Full Body Scanner Reveals American National Character

Forgive the whipsaw, but I'm right back to annoyed and this time it is by the if-you-touch-my-junk protester who has become the American air traveler's new spokesmodel. I've written twice about the uproar over airport security and advanced imaging technology. First I criticized the ExpressJet pilot who refused to submit to the full body scan at at Memphis International Airport, then I semi-apologized a week or so later when it appeared that his not-gonna-take-it-anymore approach had the effect of prompting his fellow pilots to take a more unified and responsible position. They've written the chief of Homeland Security to review 21st century airport security. 

Negroni predicts the full-body scanners now in use at 65 airports around the country that allow TSA workers to detect what's underneath travelers' clothes are on their way out. And their rapid rise and fall present a high resolution picture of an American character flaw. Forget the fuzzy genitalia, what the full body scan is revealing is Americans as a bunch of cry-babies.

Here in America, one of the richest and most technologically advanced countries in the world, where education is free and speech protected, where the rule of law more or less acts as a balancing force between the haves and the have-nots, why oh why do we bitch-and-moan about everything? 

Nowhere is this more clear than in aviation. Last month, I was on AirTran's last flight of the evening from Atlanta to New York, when the crew detected a smell in the cabin it could not locate or identify. The airline made the decision to return to the gate, put the eighty-some passengers up in a hotel and fly us out in the morning. Hey, that's not good news for anyone. It meant I would miss my church's annual Scottish Sunday service complete with bagpipes, but as they say, things happen. 

Ahead of me in the line for the hotel vouchers was a woman who told me she would spend the night with a friend in town, but she was getting the voucher "because I'm entitled." Well yes, she was. Entitled. That's the name of this particular American trait that's got me grumpy. 

Last March when a Virgin America flight from Los Angeles to New York was diverted to Hartford's Bradley International due to weather, passengers were stuck on airplane on the ground for four hours before being bussed to New York. I heard about it on the radio the next morning when outraged passengers were threatening to file lawsuits. ABC News described the ordeal as "hellish". The story goes on to say that passengers went for more than two hours without food or water. Hellish? Nine years of war in Afghanistan, cholera in Haiti, human rights abuses in Myanmar and China and this diversion is news? Only in a country where going two hours without food is considered "hellish". 

The passenger bill of rights crowd and their pandering supporters in congress feed on this feeling of entitlement, the sense that nothing can go wrong and our every move has to be as comfortable and connected as if we were sitting in our pajamas in cozy living rooms even while we move in this incredibly complex system called commercial aviation.  

The notion that every step along the way will proceed without interruption or inconvenience is not happening and its unrealistic to expect that it will. Airlines, politicians, and air travelers are equally responsible for creating and buying into the fiction. The rants of some of my fellow bloggers have reached a fever pitch. One commenter likened airport security in America to "jack booted fascism". Say what? 

Up against hyperbole like this, what can the TSA chief John Pistole say? His entirely reasonable comment, "Security is a shared responsibility" has not registered.  No surprise there, how can anything be heard over the din of American boo-hooing.

Now we are in the throes of the latest passenger revolt, hysteria over the full body scanner and a call to boycott the procedure as we enter the busiest holiday week of the year. The worries range from radiation exposure and lack of privacy, to the discomfort of the alternative; receiving a full body pat down by a TSA officer.

The inconveniences associated with flying post 9-11 aren't designed just to piss travelers off. The pilots who make a flight diversion, the airline that decides to deal immediately with that unusual smell in the cabin, the security process that checks to see what passengers may be packing on their person, these decisions have history. And I guarantee you, let anyone in aviation fail to do their job correctly resulting in a terrorist act or air disaster and there will be plenty of tears and wailing too.

I could enter the fray again and say in all caps, SUCK IT UP FELLOW AMERICANS. Or I could tune out the whining. I'm the mother of four, trust me, I've tuned out plenty. But there's a greater harm in letting the frenzy continue unabated. Richard Bloom, an aviation security expert and a professor at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona explained it to me when I was visiting the campus last month. 

"Maybe something has happened to American national character," he suggested. "Too many people expect a risk-free life. If they don't have one, even if there is an unsuccessful terrorist attack for example, its really successful because people get bent out of shape. They want to fire their politicians and blame people." 

I've had a number of conversations about security with Richard and I'm usually impressed by the precision with which he sees the issues. I agree with him when he says that the X-ray belts and shoe removals, even the full body scanner must be the smallest part; the last-step in a long process that is much more focused and reliant on gathering intelligence, analyzing global trends, keeping an ear open to what other countries have to say and an eye on how they view Americans. 

And that's what's so worrisome. The picture of Americans emerging from the full-body scan, is an image of a people prone to complain and easily upset. Or as Richard sees it, "A very lucrative target for terrorists from a psychological point of view."