Airport Security

One of the hallmarks of a nation that is reactive rather than proactive is that we run around like chickens without heads at the slightest hint of danger, but only after the fact. A police state isn't adept at foreseeing issues it's only capable of enforcing more rules. Airport security has taken this to an extreme with the following examples:

• We are attacked by airplanes (heinously for sure) and so all airplanes for all time for millions upon millions are now a 100% risk. Reactive. Proactive would be to assess actual risk and take appropriate measures such as screening all ticket holders and measuring risk based on actual risk potential.
  
• One guy has explosives in his shoe and we then have to inconvenience millions upon millions of people for year after year on the minuscule chance someone else will do this. Reactive. Proactive would be to assess actual risk and perhaps develop a shoe scanning machine where people can leave their shoes on.
  
• One guy has liquid explosives so we inconvenience millions upon millions of innocent travelers and limit what they can and can't bring on a plane. Reactive. Proactive would be developing a machine that sniffs out certain substances.
  

The idea of prevention is that you put together a smart plan that addresses the issue, not that inconveniences the entire planet for eternity. My point isn't that we don't need to protect the populace but rather that we should take measures commensurate with the risk. The way this country is run right now we assume there is 100% risk all the time.

I wonder who benefits from all this fear? Oh, I forgot, our current leaders. If our leaders, and you know which ones, didn't have a vested interest in keeping the populace exhausted and frightened, we would have made great strides to returning to norma by now. If our leaders benefit from keeping us scared we'll continue to have the police state we've designed to date.

P.S. No amount of safeguards in airports or elsewhere treat the root causes of why people would want to attack us. That's the proactive approach our current policy neglects.