(Flickr/Gen Kanai)Among my rules for minimizing stress when interacting with bureaucracies with absurd rules are that the person you are interacting with not only didn't make the rules, s/he is almost always powerless to do anything about them. So often the best you can do is seek out that glimmer of humanity within the organization's representative, and try to let them see your humanity. Then if you're lucky, they might be willing to let things slide a bit, and everyone can walk away happy.On the other hand, when you say, "These rules are frickin' stupid!", the person usually responds by saying, "You're making my job difficult. So I think I'm going to make your day a bit more unpleasant. How do you like that, asshole?" Not out loud, of course. But they do. And sometimes, that response is itself
standard operating procedure (via
BoingBoing):
Don't like the way airport screeners are doing their job? You might not want to complain too much while standing in line.Arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator Transportation Security Administration officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists, CNN has learned exclusively. And, when combined with other behavioral indicators, it could result in a traveler facing additional scrutiny.
Exactly -- because if there's one thing terrorists want, it's to draw the attention of security personnel. This is the same inane thinking that says that the police should go to anti-war protests looking for Al Qaeda operatives, because every sleeper cell gets instructions to go carry signs criticizing the American government at a place where there are likely to be lots of cops. I'm sure that somewhere within the federal government, there's an agency dumber than the TSA. It's just that we've never heard of it, and the TSA's particular brand of stupidity is in your face every time you fly anywhere. So while complaining loudly about TSA procedures while going through security wasn't going to make things any easier for you or anyone else before, now it may actually get them to pull you aside. I feel safer already.
