up with inconvenience, or a long line. The line and inconvenience might be fine for others... but not for us. We're special. We're important. We're busy. And we're just not a bunch of terrorists. Our long national nightmare is finally over, and we feel fine. And I guess we should... right?
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