What seems clear to me is that pre-9/11 passengers were generally tolerant of inconvenience and obeyed authority far more than they do today. Part of the impact of 9/11 is that Americans are more concerned than ever about safety. Yet they are increasingly suspicious of the ways government goes about providing it.
One of the recurrent themes on “Candid Camera” has involved examining many people’s mindless obedience in the face of unreasonable demands by “authority.” It’s important that we trust and obey police and other agents working to protect us. It’s certainly not reasonable to obey, without question, a uniformed guard who says the state of Delaware is “closed for the day,” or a cop who tells pedestrians they’ve entered a “walk backwards zone.” Yet I’ve got a library of footage showing that the public willingly accepts such instruction, time and again…
I’m tempted to say that nine years later life is imitating art in many ways, but I don’t have the audacity to call what I did for a living art. I do believe, however, it’s helpful in understanding where we’ve been and where we seem to be heading.
I’m glad to see that many travelers are no longer simply submitting blindly to airport scanners, and are questioning invasive pat-downs. That’s actually something worth smiling about.
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