The 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 gave the federal government the excuse they needed to do things they've always wanted to do since the creation of the National Security State under President Harry Truman between 1947 and 1950: illegal unconstitutional surveillance, search and seizures. The original bogeyman was Communism, but as time went on the Empire found new reasons to intrude on the private lives of Americans. The "War On Terrorism" is the latest and greatest incarnation of the American government's uncontrollable impulse to humiliate and clamp down on its citizens.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, as Lord Acton noted in the 19th century. This typical human story is far older than the Bible. Gangsters call the arrangement I am about to tell you about a Protection Racket. Every Empire that ever existed has run various rackets in which you give up money (taxes) or your civil liberties or something else precious to you (like your first-born daughter) so you can live free of fear. Free of fear, that is, from everybody except the criminals government running the racket.
You see, we (the government) want to control your every thought and action, but we need a good excuse to do it, especially in a country which has a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. And Osama bin Laden handed us that excuse on a silver platter. Now, in the name of protecting you, we can treat you any way we like, we can at all times remind you who's boss. Your fear of terrorism, which we do everything in our power to maintain or exaggerate, feeds perfectly into our need to control you.
So now, if you want to get on an airplane, we can dose you with radiation, look at an X-Ray of your naked body, fondle your breasts and genitals, and otherwise handle you or pat you down anyway we see fit. And it's all for your own protection—that's what you think and that's the beauty part! And we needn't stop there. If we have any flimsy some reason to suspect you're a terrorist or a would-be terrorist, we can listen in on your phone calls, read your e-mail, or even hide in your closet if need be to find out for sure if you're up to no good as we assume you are.
But wait, it gets better. If you refuse to be humiliated or otherwise intruded upon, we—the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wing of the National Security State—can fine you up to $11,000 for opting out. How's that for smacking you around? There's no way out, you belong to us, baby! As soon as you buy that plane ticket and step into that security line, we own you. Got it? And if we decide to do the same thing at bus stations or want to stop you at random while you're driving on the interstate, there's not a damn thing you can do about it because we own you.
Only a few Americans are truly upset about all this, and even among these dissenters there are only a few people who understand the actual problem. It's depressing to see how easily people give up the few rights they have to a Protection Racket. The real problem is that once you've surrendered your civil liberties, you never get them back. Unchecked, the inevitable result is some kind of Fascism. There are those who say we're already done for, and they may be right.
Tomorrow is the day before Thanksgiving, the busiest travel day of the year in the United States. Some folks are planning to protest TSA full body searches and I applaud them. A slowing of the human traffic through the security machines is the inevitable result, which will just annoy the sheeple people who want to get where they're going as fast as possible.
Those who willingly acquiesce to humiliating poking and prodding have forgotten that before 1950, when the United States was a Republic and not an Empire, American citizens had well-specified civil rights as spelled out by the Founders. But that was 60 years ago, and there's been a lot of water gone under the bridge since then.
My suggestion is that you greet the TSA with KMA—kiss my ass. Be prepared for a hard time if you resist. Stephen Colbert provided the only insightful response to this TSA racket, Update: I've decided you should watch another video instead of the Colbert. This new one is called TSA feeling up 3 year-old girl. It seems that Mandy's Teddy Bear set off the detectors (twice) and the TSA went a little bit crazy. Her obedient Daddy sure is an understanding guy ... the kind of guy who didn't think twice about it when the Nazis rounded up the Jews.
As before, I've added a second insightful video for you to watch.
Dave, EXCELLENT, best yet.
Posted by: j davis | 11/24/2010 at 08:53 AM