Taming Chaos

I have been screened by the Full Body Scan that is now glorified as the solution that should have been used to prevent the recent terrorist attack. It was in March 2009 when I travelled on an EasyJet flight from Schiphol to Gatwick. Like always I had to pull off my coat, my belt, my shoes, take my money cards and cellphone out of my pockets and leave all that for separate X-ray check along with my hand luggage. (Oh and don’t forget, pull out my laptop to show it separately). I had to receive extensive instructions about my position in the body scan, kind of surrender attitude, stand still with my arms above my head. When I cam out a guard came to me and pointed to my shirt: “What’s in there?” Well, that was my passport and boarding pass without which I wouldn’t have been admitted here in the first place. Then she pointed to my trousers: “And that?” OK, that was my handkerchief, you wanna try it? It was OK, I was left behind in that always helpless position of collecting all my stuff again, taking care nothing has been lost and trying to catch my plane.

So, technically spoken, I am impressed. If they absolutely accurately can spot my passport and handkerchief they surely would have found the tiniest amount of explosives on my body. The technology is working and it is operational on the very same airport where Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab started his insane journey to Detroit. Only too bad NorthWest is departing from a different pier than EasyJet.

Before the security check the waiting line was long, I had to wait some twenty minutes. Dozens of people were concentrated on a small area. It would have been the ideal soft target for an attack. I mean, look at the list of terrorist incidents how people get killed, it is when bombs and explosive vests detonate in crowded areas on the ground. One day Al Quaida might discover all western governments really go nuts when they try something like that. So a second security check would be needed to protect the waiting line for the first one. And a third one, and…. Really that is the kind of madness we are going into.

I am afraid.

I’m not afraid that some 23 year old kid, acting foolish in his search for identity, might kill me. Sure 23 year old kids can be dangerous and there is a risk tomorrow one of them might cross my path and in a completely unexpected scenario might injure or kill me. That’s life, even when the chance is very small, ugly and unexpected things do happen. I am afraid of a public opinion that is completely loosing its sense of reality and in doing so causes damage that, by far, exceeds the original problem.

I called my weblog “Taming Chaos”, there is a reason for that. I believe it is a wise thing to search for a right balance between order and chaos. You don’t want too much chaos, that’s the reason for taming it, do try to understand the world around you and give it some structuring. But don’t try to eliminate chaos altogether. Trying to eliminate chaos is dangerous, it is the best recipe to create a Real Big Big Mess.

Tags: airline, chaos, security
This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 23:41 and is filed under Article. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.