Was the new TSA policy drafted by Elphaba?

So they caught an enormous plot to blow up planes flying between the US and Britain. That’s really great news. Although the rest of this post is going to be very critical of how we’re going about keeping air travel safe, it is wonderful and quite gratifying that at least some of our security measures are proving effective. The problem is that our identifying and stopping a plot-in-progress somehow leads to everyone suddenly freaking out about our incredible vulnerability. And that’s why we’re cracking down on such dangerous behavior as bringing shampoo or gatorade on planes.

What the new air safety rules will mean: baggage claim is about to get a lot more crowded. I like to carry-on all my stuff, but now I’ll have to check at least some of it–or leave things like shampoo at home. Also, prepare to be at the whim of busy flight attendants, because you can’t bring your own WATER on the plane.

A Boing Boing post on the matter addresses the incredible steps being taken in Britain:

The UK government has responded to this exemplary bit of policing — using investigative techniques to discover plots while they are hatching — by prohibiting all hand-luggage on planes, except for a transparent shopping bag carrying a few permitted items: a couple tampons, baby food (if another passenger is forced to taste it first), glasses without cases (deadly, deadly cases!), contact holders (but no cleaning fluid!), keys (but no electric fobs), and your wallet. You’re not allowed to bring on magazines (deadly, deadly magazines!) or books, no laptops, no iPods, no oversized watches (!), and so forth.

Thankfully things aren’t so crazy on domestic flights within the US (yet?), but the point remains valid: how much liberty are we willing to give up for the sake of an amorphous idea of security?

It’s easy to say that it’s worth giving up access to our throwing stars while on flights (not that we have to…) for the sake of preventing terrorist attacks, but what about forcing anyone who wants to bring a liquid on a plane to check his or her bags for the sake of making everyone feel better that a plot that’s already been stopped will continue not to happen? Or, to take it back a few years, what about disallowing people to bring nail clippers and bic lighters on planes (lighters aren’t even allowed in checked luggage!) for the sake of accomplishing… um, nothing really? Now look, I’m not arguing that it’s an incredible hardship for me to leave things at home and buy them at my destination. But the idea that my carrying a 1.5″ swiss army knife is in some way dangerous is ludicrous, and the people making decisions about what’s safe and what’s not are well aware of that. They don’t forbid utility blades because the tiny little knives are dangerous; they forbid them because it makes it look like they’re doing something. When a guy tried to use a shoe bomb they started making us take off our own shoes, and now that these guys (presumably) tried to use some kind of combustible liquid they’re going to stop letting us bring juice on to planes. (And what will they do the first time they run out of water and somebody passes out?)

Air travel carries a high risk of terrorism, I know, and surely some degree of security is necessary and desireable. But I am getting sick of living in a country that’s rapidly becoming a caricature of a police state. Constant blaring announcements urging us to be suspicious of fellow passengers and report any “suspicious behavior.” Concrete barriers in front of every building. Endless lines for ineffective metal detectors manned by indifferent agents who make less money than gas station attendants–at the airport, yes, but in every government building as well. Think of the time and money and personal attention “national security” costs us every day–both from the professionals who conduct it and from the millions of innocent people who are inconvenienced and not really protected by it.

This attitude–the idea that it’s more important to look like we’re addressing a problem than to actually address it–drives me crazy. Seeing these security measures everywhere doesn’t make me feel safer, it makes me feel irritated that I have to spend so much of every day going through the motions in order to mollify the general population. I’m sure they didn’t catch these guys in Britain because one of them was trying to sneak baby formula onto a plane–they caught him through the standard channels of surveillance and investigation that are both more effective and less obtrusive than these constant checkpoints and useless regulations. There are tons of things going on behind the scenes to which we in the public aren’t privy, and although those mostly-secret actions have their own issues at least they aren’t essentially public relation moves.

So, in summary, prepare to wait for half an hour for three ounces of water whenever you’re thirsty on a plane, because they successfully stopped a terrorist plot. If they manage to stop another one we’ll probably have to pass a blood test before being allowed to fly. Your tax dollars at work!

A couple links you might find enlightening:

• More ludicrous “security” measures at the US/Canadian border.
• Elphaba explained.