TSA 10 years after 9/11

Ten years after Sept. 11, 2001, Americans continue adjusting to evolving Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport safety procedures. While there is a limit to what Americans can reasonably expect TSA to accomplish to reduce the risk of terrorist attempts in an open society, there is also a limit to what TSA can reasonably expect a free people to tolerate.

In “The Road to Serfdom,” F.A. Hayak warned England and America in the aftermath of World War II that the increasing tendency of a central government to use administrative coercion to control citizens is incompatible with preserving a free society. Once a population internalizes that authorities have the power to coerce, few will experience actual coercion because passive submission avoids it. Excessive government control ultimately leads to a psychological change in the people of a nation.