More on Gilmore, “Suspected Egotist”
Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine is ranting some more about John Gilmore’s altercation with British Airways over his refusal to remove a “Suspected Terrorist” button. Although I feel Jeff gets carried away with his obvious disgust at the end of his post, I understand his anger. As I mentioned in an earlier post I made on Lies, Gilmore’s actions and reactions to the requests and demands of the flight crew indicate to me a person who acts so self-focused on his personal mission to protest the grievous violation of his personal rights that he decides that the rights of his fellow passengers are of lesser importance.
Jeff focuses on one particular section of the justification that Gilmore makes for his actions. I’d like to point out a few other things. First, is Gilmore’s smug comment about how he doesn’t fly much anymore so he isn’t use to”life in a gulag”. There is nothing that hits my hot button harder during a political discussion as when someone casually throws out a comparison of a personal experience to something truly sinister like a Russian Gulag!!! Where does this pompous ass get the nerve to dare to put his experiences with airport security at the same level of those who suffered and died in merciless slave labor camps!!!!!! This comment is coming from someone who is privileged and well-off enough to be making all these international trips in the first place, and he dares to align his “indignities” with those innocents who died brutal and senseless deaths!! When I hear self-important elitists of any political persuasion make those kind of ignorant, disrespectful comments, I can chew through concrete!!
Next, is his total shock that HE would actually have some responsibility for causing a safety concern or, by resisting the orders of a flight crew, for causing the plane to turn back to the gate and be delayed. As I mentioned in my earlier post, those who are as self-absorbed as Gilmore, tend to view any perceived interference in what they want to do, say, or wear, as being of paramount importance. While showing no sense of obligation or responsibility to others affected by their actions. Yes, the airline employees had control of choosing to turn the plane around, but GILMORE had control of removing the button to avoid the situation. And yes, he DID bear some responsibility for whatever safety concerns there were, since he was the one implying that he might be a terrorist. As unlikely as it may be, you don’t know everyone’s health condition, frame of mind or emotional reactions in a potentially anxious or stressful situation. The flight crew didn’t create the guidelines for security and safety, but they do have to follow them, and often make judgement calls in enforcing them. Instead of taking his beef to the policy-makers, Gilmore confronts those who are just trying to do what is already a difficult, stressful and often thankless job.
Lastly, he reveals his perceived moral and intellectual superiority over those who may disagree with him by claiming that “you readers” are mere mindless passives of a bullying, fascist US Government, not unlike the Polish Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto in WWII. (Ahhh, another grossly overstated comparison to a truly dark historical period involving REAL despair, human devaluation and death. Someone please give me some nails to bite on!)
It makes me wish that the next time Gilmore relates his most recent horrific experience of suffering through another torturous, demeaning “carry-on bag” inspection, he would suddenly be transported through time to a remote Siberian prison in 1939. But then again, it may look amazingly like Terminal B at LAX.
As I also mentioned in my earlier post, anyone can protest the perceived death of their personal freedoms that current airport security is creating. But what is Gilmore’s magical alternative for a massive public transportation system which carries dual high expectations for efficiency and safety, while protecting everyone’s real and imagined personal rights of privacy, while operating in an ever more dangerous world?
August 5th, 2003 at 7:17 am
Um. It isn’t as if he was shouting “I have a bomb in my suitcase!!!” — you know, something that would actually be a security concern, or at least an extreme annoyance to other passengers, that would warrant turning back to the gate and that he really should be held responsible for. He was wearing *a button*. Absolutely no reason to think he’s a security threat, no rudeness to anyone.
I really cannot blame him for what happened. This is a case where the ridiculous response to his actions lays the blame firmly with the airline and not with him. I’m sure you’ll denounce my analogy, but it’s only one that comes to mind immediately: Rosa Parks certainly could have just not inconveneinced the white passengers on that bus and gone where she was supposed to.
And as your your anger at the gulag comment… it’s humorous exaggeration. People say things like “boy, this place is hell” all the time; the aren’t actually making a direct comparison.
