Shampoo

Try to imagine this: A modern, progressive world, filled with ambitions and developments. The people aren’t really scared by wars and terrorist attacks and most of the people who are living in the Western world are enjoying a happy life. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Since 2001 this vision flew away when Al Qaida committed a terrorist attack by flying some airplanes into buildings. These terrorists (or freedom fighters, if you live in Afghanistan) were partially responsible for the world we now live in. Before 9/11 no one heard of Al Qaida, but nowadays it’s one of our biggest fears. 

Why? Well, that isn’t so easy. First of all I want to make clear that I’m totally against any form of violence, no matter what’s your rase, religion, sexuality, hair color, weight or shoe size. Of course everything that happened is horrible, but we have to realize that we did it ourselves. We let them win this, non-existing, battle. They didn’t want to kill people, they wanted attention. And they got it, believe me.

Within weeks the whole world felt threatened so there had to be strict measures, for our own safety! And you couldn’t be against it, I mean, are you one of them? Do you want more terrorist attacks? The social pressure was enormous and surviving was more important than privacy. So during the years after, lots of rules and legislation was introduced. For example, you couldn’t bring more than 100ml shampoo in your hand luggage because you might be able to make a soapy bomb and hurt a stewardess... You might think I’m exaggerating, but that’s how it goes these days. They have the right to strip search you, your luggage and your electric equipment. Don’t think you have any rights at this moment, because they can – and will – do everything to be sure that you’re not carrying a bomb, weapons or shampoo with you.

In the past the authorities had to have ‘a reasonable suspicion’ when they wanted to check you for dangerous objects, but now everything is allowed if they suspect a terrorist connection. And when you have a beard, a dark skin, a Koran, shampoo or when you speak Arabic, you ARE a terrorist connection. This, pethatic, touchiness started in the U.S., but because of its economic importance in the world we all followed this ludicrous policies.

Our governments didn’t want such attacks either so The Netherlands was one of the first countries that followed the U.S. with its policies. We got cameras, databases and courses for police men to recognize the ‘bearded baddies’. Too bad we only forgot one thing: investigate and ask how the citizens thought of all these changes. Perhaps people felt less safe because of all these changes? People got reminded that they’d might be a terroristic target because of all safety measures that were introduced.

Besides that, people individualize more and more in the 21th century and they need more privacy with that. Unfortunately the governments doesn’t see this as a high priority anymore, especially not in comparison with terrorist threat. 

In conclusion I think you can say that by all measures people only felt more unsafe than they did before. Constantly we’re confronted by security in our society and we realize why: because of all the threats over the world. They say fear is a bad adviser, but all governments only listened to that! They were so afraid this was going to happen again (and it did) that they forgot everything, just to make sure everyone was – or felt – safe. Is this working? I think the answer got something to do with the one in the beginning of this blog. 

J&R