Queuing at the JFK

[morethanreal]

While queuing in the ridiculously long security line at JFK last Sunday, I noticed an ad for Clear. U.S. residents can offer up money to have the state keep tabs on them, and in return they'll save time at the airport by being authorized to skip the inane ritual at the security checkpoint. Presumably those who are most interested in this are

Comments

[wlach]

Paying for the "privilege" of being spied upon? A truly remarkable innovation.

By the way, I'd dispute your assertion that nothing is being accomplished here. I'd say that the "accomplishment" is that several extremely well-connected interests in the security industry are making money off a climate of fear. You might enjoy reading Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" which goes into this pathology in more detail.

[morethanreal]

I had discounted this because 1. I thought it was too much conspiracy theory and 2. a minority culturing and profiting from a climate of fear isn't making progress on the society as a whole, in fact I think it's a step backwards-but I equated 'accomplishment' with 'forward progress'. Whatever that means...

How did we get here?

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll be picking that up.

[quikchange]

I still think that airport "security" is a joke perpetuated more to give passengers the illusion of safety than to actually catch bad people. Knowing this, I still don't fear flying at all because the numbers show that my odds of being in a plane that gets hijacked or blown up are miniscule. But if I can save a lot of time and hassle by shelling out a bit of cash and relinquishing my privacy, I'm all for it. I'm not that fond of privacy anyway.

[morethanreal]

Perhaps I didn't make it clear enough but the registered traveler programs are totally artifical, meant to avoid useless 'security' measures. Its existence is absurd.

Also, I think the security measures are meant to scare people and make them think that they're constantly under threat, rather reassuring passengers that they're safe. The constant broadcast of 'the threat level is orange, or high' is meaningless other than to justify the ridiculous screening procedures.

As for not being fond of privacy, I honestly hope that you're not being serious there.

[quikchange]

Now that I think about it some more, I agree with you that the stupid coloured threat levels are just scare-mongering. I think the airlines and the government ended up blending their strategies.

I'm about as fond of privacy as Magic Dave.

[morethanreal]

The TSA is a government agency and I'm not sure if airlines had a long tradition of screening the passengers.

I'm not sure what Dave's opinions on privacy is.

[netlon]

I've seen something similar - GE's entryscan which is in SFO and DFW among other airports. There is a federal background check + iris + other biological identifiers (guess which ones :).

I totally agree with you about a flawed implementation -- pre-screening, identify theft, worthless government lists -- this isn't doing anything to stop any terrorists, if anything, they could use it to identify if they are on the government shit list or not.

Still, I'd use it to skip the lines :)