August 5th, 2003 at 7:51 am
I have a few comments/questions that I’d like to throw out just for fun:
Craig Wrote; “When I hear self-important elitists of any political persuasion make those kind of ignorant, disrespectful comments, I can chew through concrete!! ”
First, I’d like to see someone chew through concrete (must…not…insert…smiley…face…arghhhhh…). Second, how about Limbaugh, Coulter, Riley and their ilk? Sorry, this is not a left-wing problem, it hits both sides. I don’t hear a lot of indignation about Limbaugh when he echoes/parrots Rumsfeld in trivializing our troops’ sacrifice and comparing their deaths to TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS. Limbaugh said this two weeks ago on his show and I nearly choked. I don’t listen to the windbag often (and yes, I’m not above name calling), but when he said this it simply pissed me off. I bet Rush was just as indignant during the fighting in Mogadishu when they kept showing the pictures of the dead American pilots that had been shot down…don’t bet the mortgage on it.
What’s wrong with these people? What is their problem, and why do they have it? What’s the deal with that wild-eyed, bulging-forehead-veins, red-faced, gritted-teeth fury directed against absolutely anyone who disagrees with them on any point whatsoever? And why are so many of their points incredibly simplistic, puerile, and inane?
Although I personally think Gilmore should have removed the button when asked, he chose not to and is now making a fuss. Before those with a conservative bent get in a tiff over Gilmore and his “free speech” issue, I’d like to see some balanced commentary by those of a conservative bent about the right. Although I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it happens I won’t hold my breath.
August 5th, 2003 at 10:53 am
We need to look at these issues a little more from the flight crew’s perspective. You have a passenger who is wearing an item that could cause some degree of concern, stress, provocation, etc. since it refers to, or is associated with, a type of people or a situation that has involved violent deaths on airplanes. We can play the “yeah but” or “what if” games with this particular phrase on Gilmore’s button all day, but the flight crew has to make the call on situations like this, per their policies. They were perfectly willing to allow Gilmore to fly on that day. He just had to remove the button for the duration of the flight, as a precaution in their view. Again, from the flight crew’s perspective, as part of their mandate to provide a safe and uneventful flight for all its customers, not an outrageous request at all.
There have been many times when airlines have refused to board people who are too drunk. Do they know that the passenger will cause a problem? Or will he just sleep it off in his seat? They don’t know. But its their duty to make a judgement call on an issue that could impact the safety or concerns of the passengers or the safety of the flight itself.
So they make a request and the passenger now is resistant or argumentative or even hostile. It now becomes a concern for additional reasons. Passengers who choose to disobey requests, and then orders, from the flight crew become at great risk of being removed from the plane, regardless of what the initial item or cause was.
So to absolve Gilmore of any blame in this incident is an unfair assessment.
And I fully understand it when people make a off-the-cuff remark about someone or something that happened in the course of their day, and then make an intended insulting reference to the Nazis, for example (i.e., the “soup nazi” from “Seinfeld”).
But when you are defending a very pointed, passionate and public political statement, as Gilmore is, and you state that the whole point of your “button” and protest is the heavy-handed, Police State-like requirements of airport security, you aren’t suddenly testing your nightclub comedy act when you refer to that very operation as a Gulag! As we all know, words are very powerful things, and emotionally-laden ones used in serious discussions should be chosen with more care, or else the speaker loses credibility quickly. Gilmore tends to make numerous comparisons and references to Nazism, fascism, Police-States etc. throughout the comments that I have read, so he fully intends to draw those kind of analogies.
I also agree that this kind of overstated grandstanding is not exclusive to those on the far Left (as I pointed out by saying that this type of thing bothers me regardless of the speaker’s “political persuasion”). I rarely listen to Limbaugh or Medved for just that reason. I prefer a more even-handed view (which, sadly, doesn’t make for good radio ratings). There is a local radio yahoo where I live that spouts off all sorts of ultra conservative rhetoric (cartoonish at best, hate speech at worst) on his show. I’m amazed his employer has no qualms about give this clown such a public platform (but then, ratings trumps all).
August 8th, 2003 at 12:10 pm
By the way, I just traveled to and from Toronto this week. At one point, I had my shoes off, belt unfastened, and my arms outstretched for the “magic wand”! Did I feel a little annoyed? Yes. Did I feel a little self-conscious? Yes. Did I feel like my basic human rights and rights to privacy were being trampled by a fascist system in the name of security? No.
August 8th, 2003 at 12:12 pm
By the way, I just traveled to and from Toronto this week. At one point during the security check, I had my shoes off, belt unfastened, and my arms outstretched for the “magic wand”! Did I feel a little annoyed? Yes. Did I feel a little self-conscious? Yes. Did I feel like my basic human rights and rights to privacy were being trampled by a fascist system in the name of security? No.