Everyone who went through the scanner was required to put their arms above their head like they were being “frisked” by police. This was done in full view of everyone else in line.
My world view states this is done for conditioning purposes, since millions of people can be conditioned quickly (those who travel). This is especially effective on children who are witnessing this. They will learn to be good “citizens” as they grow old and helpless.
We are being conditioned to submit to those who wear costumes.
I do not believe this does anything for security since the people being screened by the scanner are not dangerous.
My question: Is the airport security line the place for civil disobedience? Could a simple act, like making a face, sticking out your tongue while being scanned, in full view of everyone in line, help undermine this assault on liberty?
I think the answer is “no”. Nothing will stop the assault on liberty, until liberty is no more.
The officers at airport security are scum. They use their imaginary power to compensate for the pathetic lifes they lead. It’s like a live Malgrim experiment, and they are the lab rats.
I once had my parfum stolen by that scum, because it was more than 100ml (actually, it was a 200ml bottle less than half full, but whatever). I said “enjoy” and the idiot started calling in his higher ups who asked me to repeat what I said. I told them to show me the law that made saying “enjoy” illegal.
People next to me started convincing me to let go as I might get arrested. They are the other half of the Malgrim experiment.
What worries me most about that kind of people is that they on average have more children than independent thinkers.
I know I’ve enjoyed the scanners at places that deem then nessecary- KSC, Disney, etc- the backpack I use has a zipper pouch in the small of the back, with the foam cushining around it and no-one’s ever found it- its designed for a wallet, but could easily fit a mid-sized knife or equivelent.
@OP: I think you’re right but I also think they’re spinning their wheels. The awe and reverence for authority that characterized the generations of Europeans that were victimized by the World Wars of the 20th century is simply absent from today’s youth. Even while calmly submitting to the sombre rituals imposed upon us by the State, it’s as if they’re just going through the motions, aware that it’s all pretty much a big, over-hyped waste of time. I just think that, absent a religious awe for the State, these ad hoc “conditioning” measures are an exercise in futility.
To my original question, can we agree that “civil disobedience” as I called it is useless in the context of the airport security line?
Regarding young folks, I like your observation that many young people in the U.S. today do not hold government in “awe” and see through these gyrations called “security”. However, the game is not over. The next crisis can change the attitudes of young people, just as 9-11 did.
Think of young people in the U.S. who opposed intervention in Europe in 1941 (not many, granted, as I’m sure most were not thinking of such things given economic conditions). Dec. 7th changed all that. Nobody would dare oppose or risk being ostracized (a powerful force in society) after that.
My point is that you are correct about young poeople in the current environment or context. Context will change in the next crisis. I’m talking about the next BIG ONE. The '“crisis” that will do away with liberty once and for all. Young people will submit like they always have and always do.
These conditioning measures (airport scanners) are part and parcel of the next step, check points and travel restrictions. They will want “to see our papers”. No papers, no movement. No movement, no life since work today depends on travel everywhere.
People who participate in, for example, internet forums or political discussion disliked by the government will not be granted travel access. They could prevent people like Ron Paul or Peter Schiff from travelling. You bet they could since they would use the crisis to justify anything they do. The Supreme Court would uphold these actions in the name of security.
I think the world I describe is about three to five years away, given the intensity of the crises, the devastated economy, and the accelerating rate of change we have seen since 2000.
Of course. Civil disobedience is just stupid unless a whole lot of other people are being civilly disobedient alongside you … and even then, it can be bad for your health (Tiananmen Square). It’s the difference between smoking pot in Virginia or New York in 1985 versus smoking pot in San Francisco in 2010.
True, but I don’t think Pearl Harbor is what made the Second World War possible on the scale at which it occurred. There is an unmistakable similarity between the Christian God and absolute Western government… all-knowing, all-powerful and ever-present. While Christian belief is still widespread in the United States, it is of a decidedly less potent nature compared to, say, 1916 or even 1941. Faced with the problem of evil, most Americans would rather believe that God is less than omnipotent than believe that He is less than perfectly good and caring. And Europe, at least prior to the First World War, was much more deeply religious than America, even if less fundamentalist. The fangs of the Roman Catholic Church were - and still are - buried deep into European culture.
