I totally sympathize with all the outrage about security scanners. For years now, we've been trading dignity for the appearance of security. Fear this! Fear that! Terrorists are coming! The right has used it over and over again. But...hey, I've got some questions for you.
Why do we get upset about affronts to our daily dignity, but not to the very lives of people in far away places? Wow, people are upset about (the real but miniscule) risk of radiation. Nobody wants to be groped by a TSA agent. But in the name of that same security, this country started two wars and has caused the deaths of somewhere between 100,000 and a million civilians. They're dead! You're embarassed. Maybe its because I'm a little autistic, but I just don't get it. Do you really think the one is worth pixels and diary time, but the other isn't, much?
What is the difference between security and control? When I was much younger, I went to stay in the middle east for awhile (its a long story). I was young and dumb and bought my ticket cash. The nice Israeli El Al security folks went through my underwear with a fine toothed comb, and yep, they touched my junk. Oddly, not once in the entire experience did I feel cheapened, degraded, or abused. And they got me on the plane! I'm pretty sure I had the seat ahead of the air marshal with the half loads, but they went out of their way -- after vetting me -- to make sure I made the plane. Now, when I go to an airport, I know that if I look wrong, or too nervous, someone will pull me aside and make sure I stay in a little room until the plane is gone. The people I love won't get to see me. I might even be out the cost of a ticket. What is the nature of security -- making sure there are no bombs on the plane -- versus control -- making sure that the people on the plane are the "right" kind of people, and nobody in security ever has to say "yes, this person is clear"? What does it say about the the society making those judgements? The nature of the threats? Their reality?
How, as liberal activists, do we take advantage of tipping points in public perception? Sometimes it is the small things that make a difference. I mean, some awful crap went down for a couple of centuries before Rosa Parks didn't go to the back of the bus. Charter 77 was about, y'know, letting a rock band perform. Sometimes the trivial is what brings about popular reaction to the profound, the last damn straw. Is TSA screening the last damn straw? If it is, is it a sensible one? And how does that relate to the question above -- physical, proved it on a scanner security versus you look wrong security?
And finally -- can you run two wars and consume a fifth of the world's resources for a tiny fraction of its population, and expect people to not, y'know, want to blow you up? Can you lock up the highest number of people anywhere, so that 80 percent of black men in Chicago are branded felons (or so I hear on the local public radio station) and not expect those same procedures and views of human nature and civil rights to eventually apply to you? Where is the line between arguing for personal dignity and advocating for priviledge, the right not to be irritated? Which one is this?
I'm not saying the outrage is wrong. But it just seems...strange.