If you peruse the reader comments of the newspapers or, heck, even the comments on this-a-here internet world wide web blog, you will find sentiments reflecting the following line:
I don't really want to fuck with the actual TSA workers themselves. I'm guessing that most of them took their jobs because it paid more than Blockbuster.It is worthwhile to note that your sympathies are being deliberately manipulated here and that this is one of the ways that the exercise of power becomes self-concealing and self-effacing; it is worthwhile to compare this to the experience of talking to a call center employee when trying to address or fight against some unfair exercise of corporate power. In either (and any similar) case, the actual exercise of power at the point of human interaction is assigned to a person least able to do anything about its unfairness. The call center employee cannot reset your just jacked-up APR rate. The TSA slug cannot change the policies of the surveillance state; cannot exempt you from a search; is just doing his job, which, like Paul Alexander says, he only took because it paid marginally more than some other job.
-Paul Alexander
I have no particular solution to offer. My sympathies also lie with the low-wage employee, even if he is enacting the prison planet all over my ass, and not in a good way. And previous posts aside, I do pause before making his life miserable, just as I try to refrain from anything harsher than a mild, "Please transfer me to your supervisor," when talking to some corporate help desk, just as I always bring a book and suck up my impatience at the DMV. It is important to recognize that the loci of oppression and authority are alienated from the point of enaction. Most TSA employees do not actually want to touch your cock and balls or pat your vagina or grope your breasts, and yet most of them want even less to be fired.
It's sobering to consider how easily those of us on both sides of the strip search are coopted by the mechanisms of our own oppression.
42 comments:
Obviously the solution is to outlaw delegation of controversial procedures. Janet Napolitano herself must cup your balls. George Bush must personally waterboard Khalid Shaykh Mohammed. Dick Cheney must set his own dog Fluffy on naked Iraqis. Barack Obama must strap a Hellfire Missile to his back and deliver it to Helmand province by parachute, then bail out at the last minute in the neighboring village's goat-pen. Policy would be different!
...or just do what it takes to provide food and shelter to those who have these "loci of oppression"* jobs, so that the only people who take them are the sadists and sociopaths who get what the deserve.
As for financing, Robin Hood (not the Ridley Scott sop) comes to mind...
* - great description
Ball groping is going to be a growth industry in this country
I like how you just summed up in one brief post what I've been trying to write about in like twenty lengthy ones in the past few months. So, thanks, asshole.
This is a seriously great post, for real though.
The TSA has just announced Operation Feel Good, whereby passengers may now choose the sex, sexual orientation, and physical appearance of the screener, rather than leaving it up for grabs.
Most TSA employees do not actually want to touch your cock and balls or pat your vagina or grope your breasts, and yet most of them want even less to be fired.
timeservers. if i read Jack Crow's excellent post correctly.
how much should i tip my screener if i expect a 'happy ending'?
even if he is enacting the prison planet all over my ass, and not in a good way.
That made my day.
Help! Help! I'm being oppressed.
I have no particular solution to offer.
What happened to the guy who fearlessly told us to drive slow in the left lane, that the only solution was dissolution? You've changed, man. It's like I don't even know you anymore.
Help! Help! I'm being oppressed.
Not quite. More like humiliated and degraded. But dignity is overrated in my book.
I am reminded of Milgram's experiment and the more recent ones separating students into prisoners and guards.
I understand that this is an expansion of the prison planet and all, but I don't see how getting your junk touched is in anyway comparable to getting put in handcuffs, shoved in the back of a squad car and dumped into a jail cell under the presumption of innocence for arguing with a cop about a ticket or some similar situation. Are we supposed to cause a ruckus the next time we're unduly treated by a cop? Should we deliberately bring this upon ourselves so we can then sue them and in the process hopefully stop the machinery of oppression? I'm probably missing something major here, I usually do, but we're talking about a minor inconvenience and some minor anxiety about someone touching or looking at our special place. It seems that the issue is that it's happening to people like us and more people than usual. I also think that more people have the nuts fuck with a lowly, mostly powerless TSA employee than they would a cop.
Please, someone set me straight! Thanks.
I don't see how getting put in handcuffs and hauled off to a jail cell is in any way comparable to being imprisoned in a for-profit rape factory, but then again, I don't see how being imprisoned in a for-profit rape factory is in any way comparable to having your country invaded and occupied by a 21st-century Western superpower, but then again, I don't see how having your country invaded and occupied by a 21st-century Western superpower is in any way comparable to the Third Reich.
I don't see how anything is in any way comparable to anything. Discretion is the better part of valor. Whadarewegonnadooo?
Your answer makes sense, but I guess it still leaves me wondering why this situation is considered a big deal then. And I wonder what good it would really do to try what people are suggesting other than to possibly make travel more enjoyable for those who take planes, but I guess that's an admirable goal in itself. I guess I'm willing to get my balls fondled in the name of job creation.
"I guess I'm willing to get my balls fondled in the name of job creation."
