Never forget: January 31st, 2007

[cos]

One year ago today, at about this time, Boston was in a panic:

For those of you not familiar with Aqua Teen Hunger Force , the Mooninites are a race of video-game aliens who attempt, albeit inefectually, to wreak mayhem on the world. (They are completely awesome, though, because Schooly D does their theme song.) The joke is that the Mooninites always fail to do any real harm.

Except, that is, in Boston.

In the wake of the attack of the Mooninites, I wrote What Does Random Panic Protect Us From?

We're not facing a serious threat.
We have a process, which I call "Random Panic", that doesn't protect us from it anyway.
The protection is actually a bigger problem than the supposed threat.

... please read the whole post. Please pass it on.

Comments

[cos]

Oh, it was clearly not "accidental". Nowhere in the assertion that it was probably safe, is any indication that it was accidental, or that only accidental things are safe. Deliberate things are usually safe, and accidental things are sometimes dangerous.

No, I most certainly would not assume something that looked like it was trying to draw attention like that was dangerous, no matter where I saw it placed. And that's what Boston did: they assumed it was dangerous, without any evidence.

You are providing a good illustration of why this mindset is so ingrained. You're right, there's something basically human about it. However, government is a structure that should be able to get around this kind of flaw with the right processes, procedures, checks, and balances.

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

No, I most certainly would not assume something that looked like it was trying to draw attention like that was dangerous, no matter where I saw it placed.

Right, so to you, where it's placed is irrelevant, and the reaction to an odd-looking object hanging out the window of some kollege kid's apartment in Allston merits the same reaction as an odd-looking object attached to the underside of a bridge. I don't agree with that. I think that's a very naive view.

And that's what Boston did: they assumed it was dangerous, without any evidence.

You're talking about yourself.