Duck and Cover

When I was growing up way back in the ancient 1950s, the US population, including us grade schoolers, were instructed by the government in the defensive measure of “Duck and Cover” to protect us from nuclear attack. The idea was that if we saw a flash of atomic light, we should drop to the ground and cover our heads with whatever we had handy, a blanket if we were in the park having a picnic, a newspaper if we were reading it on the street; if we were in school, we were to dive under out desks and cover our heads with our hands. It’s hilarious now to look back and think that we actually bought into the notion that such cursory measures would save us from the thermal and radioactive blasts of an atomic bomb. But we believed it because the government was assuring us of both the threat and the security.

Now in my 60s, I’m reliving that early period of my life, only instead of the threat of atomic attack, it’s now the threat of terrorists smuggling explosives onto planes and blowing them up, and the defensive measures require us to take off our shoes, remove our belts, not carry liquids more than 3 ounces, pass through metal detectors, and either be virtually stripped by body scanners or have our privates groped by airport officials. And of course we believe it because the government assures us of both the threat and the security.

Propaganda is propaganda. And both “Duck and Cover” and the current airport security procedures – “Strip and Uncover”? -- are propaganda. They are both meant to do two things: (1) instill in the public a constant threat, and (2) display for us how government has it under control. All will be well if we just do what the government tells us to do. Duck and cover.