Ah, a worthy rationale. Won't anyone think of the children and create jobs at schools and libraries?
I sure do guess a lot.
Life'd be a lot easier if everybody agreed to let more people hustle their balls.
"Why is making a police-style frisking or submitting to a body scan via x-ray a routine matter to get on an airplane an expansion of the prison state?" is a question that I think answers itself.
First you had to take off your shoes. Now you get frisked. Random cavity searches next. We are on the slope and slipping.
which cavity? do we have to guess? I want to be prepared.
I just want to get on a plane, man. Do they frisk and scan at the Acela also? Why is it just airports?
Does anyone know if I'd get in trouble if I moaned during my pat down? I know I can't say 'don't touch my junk...' but what if I seemed to REALLY enjoy it?
First you had to take off your shoes...
Foucault golf-claps in his grave.
It's getting so a man has to get frisked and pass through a security checkpoint just to get out of bed.
'...the mechanisms of our own oppression.' life's a bitch.
It's telling it's interference with our Right to Fly that gets people excited, makes 'em activists. Not, say, imperial mass slaughter.
Flying a is a bourgeois decadence and bad for the environment; perhaps we should welcome anything that discourages this form of travel.
It's telling that Peter Ward has time to comment on a blog when people are being slaughtered by the Empire right now. Come on, man, really, are you fifteen? Yes, it's troo, we don't care about strangers as much as we care about ourselves and our loved ones, especially if we don't have to actually see those strangers. Oh heavens, teh hypocrisee! Moving right along.
Human beings are bad for the environment. Since Mama Nature, that crazy bitch, is going to kill us all eventually anyway, we might as well live it up while she's got her back turned.
Good point, Peter. But then we're not on the receiving end of "imperial mass slaughter," so that's probably why. And besides, what are we gonna do to end the wars, elect Democrats?
"I don't see how anything is in any way comparable to anything."
The question is why this gets you so bent out of shape. You now admit that actually doing anything about it is (SURPRISE!) way more of a hassle and a bit of a double edged sword itself. So why freak out about frisking? Why cave to your initial impulse to fuck the stranger in the ass back (Though I admit it's nice to see you realize you perhaps jumped the gun)?
Seriously, man, once again: Who's the fucking nihilist here? Just do a jay. Listen to Mozart. Go bowling or something. Tell us again about how you have been personally handed a list of 457 unnecessary street lights that have infiltrated the civil engineering of Colorado Springs. Whatever.
Fuck, you haven't been pressuring us to resist the military and they're taking over countries, as you say. Why does fucking grainy images of your balls make you stop and consider where the line in the sand actually is? If murder isn't enough to make you get ornery with the MPs, then ball frisks seem right out! Sorry for all those comparisons. Oh, but look at me, rambling again.
Anyone got anymore of the good Sarsparilla?
@510 Anon
Define "bad".
How is life going to colonize the Universe, if not by catching a ride in our large intestine?
Capt'n Obvious
I find it mildly amusing how Mr. IOZ addresses certain manifestations of the overreaching state with nuance and reserve and other times with belligerence (more like a youthful “I’ll take my ball and go” disposition). Is this just arbitrary or an utilitarian lack of principle?
Somewhat surprised at the regularity with which douchebags come to this forum insisting, demanding Monsieur abides by THEIR douchy rulebook.
Capt'n Obvious
Now bark like a dog.
All I know is that the present system with all its warts remains immeasurably preferable to profiling.
What?
Is IOZ suggesting we all practice a little knob-less oblige?
What would be the fun in that?
I think IOZ is suggesting that we treat people with courtesy as long as we're not living in an ideal, coercion-free society. This goes against the grain of much of what passes for anarchism, of course, which too often seems to consist of spoiled white kids' insistence on their "right" to be free and act like two-year-olds for the rest of their lives. But I guess I could be wrong about all that.
I almost passed your website up in Google but now I’m glad I stopped by and got to read through it. I’m definitely more informed now. I’ll be recommending your site to some friends of mine. They’ll get a kick out of what I just read too.
Thanks a lot for the article. I really love to read such articles for you share different body of knowledge that people should know. I admire writers like you on providing great post that you dedicate your time in doing so. Thanks again and keep up the great work!
@inkbarrow
one note fucking song, inky.
Anon @ 12:41---
I do concede a narrow focus on that discrete class of subjects who recent events indicate are actually likely to be engaged in airline terrorism. True, that middle-aged white guy COULD have been carrying nitro in his colostomy bag.....
Its an informative topic.I am appreciating it very much! Looking forward to another great blog.There’s defiantly a lot of great tips here I’m going to try to be more aware of.I am very enjoyed for this blog.
These are truly a great article where you can share with us. Sometimes it can be, depending on the similarities between their thinking and this information is really great to share with us. What do they expect others to see other people in the same situation.
Good article you post! It enlarge my knowlege on the point!Thank You for the post. I love to read interesting post that has knowledge to impart. I hope to read more articles from you and in return I will post also my articles in the forum so that others can benefit from it.
Post a Comment