War on the Unexpected -- Schneier's dynamite essay on the War on Terror
We need to do two things. The first is to stop urging people to report their fears. People have always come forward to tell the police when they see something genuinely suspicious, and should continue to do so. But encouraging people to raise an alarm every time they're spooked only squanders our security resources and makes no one safer.Link (Thanks, Bruce!)We don't want people to never report anything. A store clerk's tip led to the unraveling of a plot to attack Fort Dix last May, and in March an alert Southern California woman foiled a kidnapping by calling the police about a suspicious man carting around a person-sized crate. But these incidents only reinforce the need to realistically asses, not automatically escalate, citizen tips. In criminal matters, law enforcement is experienced in separating legitimate tips from unsubstantiated fears, and allocating resources accordingly; we should expect no less from them when it comes to terrorism.
Equally important, politicians need to stop praising and promoting the officers who get it wrong. And everyone needs to stop castigating, and prosecuting, the victims just because they embarrassed the police by their innocence.
Causing a city-wide panic over blinking signs, a guy with a pellet gun, or stray backpacks, is not evidence of doing a good job: it's evidence of squandering police resources. Even worse, it causes its own form of terror, and encourages people to be even more alarmist in the future. We need to spend our resources on things that actually make us safer, not on chasing down and trumpeting every paranoid threat anyone can come up with.
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The problems aren't confined to the context of terrorism, even if that's currently the most conspicuous manifestation. You see similar patterns in everything from school security to corporate employee relations.
Part of the problem is a flight from individual discretion. Fears of liability if something should go wrong make both individuals and institutions retreat into rote procedure. But I'm not sure how one combats that without eroding accountability.
I agree with Umbriel on this. We're in the midst of a period where our culture has ceded community in favor of fear and hysteria.
Parents take their kids to the mall to trick or treat eschewing neighbors (I have a bowl full of candy to prove that). Local news broadcasts are constantly telling us that we have to stay up until 11 to find out that something is going to harm us or our children.
I just keep hoping that at some point our culture decides collectively that "living afraid" isn't really living at all. I'm not holding my breath (because that would be dangerous).
Grumble grumble...suburbia...grumble grumble.
-end rant
I was involved, for several years, with an online database of school architecture. The intent of the site was to document best practices. Architects uploaded data about the schools they designed, along with floor plans and exterior photos.
In recent years, a number of schools requested that the floor plans be removed, citing security concerns.
KJ
There's a funny typo in there :)
This article is a clear call for homeland security to investigate the author. Not only that, it has probably already happened. It's like when Colbert makes reference to a nonexistent website, and within minutes, it actually exists, at least in some small way. Thanks to 9/11 we all live under a microscope, and the tiniest variation from "the norm" is seen as threatening. I say that on 9/11 we as a nation, collectively wet ourselves, and most of the country continues to wet themselves, which only serves to distract them from taking any real, constructive action. For christ's sake, we have made people afraid of WATER!
Just for illustration:
Yesterday's morning news included a breathless report on an "attempted kidnapping" of a 16 year old girl. A man in a car asked the girl to get in, she refused and he drove off.
Terrifying.
Preaching to the converted. Where is all the fear-mongering coming from? I sure as hell don't spend my day worrying about all this stuff. Why?
Post-9/11 alarmism = Network TV
TV has never been more powerful. I don't watch it. I don't give the police state a soapbox to worship. People need to start recognizing that post-9/11 alarmist social attitude has more to do with propaganda than 9/11 actually scaring everybody. The majority of people refuse to take Propaganda seriously.
Refers to #6
Ha I love that, That's not an attempted Kidnapping, That's an attempted Hook-up.
Don
The majority of people refuse to take Propaganda seriously.
Because in most people's minds, propaganda is what other, bad countries do to misinform. Ours is News, which is real, verifiable and trustworthy. Katie Curic says it, so it must be true or else she wouldn't be on the nightly news, would she? She'd get booted off like that nogoodnik, Dan Rather.
wil9000: Bruce Schneier is a know cryptography and security expert, creator of the term "security theater" and vocal critic of "security throught obscurity". He recently interviewed the head of TSA and asked some hard questions. Yes, the homeland security guys almost surely keeps their eyes on Schneier since much long ago.
BTW, Schneier rocks: http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/
The war on terror should end about 25 years after we win the war on drugs, based on when each "war" was begun.
In the meantime, there's still time for our kids to get their Homeland Security degrees so they can cash in on some of the irrational spending.
Or in short: the "War on Terrorism" seems to increase terror.
You know, as a science nerd, I'm beginning to hope they finally formally declare the government "War on Science" that we keep seeing signs of. If they would just come out and openly declare it, we'd have fusion-in-a-can, cancer cures, and faster-than-light space travel in a decade or two, if the other formal "War on X" projects are any indication...
Governemtns are powerful. Governments get what they want. If a Government is currently embroiled in a 5 year old (and counting) war with Iraq and Afghanistan, you can be assured that this is the DESIRED STATE OF AFFAIRS.
This permanent state of fear is also the government's desired state. They have done everything in their power to make sure people are scared everywhere they go. People are more malleable that way.
How else do you think they're going to attain war with Iran or complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine if people are capable of rational thought?