Airport Security Regulations and American Paranoia

“Strip, please, yes and your belt and shoes”. No, not under some subdued lighting in a back-streets room with a woman of dubious reputation. Instead very much in public view and under the harsh glare of an airport security checkpoint. Everyone complies, no arguments are allowed. This public humiliation, this rude interruption to our rights of safe passage, this intrusion into our personal privacy is almost completely unjustified. And then they have the effrontery to justify their invasive behaviour with the catch-all line ‘we’re doing this for your own safety’.

So what are they actually doing and are they achieving anything at all from it?

Requiring travellers to open laptops and take out the batteries prior to putting them into the scanner; allowing empty bottles to be kept, but any bottle that has any liquid at all in it will be confiscated; demanding the removal of even the smallest of men’s belts, while women’s belts remain right where they are thank you very much; and so on. A tube of toothpaste that has been through several airports is suddenly subject to confiscation from an over-zealous guard, eager to throw his unwarranted authority around on victims who are not allowed to complain.

Which particular aspect of safety is enhanced by any of these measures noted above? What better security do we get if a laptop is placed open into the scanner compared to a closed laptop – None!

How dangerous is a well-used tube of toothpaste? It has been through the scanner, no bomb was detected, but no – ‘we’ll have that’ they say.

 

All of these checks are directly driven by American paranoia, and then enforced by governments globally who are fearful of offending the mighty US of A. Americans are so scared of the rest of the world that they insist that everything and everyone is put under the microscope before getting anywhere near their borders. Maybe they should ask why they are so scared – there’s a good question!! There is no danger of terrorist attacks in countries as far apart as Finland and New Zealand, but even in these far flung corners of the globe, American paranoia prevails over common sense and customer comfort.

What would happen if governments around the world started following the US in other areas of repressing their citizens?

As I have noted elsewhere in this blog, we would lose the ability to have art shows exhibiting any part of the naked human anatomy (http://goodtalking.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/decent-exposure/ ); we would be forced to censor our literature to conform with the currently accepted American standards (http://goodtalking.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/censorship-of-the-arts-in-america/); we would be become obliged to interrupt all our advertising programs with no more than a few minutes of actual performance each hour on television; we would have to support greater safety on the streets by allowing everyone to carry whatever gun they want whenever they want; and we would force a lawyer driven perception of reality, in which every event is an opportunity to get rich quick at someone else’s expense, on our innocent and lawyer free cultures.

 

So why is it that we have all enacted their draconian ‘public safety’ measures at airports, when we realise what a lot of crap other aspects of the US culture are.

The sooner that our governments start to lead a life of their own in this area, the sooner we will have smoother and easier travel. As a sop to the US, we can maintain separate strip search security channels just for their citizens, so that they feel comfortable as they are subject to this invasive security for no real benefit.

 

And where is the forum for us to say “Enough!” Everyone is too scared to say anything as they might be seen to be sympathising with terrorism.

There is no-one we can complain to, nobody will stand up and admit responsibility for the rules governing how we are searched. Airport security guards point to airport authorities, who point to governments – but not to a particular person or department. No, just the faceless term ‘the government’ is responsible.

Well we elect the government, they are empowered to do what we want them to do. Nothing more, nothing less. Do we want them to continue with this intrusion into our privacy? I think not, so now we need say “Enough!”

Tags: airport regulations, airport security, confiscate liquids, passenger safety, safety, strip search, x-ray