In a satirical look at the future on one episode of the Simpsons, American citizens were whipped by giant robots reminiscent of the Sentinels in X-Men comics as they were herded past memorials to liberty such as the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument. While things are not yet quite that bad, they may be very well on the way in light of the so-called security measures being taken that don’t have so much to do with actually preventing acts of terrorism as conditioning the American people to pliantly do as they are told by those claiming to wield authority.
One Sunday each year, hearty perambulators are given the opportunity to walk the Chesapeake Bay Bridge connecting Maryland’s Western Shore with Kent Island in the middle of the famed estuary. In 2003, the event was cancelled over concerns of “homeland security”. This year, our overlords granted dispensation to hold the event; however, to be deemed worthy of the pilgrimage supplicants had to pass through a litany of new security precautions.
Frankly, these have little or nothing to do with actual preventive security, but rather are just another round of Pavlovian conditioning designed to manipulate the American people to the point where they will let those holding the reigns over them work them over while thanking them for doing so. Where will it all end; at the point where the government will no longer let you own your own home since it has been suspected that terrorists conceal themselves in these structures away from surveillance? After all, only those with something to hide would want to lock themselves behind the privacy of their own doors every evening.
Common sense reveals that if Bridge authorities were really concerned about security they’d have to do more than screen knapsacks and picnic coolers. One doesn’t have to sit on the National Security Council or be Tom Clancy to realize that a car or truck bomb would inflict more damage to the Bay Bridge than a single homicidal maniac on foot. Are they going to pull over every single vehicle for inspection at the height of the pending tourist season?
Better yet, if a diaperhead really wanted to blow up the Bay Bridge, wouldn’t he circumvent the watchful eye of police all together and launch a rocket from a secluded boat on the Bay rather than sneak on to the Bridge itself? But then again, the matter is not so much about actually saving lives but rather about stifling the individuality of the American people and furthering the grand dream of getting us all to think alike without question.
Government officials are free to appear as cowardly as they want to be erecting nonsensical barriers such as snow-fences and black trash-bags around buildings and installations throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area and around our most sacred sites located there that will do little to stop the fanatics bent on doing the nation appalling harm. Just don’t be surprised when the American people grow so disgusted they no longer see the point of visiting these structures embodying the values and ingenuity once valued by this great nation land if they have to be made to feel like slaves to do so.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”