How Much Can We Blame the TSA?

Recently the Travel Security Agency (TSA) stripped a young boy of his shirt and dignity in Salt Lake City, Utah in response to what investigators are still attempting to find out. The video was posted on YouTube over the weekend and received over 715,000 views before the weekend ended. The story goes on to say that the innocent little boy was stripped and humiliated as a result of the TSA's impractical screening procedures. It has many over the nation fired up with many blogs posts and articles aiming ridiculing the TSA and videos by CNN portraying TSA officials as users of their power for covert, sexually ulterior intentions. However, its important for America to step back and really assess the situation. America would find that this situation was largely constituted by the vested power into the TSA to prevent future drug smuggling and terrorist attack attempts.

Thinking back to the 1990s, there weren't many stories like the aforementioned in the media. Even after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, stories as such weren't pervading as heavily. Now we see headlines such as "TSA airport screeners gone wild in San Diego- again", "TSA pats down a screaming toddler", "TSA Screening Soaks Bladder Cancer Survivor with His Own Urine" and even "TSA Makes Cancer Victim Remove Prosthetic Breast." This is all a result of our vested power into the TSA.

To examine overly endowed characters of various folktales and war stories, we notice a pattern: an over-endowment of power resulting in a lessened respect for morality and logic. Think of the actions of Gilgamesh when he was portrayed as an insurmountable king and Hitler when he began to kill off Jews for the rise of the Aryan race. Both began to exemplify unethical and seemingly illogical actions as a result of their immense amount of power.

Its as if too much power can pull one out of touch with humility, and create a mindset within that individual that places itself above the critique of others. Its as if that individual is no longer subject to questioning (to themselves). With this, many ideas and actions go untampered--resulting in the the execution of some thoughts and actions without screening. However it is this screening that is vital to our everyday prudence and good citizenship, because it helps us winnow our thoughts towards the right decision.

Some officials of the TSA have realized the power vested into them by the American people and may have gotten out of touch with their subconscious screening processes. As American people, we can't blame them too much, because as always, we're part of the problem.