TSA And Rabbit Society

As cowardice and irrationality continue to grip the nation we have individuals protesting a surprising move by the TSA, or what would have been a surprise move but it now looks like they are going to rescind their decision, the TSA was going to allow knives with blades 2.36 inches or smaller to be carried on passenger aircraft. The TSA has delayed the new rule as it has meet opposition by a gaggle of rabbits organized flight attendants and political opportunist Senator Schumer calls for a complete knife ban.

Of course the knife ban is ludicrous and absolutely ineffectual. To date there hasn't been a report of any potential terrorist attack thwarted by the TSA and if there had been we would have heard of it by now.  The TSA desperately needs some positive press so I highly doubt they would have kept any prevention of an attack secret.  The fact is that most of what goes on in US airports is simply security theater to make you feel better because the truth is that if a potential terrorist hasn't been stopped before they have gotten to the TSA scanner then it is unlikely the TSA will stop them.  There are too many bags, too little time and frankly too little training to make the TSA agents an effective counter to a potential terrorist attack -and indeed I would argue that if you haven't prevented a terrorist from even getting into an airport then it is already too late-. Case in point:

I flew to Iceland not too long ago and, unknown to me, I had my swiss army knife in my workout bag.  My bag was pulled over twice and searched but both times the agent had failed to find my pocket knife and it was only when I unpacked it 7 hours later that I had realized why I was singled out for those searches.  This is an instance were they knew something was off based off their x-ray scans but still could not find what was wrong, and yet I was not prevented from boarding.  I can't say I mind since I would've loudly protested if they proceeded to empty my back and all it's contents but it illustrates something.  Firstly, it illustrates that the TSA agents aren't quite the perverted jack booted goons they are often portrayed, the agent looking through my bag seemed honestly apologetic that he was wasting my time, and secondly, if I could inadvertently sneak by a pocket knife then there isn't a high likelihood they are going to stop a really determined individual. But this doesn't matter to those with a rabbit mindset.

The fact that such incidents were rare to non-existent pre-9/11 means nothing to those with a rabbit mindset.  They see danger in every shadow, nook and blade of grass be it real and imaginary.  In fact I would put forward that imagine, or extremely unlikely, fears motivate the rabbit mentality individual far more than actual real world threats.  For example there is tremendous evidence showing the dangers of having a government with expansive police powers.  Millions of lives have been sacrificed at the alter of 'false security' that is provided by police states.  Sometimes these lives were unintentional casualties due to the police state and other times they are intentionally inflicted.  The Germans, Italians, Russians and many others sacrificed their personal sovereignty for leaders that would promise them security, among many other things, and look what happened.  But the rabbits, time and again, fail to head these real world instances and continue to call for more government 'protection'.

Some individuals might question why I care so much about this event and the seemingly common sense position to keep them off of airplanes.  The thing with common sense is that it cuts both ways. If common sense tells us we don't want to have lunatics or islamists on planes with knives then it should also us, based off history, that worrying about almost non-existent events and passing laws on them is a waste of our energies. And frankly, common sense has never been a good position to argue for or against something in my opinion; in fact when ever I hear someone use the phrase 'it's just common sense' it makes me think that the person uttering the phrase doesn't have much sense at all.

Ultimately the issue is whether we have a sheep dog or rabbit society.  A sheep dog society understands that there are dangers and the world and that they have to be mitigated.  At the same time the sheep dog realizes that you cannot stop every threat and that spending a lot of time and energy on low probability events is, not only a waste of time and effort that could be spent on more realistic threats, but also that efforts put in place to stop the events will probably be unsuccessfully. The rabbit society doesn't think about this and in fact wants the opposite. 

The rabbit would rather spend inordinate amount of time and energy on perceived threats that make it feel uncomfortable, knives on planes, gun control or right wing racist militia groups than on actual dangers that don't appear as threatening but are in fact far more dangerous, expansive police state, excessive amounts of national debt, or disregard for the constitution.  The dangers that they ignore fail to illicit an emotion response, which is why the appear so disinterested when they are raised, and why threats that are unlikely, but are visually or mentally disturbing, occupy their time.

I am almost certain that the rabbits will have their way and the mean nasty pointy sticks will be banned for airplanes. What is so frustrating is that this will make the rabbits feel good but it doesn't actually do anything to keep people safe. Fortunately the actual impact on our lives by the government is rather minimal, I doubt many individuals even tried taking knives on the plane prior to 9/11, but there are so many instances were this is not the case.  We often, and rightly so, blame the politicians for the ever increasing police state that is being implemented but the politicians are often only responding to the rabbits in our society.  Unfortunately it has become increasingly apparent that the rabbits out number the sheep dogs or even the sheep and their knee jerk reactions will increasingly expose us to wolves in rabbits clothing.