Quote:
Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch
I, for my part, do not, but presumably Congress does, and it's not for individuals to undermine our foreign policy, however unwise that policy may be.
Or, more accurately, if you want to engage in acts of civil disobedience, fine, but to expect a government agent at any level to stand by and tolerate it in the name of autonomy or freedom or what-have-you is to expect a government of corruption, or at least one of men and not laws.
I get that it's just a t-shirt but it pushes my buttons when someone says it's outrageous that the government is enforcing Ridiculous Policy A (that I oppose) when its limited resources would be far better spent enforcing Ridiculous Policy B (which I favor). Both of those ridiculous policies are the sausage made by our flawed democratic process, and I've seen personally how awkward it can be when a citizen engages with a government functionary with the "That rule is bullshit" argument. The functionary is probably in the 49% or less of America that opposed that rule, but there is no good answer other than "Okay, I'll only enforce the rules that I would have adopted if it were my choice" or (much more commonly) "Ma'am, this is my job to enforce these rules" the latter of which always seems to result in the Nuremberg argument, and we all know how productive THAT is.
ETA Your friend probably was cool about it -- "Yes, of course sir, just doing your job" etc. so I'm not implying s/he flew off the handle. It's no fun having to put up with other people's bullshit rules but in a democracy you can/should only get but so mad at the people who enforce them -- get mad instead at the idiots who made the rule, which as often as not involves looking in the mirror.
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Sometimes it is the case that the government agent is "just doing their job." Sometimes it is not. A lot of these assholes relish the power that the position gives them (any question at all is almost always met with "Sir, we can do this in the other room with the police" or something similarly ridiculous). They are rude, obnoxious, often incapable of applying common sense and they are generally angry at the world. I acknowledge that dealing with the general public when they are in a rush will lead someone to these feelings. But you need to acknowledge that if you give anyone a little bit of power, they will abuse it--especially in situations like this, where any type of resistance puts you in league with terrorists.
And yeah, here's another anecdote. My wife and I once had a connecting flight for which we were late because the first flight was late. We made a mad dash through the airport, got to security and the line was very short. My wife went on one and I went on another to maximize efficiency. The gate was within view and we saw they were finishing up and about to close the doors. We went through the machines and nothing was out of the ordinary. But the screeners saw we were in a rush and decided to seach BOTH of us. Okay. Fine. My wife's screener ran the wand over her, looked through her bags quickly as we both explained that our flight was about to leave and sent her on her way. My guy was power tripping and intent on making us miss the flight. He intentionally went as slow as possible (and I'm not kidding here, the guy was being a real asshole for no real reason). I told my wife to go to the gate to make sure it didn't leave, which she did and it took me 10 minutes for him to do his search. Power trip. We were lucky we chose two different lines or we would have missed the flight just because this guy's wife made him feel like shit earlier that morning.
And I've seen similar garbage happen dozens of times to other people. I know you love authority and cut them every break you can, but I don't agree that's it's always just a matter of a guy doing the job we and our elected officials are asking him to do. Sorry.
TM
