Laugh While You Can, Monkey-Boys

"A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said officers are trained on how to handle confrontation, and refusal to comply with a direct order is justification to use capsicum spray, also known as pepper spray, or other 'soft techniques' such as physical holds.

'The combination of training and experience is what our officers use to communicate with passenger on a day-today basis. Our officers will give direct orders or commands to passengers, especially in situations where there may be a safety concern. It is the obligation of the passenger to be compliant with those,' said spokesperson Mike Milne."

They're trained, you see. This relieves them of the burden of thinking. This is especially handy for them in moral tests: they don't have to pause to evaluate the use of force. There is a training maxim that goes, "In a crisis, you don’t rise to the level of the situation, you sink to the level of your training." There is a very good Objectivist maxim that says, "Man is the only creature that can sink below his nature." Behold the terrible fix of these two X-lines on a graph: the ascent of anti-thought where thinking is most crucial -- the application of force -- and the sink of humans to the level of robots. These two lines cross at a concept of "training", which in this context and these applications is a rote substitution of formula in place of actual cognitive integration and ethical evaluation of all the facts at hand.

This is happening among those pledged to "serve and protect". This functional and de facto stupidity is actively cultivated as a virtue, and so allegedly free people are free to get pepper-sprayed, man-handled and handcuffed for demanding a civil word from them.

Many will sneer it off. Many times over the years, I've asked them how serious things have to get before they get serious. This is, of course, the Pearls Before Swine Moment: another swing around the mulberry bush and the best laugh they've had yet.

It would be nice if all the laughter really could ward-off reality, but it won't.

(link: David Codrea)