Upon the recent announcement by the British government that full body scanners are to be introduced at UK airports, I find myself facing something of a conundrum. When trials of these scanners recently commenced at selected American airports and their across-the-board introduction was mooted, I was adamant that such humiliation and intrusion into privacy was a bridge too far. I decided that I simply had to draw a line in the sand and refuse to submit any further to the gathering Big Brother state. In the wake of yet another botched, half-baked and highly suspicious ‘terrorist attack’, I’m now facing this day of reckoning sooner than I might have expected.
The question, then, is do I simply go along to get along as I have thus far with each new outrageous intrusion inflicted upon us in the name of fighting the so-called ‘war on terrorism’? After all, I made myself a promise: I will not be marched like a criminal or prisoner through one of those machines. I don’t do much flying these days, but when I do fly, I appreciate the time it saves over alternative methods of travel. However, in an attempt to figure out how I can keep my promise to myself, today I began to revisit some ways of getting around that I used to employ. The train, for example, and cross channel ferries. No one knows what future security measures may be implemented in railway stations and shipping terminals, but for now, they’re being spared the close scrutiny and draconian police state regimes which are rapidly turning catching a plane into one of life’s most unpleasant experiences.
The bigger question, however, is when we are going to stop giving in to all this. What will it take for us, collectively, to say enough is enough? I would imagine that all of you would draw the line at compulsory cavity searches on all flights? You’d like to think so, wouldn’t you? Based on the evidence so far, though, that’s not quite a foregone conclusion. When the next ‘terrorist’ bogeyman sets fire to his genitals or shoes or hat or whatever it may be, will we yet again go along to get along with the ramping up of harassment and humiliation in the name of ‘safety’? (Continues below)
As a cautionary thought, consider how far we’ve already come. For those of you who still see reasonable limits on Big Brother’s control over our lives and on the burgeoning police state, you need only look at history. I grew up in the 1980s, a decade – like all others – which witnessed its fair share of tyranny. And yet if you’d suggested to me back then that we would one day line up like cattle to be searched and questioned, to be ordered around and treated like dirt, to be prevented from carrying even a bottle of water, and all in the name of ‘safety’ and just to catch a bloody airplane? I’d have said ‘No way! People will never, ever go along with that.’ And yet here we are.
Personally, I believe that the ‘threat’ posed by terrorism is relatively remote at best and at worst, often manipulated into being to further an agenda of societal control. But whatever you believe, massive, invasive and dehumanizing ill-treatment of human beings by other human beings has no place in our common future. Whether you believe that Al-Qaeda is entirely as presented to us by the mainstream media or instead a deadly fiction concocted by shadowy secret service groups is in some respects neither here nor there. Unless we address the cause of this disease of violence and cease merely reacting to its symptoms, the path down which we are currently headed will grow much, much darker.
The good news is that we hold incredible power in our own hands if we will only choose to use it. This means saying ‘enough is enough’. It means drawing a line in the sand. It means saying ‘no’. Up to this point, we’ve not been good at doing that. Most of us have said nothing at all. Most of us have gone along to get along. We need to ask ourselves when that’s going to stop.
