Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau

I agree with most of what Matt Yglesias and Chad Orzel are saying in their latest posts on security.  Chad’s point about electronic devices is an especially important one:  It’s an idiotic rule that doesn’t actually have any point whatsoever, but because it’s In The Name Of Safety you can’t question it.  I have a reflexive hatred of dumb rules that don’t actually make anybody safe but do cause hassle, and I feel that it’s the rotten 99% of safety and security rules (at every level, from classrooms to Congress) that give the useful 1% a bad name.

However, I do grant that even the most idiotic rule might, in some particular case, at some point, in the midst of a movie plot, save some person on the margin.  Or might not.  But it might, and I can’t rule that out with 100% certainty.  If you value safety over freedom and sanity, if you crave the illusion of 100% security even at the cost of trillions of dollars, interminable hassle, and real people killed or locked in gulags, then the points made by Chad and Matt are irrelevant to you.  Sadly, too many people in our culture seem to feel that way.  Or at least they won’t question policies based on such presumptions.

I might add that I continue to think that much of the insanity of the past 9 years can be summed up by this quote from Tolkien:  “For though his might was the greatest of all things in this world, Morgoth alone among the Valar knew fear.”