Midnight tonight I get on an AirTran redeye toward Raleigh.
I was going to write an essay about this, and my apprehensions about another airport security checkpoint Scylla and Charybdis, and what I’m going to wear (Spandex) and how I’m going to act (normal) and how I resent that in addition to packing, cabbing and boarding passing I have to think about what to tell a stranger who announces she is federally mandated to touch my girl zone. But instead I took a 4-mile run and ate a quesadilla and found you this link:
Security is both a feeling and a reality. The propensity for security theater comes from the interplay between the public and its leaders.
When people are scared, they need something done that will make them feel safe, even if it doesn’t truly make them safer. Politicians naturally want to do something in response to crisis, even if that something doesn’t make any sense.
Is Aviation Security Mostly for Show? – Bruce Schneier
The whole essay is good and smart and mellow and worth a read. Multiple smart people have directed me toward Schneier’s blog for years. It is also good.
So there it be.
