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Bruce Schneier has written an article about Living in a Code Yellow World:
In 1989, handgun expert Jeff Cooper invented something called the Color Code to describe what he called the "combat mind-set." Here is his summary:
In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.
In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.
In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.
In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant.
Cooper talked about remaining in Code Yellow over time, but he didn't write about its psychological toll. It's significant. Our brains can't be on that alert level constantly. We need downtime. We need to relax. This is why we have friends around whom we can let our guard down and homes where we can close our doors to outsiders. We only want to visit Yellowland occasionally.
Since 9/11, the US has increasingly become Yellowland, a place where we assume danger is imminent. It's damaging to us individually and as a society.
He continues:
Those of us fortunate enough to live in a Code White society are much better served acting like we do. This is something we need to learn at all levels, from our personal interactions to our national policy. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, many of our counterterrorism policies have helped convince people they're not safe, and that they need to be in a constant state of readiness. We need our leaders to lead us out of Yellowland, not to perpetuate it.
What are my fellow Soylentil's views on Bruce Schneier's assessment?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @10:09AM
From the wikipedia page on "Manufacturing Consent", a book from 1988:
"""
Anti-Communism:
==============
This was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but Chomsky argues that since the end of the Cold War (1945–91), anticommunism was replaced by the "War on Terror", as the major social control mechanism.[6]
"""
And Chomsky was just summarising old ideas at that point. "Duck and Cover", anyone - gotta keep the children of the russky threat. You've been afraid of dangerous boogie-men for many many decades before 9/11. And what was "The Birth of a Nation" if not creating an enemy of evil boogiemen and a fear of them. That was 1915.
And the US has had a hard-on for guns since forever, it was born from an attitude of needing to defend yourself against a threat. From that perspective it's as messed up as any of the modern "Islamic Terrorist" countries - it's brainwashed into children pretty much from birth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @02:01PM
There have been 3 dozen armed robberies, armed home invasions, and armed car jackings within a mile of my house. There was also a theatre shooting here less about a month ago. I also live less than a half a mile from >= 500K dollar homes. So it exactly the ghetto. The point is that you AREN'T safe any where any more. Intensely violent people are per capita a low percentage of the population but that chance encounter is in fact going to be lethal for someone.
All things being equal, I prefer it be them instead of me.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday September 25 2015, @02:22PM
You're right, nobody is safe anywhere any more but... newsflash! Nobody was safe anywhere to begin with!
Yeah, bad things happen, but like anything else it's a risk / cost analysis. Yes, you could go about in a sate of heightened alert, armed to the teeth and ready to bust Hollywood action movie violence on anybody who makes eye contact... but at what cost? Long-term it's fucking with your mental health and your quality of life.
There's a small but real chance that you will be killed by a falling meteorite or something dropped from an aircraft. Is it worth the time, effort and expense (and funny looks from strangers) of carrying a concrete umbrella everywhere you go, just in case? Take the risk, enjoy the sunshine.*
At some point you just have to say "yes life is risky, but I can't eliminate all risk so I'm just going to hope for the best and get on with it. "
*I accept no responsibility if anybody reading this later gets killed by a meteorite because they took my advice and left their concrete umbrella at home.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday September 25 2015, @06:56PM
You're right, nobody is safe anywhere any more but... newsflash! Nobody was safe anywhere to begin with!
Nothing is more indicative of a coward than to be afraid of this. Did you think you were going to live forever? And besides, violence is at historical (that means since forever) low levels. Go read Pinker's "Angels of our Better Nature" If you are afraid now, you would really be a pansy in the Middle Ages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @09:43PM
I'm sorry are we supposed to be more or less civilized and evolved now vs. the middle ages or not.
Cause your comment is nearly the stupidest thing I've read all day and I visited Reddit's front page.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday September 25 2015, @10:12PM
Did you Read Pinker's book, or are you functionally illiterate? Hmm, maybe we are closer to the Middle Ages than I thought, in that regard at least. Your comment is the most unintelligible thing I have read in the last five minutes, and I do not read Reddit. Touché, mon enfant terrible!