I think the track record of the imperialist elites is less than stellar. The First World War was supposed to prove the failure of national governments and usher in a global, taxing authority. It utterly failed to do so. The Second World War was exactly that… a second attempt at the same garbage. It was supposed to prove that the United Nations needed to be granted “teeth” because the League of Nations failed to prevent the Second World War because it was “all talk.” Then, when the UN also had no real teeth, they created Bretton Woods (and the IMF and World Bank) to try to do an end run around the political system and institute a de facto global currency - the dollar. In 1971, this system blew up and it has been in a controlled death spiral ever since, culminating in the present economic crisis. While I agree that the elites have been engineering crises to justify some bizarro-world attempt to usher in a global dictatorship, I think there’s a lot more headwind than the conspiracy theorists take into account and they’ve been a lot less successful than their idiotic plans set out to be.
*shrug
You already can’t move. Think how difficult it is to actually immigrate from one country to another. Any country worth living in requires that you have employment before you arrive or start a business that employs primarily people from that country. If you know where you want to go, you can marry someone there and that’s the quick route. But you only get one shot at that (unless you divorce and remarry each time you want to immigrate, ROFL).
Yes, I know, but a situation where the government can only control people out of fear is very suboptimal. In fact, the rest of the world (outside of the West) is well experienced in this state of affairs. The government is, naturally, something to be avoided whenever possible and nothing more than a big, lunch-money-grabbing bully.
I agree. Look at Y2K… the media started hyping it a few years before it rolled around and then 9/11 happened just 9 months afterward (remember, the new millenium began Jan 1st, 2001, even though the Y2K computer glitches were supposed to occur on the rollover from 1999 to 2000). Now, the media is hyping 2012… the History channel runs special after special on Aliens, Egypt and the Mayan calendar and how even Nostradamus (hahaha!) points to 2012 as possibly the end of the world. There is hardly any meme more powerfully implanted in the American public consciousness than Dispensational eschatology. Look at the immense popularity of LaHaye’s Left Behind series. While American Christians no longer have the reverential awe for an omnimax monotheistic deity that they once had, they have one hell of a belief in the Tribulation, and so on. Perhaps the elites plan to launch a theater of political events from 2012 until 2019 to simulate the seven year Tribulation. Why else have they been pushing Dispensationalism for so long?
That is true for now. I could be patted down like I’m under arrest, and have some TSA professional run his hand up my !*@!!. I am confident this will not be even an option after a short time.
I’ve concluded it is idiotic to put up some kind of one man civil disobedience show. Much better to be confident knowing that this whole thing is a sham and I’m not falling for it.
There is no law that says you need permission to travel to or be anywhere. That is why nothing is done against Mexicans that snuck across the border and are living in the U.S. The real conditioning is making you believe that they have power that they don’t.
I’ve been doing some flights over the past year for professional reasons and will do another within the month. I haven’t met with anything unreasonable yet. Actually, I’ve lost papers in the airport twice and the security found them for me.
There is this nice thing that happens with smallish countries that have gone (within memory) through a harsh communist regime: people get fed up with statist propaganda very quickly. I still have to know an Albanian who swallows the government justifications for doing things. If something like airport scanner where to be tried here, all you’d get would be people laughing at the officers, cracking a few jokes and ignoring the scanner altogether. Such a pity that the younger generation is coming out more hare-brained (more European, actually). Still, once you know small you never want to go back to a big country. I myself would not be able to live in some or stuff.
I am but one person so my contribution is negligible but I have stopped flying altogether. Sometimes I dream of a day when people will simply stay home instead of going through rules so ridiculous even those who came up with them didn’t actually expect to be accepted so passively. Then let government and airlines sort the mess they created between themselves. But it will never happen: believe it or not people actually think those borderline sadistic and surely ridiculous procedures (am I the only one to think “Mr Garrison and Mr Slave”?) are there for their “safety”. And even if they have they doubt they just think there’s nothing you can do about it: and that’s the greatest victory a State can achieve.
Because while civil disobedience at the airport may be counterproductive there are other ways. That time-honored tradition of writing to your local MP or Senator has died out “Dear Senator so-and-so. I have read you voted in favor of body scanners in the airports. This is just going to far: unless you do something to revert your decision you and your party can kiss my vote (and my family’s) goodbye. And please, don’t even try patronizing me. Thanks for your time”. It probably won’t work but it’s 100% legal and given the costs involved well worth a shot. If enough letters start arriving be sure that something will happen.
