State of the nation, Strip search for the soul You can't go anywhere today without the secure knowledge that you may have to present your body cavities for inspection at random checkpoints. But it's for your own good. To preserve your freedom. These freedoms will be provided by and watched over by various appointed "czars" which is a perfectly good and democratic name for the head of a government bureau. You won't run into trouble unless you look for it, they say. The favorite cop phrase is, after all, "You lookin' for trouble, boy?" If you go out of your way to act suspicious, who do you really have to blame but yourself? Suspicious activity includes eating a french fry, carrying any packages, and wearing clothes. If we were not such a prudish civilization we would travel in security, naked, without pockets, packs, or sneakers with which to conceal weapons. The only weapon would be keen intellect, the most dreaded and reviled weapon, and the least seen in our society. After all, who would dare? We could never go naked as a civilization. The moralists would never allow it. They hate public safety. A naked person is an unashamed person. And an unashamed person has no need to seek confession or repentance. Naked people, you see, have no shame. That's why moralists say to them "Have you no shame!" Because the moralists have shame. And envy. Which they suppress. Which deepens their shame. Understanding is the first step toward damnation. That's why strip searches happen in a room nearby, as opposed to out in the open- for the sake of decency. The security field is ripe with opportunity. Metal detectors, cameras, x-ray machines. You could make a killing in the private security sector. It's a captive market. They even have companies that destroy other companies secret documents. To prove that the documents are destroyed they present you with a certificate of destruction. This certificate can be used not only to claim that a said document has been destroyed; but in the right legal hands it could be used to prove that the said document never existed. This is important because incriminating documents have a way of surfacing in both business and government. If you have a certificate that proves the document in question has been destroyed, well, if the document surfaces, you'll be that much better off. The certificate of destruction will be the operative statement. The original document resurfaced will be the inoperative statement. This is called a linguistic gyration. It is the closest thing in law to dance. Art must always be encouraged. Cameras, as you have noticed, are everywhere; and they don't stop crime- but they may soon make crime more well-groomed as people grow to realize they have a potential audience and behave accordingly. Crime may also become more dramatic or entertaining for this reason. Cameras will never fully replace cops because cameras can't beat you up. Not in the foreseeable future anyway. Cameras may be able to taser you sometime soon, but that will be a supplement to the arm of justice, as it were. Judges can be replaced with mechanical devices more easily. In many cases this has already been accomplished. In our modern system of jurisprudence the judge and the jury have mostly been replaced. In some cases this has been accomplished by indefinite detention without showing cause, but in most cases this is still done by the art of the plea bargain. In the plea bargain a careful dance is held wherein the "accused" is led in the dance by the system, including the court-appointed and paid defense attorney and the prosecuting attorney (also paid by the state). They grope and fumble about the dance floor as they work toward the big finish called "the plea." Often this is a "plea to a lesser charge" or a "plea because I can't dance any longer after all the blows to my kidney." The plea dance is a semi-private dance, by invitation only. The profit motive is the deciding factor in all security policies both private and public. To make a buck on tragedy and fear is the job of the private sector when working hand in hand with government as a well oiled machine. To this end the nightly news is all about disquieting crimes and sponsored by locks, alarms, and medications to ease your nerves. Also, they give you a handy list of the newest and most popular brand-name medicines to "ask your doctor if they are right for you." The industry propagandists ply their trade on the matter of public health, or lack of it in the U.S., by continually preaching to the masses that public health, with effective preventative care and early outbreak care for even those who cannot pay, is not in the interest of those people who have better finances though they breathe the same germ filled air. Because, as you know, Tuberculosis only effects those with moral failings. If you catch Tuberculosis you have no one to blame but yourself; and why should society help you? Your coughing can't spread it to the moral and the righteous among us. PR has convinced most people with poor medical care that they are in the middle class- and even convinced the poor to blame themselves for their predicament, with a dose of religion for good measure, so that even the poor hate the poor; which they define as people aside from themselves; a victory for social engineers and public relations men everywhere. For the thinkers among us science has given us modern antidepressants, which modern science has concluded is about equal to a common sugar pill but with more creative side effects. But taking that pill is pro-active. It's doing something- and contributing to the economy while you're at it. Even your pets are depressed. There are pet anti-depressants available- but only by prescription from your family veterinarian- to ward off abuse by stray and wayward dogs and cats- an addict is an addict is an addict. Just relax and try to enjoy it. David Raffin is the editor of Vision? Nary! magazine. A writer and a performer, he may be contacted though his home page. This column is available by email. If you are interested in running this column as a regular feature in your publication, contact here.