The Security Mindset

When a country, a society, a culture or an organization becomes obsessed with the concept of security it looses the capability to evolve and progress.

Once the security mindset takes hold, common sense, reason, freedom, creativity, independence, valor, imagination, initiative and justice are quickly sacrificed in the name of security. In the society dominated by the security mindset all must bow to security.

Nations obsessed with security do poorly in war because the security mindset discourages those qualities necessary for success in war namely valor, imagination, courage, initiative and the willingness to take risks. The France that built the Maginot Line is a classic example of the security mindset. Vast fortifications were built to guard one portion of the nation’s border but the logical invasion route was left unguarded.

Security is not about protection but about providing a comfortable illusion of protection. The “security guards” we see in most office buildings are a perfect example of the security mindset. An out of shape middle aged man in a mock police uniform who has no gun is little protection. Indeed all the average “security guard” can do in an emergency is call 911.

Another example is the Transportation Security Agency which makes travelers lives miserable but does little or nothing to protect airline passengers from terrorism. The thinking behind the TSA is that any threat can be stopped. The logical answer to terrorism: taking aggressive action to track down and eliminate the terrorists is given short shift.

The United States today is a perfect example of a society infected by the Security Mindset. The American military, intelligence agencies and law enforcement organizations don’t have enough interpreters who can speak the enemy’s language or understand their culture. Yet little or no action is taken to eliminate this obvious defect. Instead our tax money is wasted upon fancy scanning machines that will in the very near future gather dust in airport basements.

Indeed the TSA actually punishes those who display the kind of behavior we need to win this war. CNN reported that security apparatchiks in Philadelphia arrested an obviously white American who had flash cards with Arabic writing on them. The young man was trying to learn Arabic in preparation for a career in intelligence or the diplomatic corps. In other words the guy who might actually help us track down the real bad guys finds himself harassed by high school dropouts in white shirts.

The security mindset offers little hindrance to criminals. Indeed it encourages crime and lawbreaking. Many average people end up breaking the security regulations just to go about their daily lives. The person who slips a twenty dollar bill to a TSA agent to get waived through airport checkpoints is a perfect example of the corruption that security encourages.

The security mindset quickly makes a mockery of law and law enforcement. Average people develop contempt for the law and those who enforce it. Security work attracts four kinds of people: the bungling and incompetent regulation obsessed bureaucrats who can’t find work in real police forces, bullies who are looking for an opportunity to lord it over others, average people who need an easy job that involves no work to make a few extra bucks and of course out and out criminals who recognize a good racket when they see when they see one.

The ultimate security mindset is totalitarianism where society is organized completely for the purposes of security and little else. Such dismal and ultimately ineffective societies as Castro’s Cuba, the Soviet Union, East Germany and North Korea are perfect examples of where the security mindset leads. Such cultures drive away the creative and effective and reward the corrupt, servile and paranoid.

The security mindset is a trap that all societies must avoid if they are to keep out of the ash heap of history.