Yes, Danger Lurks

Trey Smith

Among other things, this kind of crime highlights the absurdity of “security theater” – the almost wholly symbolic rigmarole to which Americans subject ourselves in a few symbolic places, such as airports, government buildings and the like. Anybody in this country who wants to kill a lot of people in a crowded public space can do so fairly easily. The fact this almost never happens – and that when it does happen the act almost never has a political motive – indicates how wildly overstated the threat of terrorism is in America today.

If we faced any kind of real terrorist threat, incidents like the Aurora shooting (except with a political motive) would happen all the time, since, again, there’s nothing that can be done to stop them. That they don’t illustrates the extent to which “terrorism” is a politically useful bogeyman, deployed by the national security state for reasons that have almost nothing to with actual considerations of public safety and everything to do with cultivating a sufficiently fearful and docile populace.
~ from Aurora: We Shouldn't Be Surprised by Paul Campos ~

I had thought about covering this aspect in my last post, but decided to make it a separate one. I just want to point out that the danger of mass killings -- if someone is bound and determined to commit such acts -- is hard to stop. We can't protect every inch of the commons and so, whatever is left exposed, is where the attacks will come.

Think about the issue of suicide. If someone is bound and determined to end their own life, eventually they will succeed. No matter how closely you watch them or what steps you take, there almost always are brief snatches of time when they are left to their own devices. Turn your back for just a moment and the deed is done.

While I am not arguing that we should do absolutely nothing to protect the commons, I agree with Campos that most current efforts have little to do with public safety and much more to do with trying to keep the public fearful and on edge. A scared public is a more easily controlled public.

Frighten people enough and they are more than willing to hand over almost all of their freedom for the false veil of security.