E-Book Overview
The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the wars fought in its name, these measures are supposed to make us safer in a post-9/11 world. But do they? Against Security explains how these regimes of command-and-control not only annoy and intimidate but are counterproductive. Sociologist Harvey Molotch takes us through the sites, the gizmos, and the politics to urge greater trust in basic citizen capacities--along with smarter design of public spaces. In a new preface, he discusses abatement of panic and what the NSA leaks reveal about the real holes in our security.
E-Book Information
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Year: 2,012
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Edition: Updated edition with a New Preface
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City: Princeton
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Pages: 260
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Language: English
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Identifier: 0691163588,978-0-691-16358-1,978-0-691-15581-4,069115581X
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Org File Size: 3,230,612
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Extension: epub
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Tags:
Terrorism Prevention Government policy United States National security Transportation Security measures
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Toc: Content: Introduction : Colors of security -- Bare life : restroom anxiety and the urge for control -- Below the subway : taking care day in and day out -- Wrong-way flights : pushing humans away -- Forting up the skyline : rebuilding at ground zero -- Facing Katrina : illusions of levee and compulsion to build -- Conclusion : Radical ambiguity and the default to decency.