Decrepit Old Fool

Every once in a while someone on authority has a moment of clarity and reason, and actually speaks it in public.  It doesn’t happen often – remember John Poindexter’s terrorism futures market?  Democrats had a field day hooting that one down and everyone felt very good about themselves.  But it was still a good idea and would probably have worked.

The current example is the Transportation Safety Agency’s proposal to lift the ban on razorblades and small knives on airplanes.  I absolutely guarantee the hand-wringing contingent in Congress and in the press will hyperventilate trying to be the first or the loudest to condemn this bit of common sense… but it is still a good idea.

The 9-11 hijackers did not take over a three-hundred thousand pound aircraft with boxcutters.  No, they did it with the help of the people (I really wanted to say “sheep”) on board, who believed it was better to hand the over control of the plane than to fight four men with token “weapons”.

Lest we unjustly condemn the passengers and crews of the planes that struck their targets in NY and Washington, they were operating on conventional wisdom and policy.  Despite our addiction to violent movies, our culture had absorbed the idea the negotiation is always best.  It was as if we had the song; Billy, don’t be a hero ringing in our ears all the time. 

But what is usually correct is not always correct.  Today, most people would say the passengers (and perhaps crew) of the Pennsylvania plane had the right idea.  Imagine the scene the next time anyone tries to hijack a plane.  My guess is the plane will either end up crashing or it will land safely with pulverized hijackers.  It will NOT wind up with a hijacker steering the plane.  Rules have changed, and so has the popular mind.

So why not ban pocketknives on planes anyway, just to be safe?  Because it wouldn’t make us any safer.  In fact, it might have the opposite effect.  That’s one reason.

Another reason is I’d like to see a renaissance of manual capability.  There was a time when we weren’t a culture of wimps, frightened of pointy things.  Most men carried a pocketknife, and took considerable pride in their handling of this elegant tool. Let’s bring that back. 

A third reason is that non-weapons have been criminalized in many areas.  MrsDoF was not allowed to take her crochet hooks – a “weapon” – to jury duty.  This is an erosion of common sense, which is never a good thing.  A crochet hook, like a pocketknife, has a very small circle of danger when misused as a weapon.

Oh well, expect the uproar any day now – people talking about boxcutters as if they were weapons of mass destruction.

Personally I am in favor of handing out night-sticks to all passengers.

Notes:

• Even knives specially designed to be weapons are not effective against multiple opponents.  But anyway no one is proposing allowing passengers to carry eight-inch double-edged stillettos with dual guard and center blood grooves.