More Security Check... Think about it

then again humans are the only ones with concepts of rape, murder, torture... And the desire to police them. Ants have wars in my garden, and it's really small. The small black ants don't get along with the red ones, who don't get along with the big flying ones. And the spiders are becoming obese from over-consuming midges.... just because we don't hear them complain about it, it doesn't mean they experience peace, harmony and security. Quite to the contrary. Nature is violent and merciless... From atoms to microbes to mammals to galaxies... For all we know our universe is expending because it's "eating" another one...

Acceptance, allowance...
Mistrust in being... Faith in ourselves...
The more control on will, the less control.
Creating a state of boredom... Like we have nothing better to do than control others, before controlling ourselves...
Where is the love? When we compound the fear, Like Master Orion states...
Consciously or not
Intended or not
Fear appears to be a great motivator... Especially for the ones instituting it....

The world is chaotic, accept that then act as a beacon of self control and it will spread to those receptive enough, but always be alert for the unseen chaos....


One of my many jobs(co-lateral duties) in the military was counter terrorism/ counter espionage....I still apply much of the training to my daily life...

RyuJin wrote: The world is chaotic, accept that then act as a beacon of self control and it will spread to those receptive enough, but always be alert for the unseen chaos....


One of my many jobs(co-lateral duties) in the military was counter terrorism/ counter espionage....I still apply much of the training to my daily life...

What was your job?
or would you have to kill me? :S

Renny wrote:

RyuJin wrote: The world is chaotic, accept that then act as a beacon of self control and it will spread to those receptive enough, but always be alert for the unseen chaos....


One of my many jobs(co-lateral duties) in the military was counter terrorism/ counter espionage....I still apply much of the training to my daily life...

What was your job?
or would you have to kill me? :S

Lol, my rate(primary job) was supply but we also get assigned extra jobs called co-lateral duties, some of mine were courier(transporting top secret documents/items), specops (base security's swat) computer security officer, fitness coordinator(sort of a dietician/personal trainer)....I had enough of them that I basically had a different job to do every day

Here is another piece I find most apt to this topic.

It was the philosopher Thomas Hobbes who described the life of 'native man' as being 'nasty, brutish and short' and while that couldn't be applied equally everywhere, certainly life was far more dangerous and unpredictable.

Consider that in the last 300 years every indicator of human well-being has improved more than over the last several thousand years. We take for granted things such as human rights and a fair trial.

Consider that for the last 99% of human history the fear/flight response was useful for survival, I think we can forgive ourselves if nowadays it results not in going with tribal warbands to plunder and rape the village in the next valley, but rather resulting in slightly longer airport security checks for select groups of people.

You (the non-specific 'you') can cry discrimination and today people will listen, yesterday you might have been burned at the stake.

You see how the fear/flight rseponse you are protesting - which makes people discriminate against others - is the same fear/flight response you are slave to now, because you are focusing on the idea of discrimination (as opposed to the greatly beneficial and socially reforming idea of equality).

One of my favorite lines is from the movie, "Kingdom of Heaven."

“I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination recall the will of God. I've seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What God desires is here [point at head] and here [point at heart] and what you decide to do every day will make you a good man...or not.”
― Hospitaller

I just don't go to aeroports any more ... And when I have to, I don't really care how long it takes to get through security. Generally, I don't even want to be going wherever I'm going so, if I were to miss the damned aeroplane because Mehmet ahead of me was getting strip-searched that's quite aright.

Then again, my out-look on things like that is a little weird.

It seems you were missing the point I was trying to make about the fight/flight response, M. And Hobbes really isn't a good reference for us here (that was in Leviathan, wasn't it ?). Anyway ...

We don't even have to consider the past 300 years, simply the past century would suffice. Despite our screwed-up economies, we have still seen the human life-expectancy more than double and, according to Stephen Pinker (who a few years ago made a very well documented presentation about it to the RSA - the vidéo should be in the 'corner of the Library' thread, I think ...) we are living in the most pacific era of any in human history.

Yet, that 'fight/flight' response is more permanently engaged now than it was even when the tribal warlords were sharpening their spears just over the next hill from our villages. If the barbarians were raping and pillaging and burning down the village - we would be stressed out. Otherwise we would be just engaged in one of the four *f*s and going about Life as usual. Nowadays we have the media showing us all the insane crap that is going on 10000 miles from us, and it is to our minds just as if it were going on one street away ...

Even in our secure and comfortable times now, we are doped up on our own cortisol about all the time because we have to sustain that comfort : stress at work, stress about the things we have to get done when not at work, getting the most out of our leisure time [what ? :huh: ], staying reasonably healthy cheaply and quickly, making our lives easier, paying bills, traffic, managing our demanding social lives and just keeping up with all of the other things we make ourselves 'have to do' -- it has been said that we have less leisure time now than at any time since the feudal era. Now, on top of all that, the old "s/he doesn't look like me so s/he's a threat" scam still works just fine on us, compounded by the post-modern media (it is in the palm of everyone's hand now), therefore with all those other quasi-constant things to worry about, we top it all off with the threat of terrorism around every street-corner ... our improved indicators are proving to be one hell of a recipe for bliss.

At the same time, we need to be feeling more secure in ourselves -- not multiplying the number of security measures. As was said before :

... more security measures (and badly, fearfully employed ones at that) will only result in less security for everyone.