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thibodeaux 
RAG
Group: Privateers
Posts: 6494
Joined: May 2004
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Posted on: Dec. 29 2010,14:51 |
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You know, it's easy to forget that our system of large-scale commercial aviation, by all historical standards, is nothing short of a miracle. Â I'm serious, and if you disagree, you're a fucktard. Â I'm serious.
STILL. Â Shockingly juxtaposed with this modern miracle is the atrocious bovine spectacle of humanity at its People-of-WalMart worst.
Take my recent excursion to the 318. Â When we visit, we stay with my parents, who live at the ass-end of a dirt road 12 miles from the nearest...how you say? Â VILLAGE?...of 3,000 people. Â This requires us to fly RDU to ATL on a 737, then change planes to a regional jet to AEX, then DRIVE an hour-and-a-half.
Coming back, our flight was leaving AEX at 0600, Boxing Day. Â Thus we left home base at 0330. Â By this time, we already knew that ATL-RDU was cancelled due to weather. Â One could debate the sanity of taking the first leg, but you know the airlines won't cut you any slack when it's weather-relate. Also, ATL is driving distance of RDU.
So, we check the bags at AEX to ATL, go through security, and take a seat at the gate at about 0545. Â The plane's there, but this is a tiny airport, so the gate agent is also working the ticket counter up front. Â Guess we might be a little late boarding.
In the row of seats next to us is a mom and dad. Â Their two rugrats, maybe 4 and 2 years old, are about 10 feet away, near the EMERGENCY EXIT DOOR (ALARM WILL SOUND). Â Their smacking the little RF card-reader thing next to the door. Â If this was my kid, I'd be executing a snatch-and-drag, but not these folks. Â Then sure enough, kid #1 turns his attention to the push-bar on the door. Â "NO!" I yell.
The parents then yell at their kid (asses still firmly attached to the seat). Â He turns to look at them. Â Now baby brother's attention is grabbed by THE FUCKING FIRE ALARM RIGHT NEXT TO THE CARD READER. Â NO! Â NO NONONONONO!
It was like slow motion.
Maybe 30 seconds or a minute after the lights and siren start, here comes the security guard. Â EVERYBODY has to leave the terminal and go stand outside in the freezing pre-dawn air. Â Cuz, you know, them's the rules.
And of course everybody's got to go back through security. Â Fortunately, there's probably only 50 people or so. Â But there's only 1 line and maybe 3 or 4 TSA goons. Â Fortunately we were near the front of the line. Â This one old lady is kind of standing next to me outside the line, trying to get the TSA's attention. Â She turns to me: Â "They've already scanned me once. Â I had a knee replacement so they do that every time." Â Yeah, and you're gonna have to do it again lady. Â This ain't your first rodeo, is it? Â Hell, you're a prime target for body cavity search, being a little old crippled white lady, because there's no way anybody can be accused of racially profiling you.
So, long story short, we got to ATL, got on standby and checked our bags to RDU, but then all the Delta flights to RDU got cancelled, and no way are they gonna go find your stupid bag, stupid, so we spent the night in the hotel with no clothes or toothbrush or deodorant. Â Then we rented a car and drove home the next morning. Â AT LEAST they did manage to get our bag to RDU for us, faster than we could drive.
So I started wondering: Â what would happen if some snotnose pulls a fire alarm in ATL? Â Would they kick all 750 million or whatever passengers and Somali worker bees out to the curb? Â Even though there's a dozen witnesses who saw that there's no fire, just some idiot kid? That's madness.
And that just underscores the current mentality: Â the rules are there not to protect US, but to protect the government/airport employees. Â It's the same reason TSA fondles crippled war veterans. Â It's the same reason that we have zero-tolerance policies in schools that make your kid into a felon for bringing a butter knife in his lunchbox by accident. Â If drones are allowed to make actual DECISIONS based on JUDGMENT and COMMON SENSE, well then they're RESPONSIBLE for those decisions. Â If they have no choice but to follow the rules, well they can't be blamed for the outcome. Â They're just doing their job!
Idiocracy. Â It's here.
Edited by thibodeaux on Dec. 29 2010,14:51
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TPRJones
I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
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Posted on: Jan. 12 2011,13:20 |
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It's mainly a matter of trust. Those in power do not trust the people that will be executing their directives. They assume that all their employees are idiots. So they come up with rules and procedures that must be followed under all circumstances. This takes the human element out of the equation and ensures that no individual employee's stupidity will foul up the system.
Except for one glaring flaw: the rules and procedures are created by idiots. Instead of guidelines and personal judgement amongst a force of which a small handful may be idiots, we have all the idiocy concentrated in the seat of power making rules and procedures that ensure every act carried out by that government agency is equally and completely idiotic.
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Vidi Perfutui Veni
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Malcolm
I disagree.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 27168
Joined: May 2004
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Posted on: Jan. 12 2011,13:39 |
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Until people figure out that you can't write the universal playbook and prepare for EVERY SCENARIO IMAGINABLE, you're stuck with the fact that stupid shit will happen and you might not know what to do ahead of time. Doing nothing but using forethought and following instructions makes you an expensive, (albeit complex and impressive) inefficient machine.
Society has done nothing for years but convince people to build up their left brain capabilities (like gathering info, analyzing/processing it, and storing it for future reference). While that's all well and good, the right brain (you know, the bit that tells you if that information jives with reality) seems to get suffocated, discouraged, and crushed out of existence. It's the part that lets you make up your own plan right then and there if your preparations are blown out of the water. If it was good enough to keep your ancestors from getting eaten by carnivorous, predatory critters twice their size, it's probably good enough for other purposes.
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Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC:
"Better dead than smeg."
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TheCatt
Top 2%
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 22951
Joined: May 2004
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Posted on: Jan. 12 2011,13:48 |
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Ive got to take a flight soon. The only good part is that I get paid $62.50/hour while I get scanned, molested, and cramped.
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It's not me, it's someone else.
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