That purveyor of stories that scare and delight us, CNN, hosts a thoughtful column by Bruce Schneier, in which he points out that the so-called security at airports in the light of terrorism, is really just about telling comforting stories. The money quote:
Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, the more we convert our buildings into fortresses, the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we’re doing the terrorists’ job for them.
Bruce Schneier takes the cool-headed long-term view of security. Always sees it as a trade-off, not as an absolute. His most memorable aphorism is that a security system should “fail gracefully,” because no security system can ever be fail-safe.