Fear Itself

Yes, we all know the Transportation Security Administration has upped the creepy quota recently. Yes, the remarkably unused color-coded security alert system has been finally cancelled, after hovering at a fatally uninteresting level of “Orange” since time immemorial. And yes, security measures are now being increased on the Washington Monument to near-airport levels.

My question is: why?

Why bother riling up all the same internet and journalistic malcontents who have been calling “Big Brother” since September 12th? Why bother giving new life to the specter of terrorism at a time when everybody is just worried about the economy and finds the whole War on Terror to just be too damn far away?

Security technologist Bruce Schneier has gone as far as to argue that we should just close off the Washington Monument to remind us of the costs of our fears, and I’m fairly inclined to agree. What type of attack is it that we’re preventing with these new measures that isn’t protected by old methods or simply unreasonable? Is there really some looming, existential threat of underwear bombers just over the horizon? (Granted, if there was, that would be an entirely different discussion.)

It seems to me that nobody is the right kind of afraid for this crap anymore. Everyone just wants their money to be safe. And while I’d argue that economic fears supplanting fears of life and limb is a sign of a good political situation, attempts to push back toward that kind of fear without any sort of severe instigating trauma is just dumb. I’m tempted to think that it’s actually an ACLU conspiracy to get people so fed up with government intrusions to privacy that they rebel and enter a new era of libertarianism.

My verdict? The Glass Is Half Empty. Either our government is overreacting to perceived threats at the cost of money, convenience, and liberty, or even worse, they could be absolutely right, reacting to a looming threat the public just doesn’t know about yet.

In either case, we’re the losers.