BAH Induces Stupidity

Among the theoretical purposes of Bureaucracies, Administrative controls, and Hierarchies (that I refer to as BAH organizations) is the need to eliminate human judgement in organizational systems. Human judgement creates variations in procedures, and this was thought not to be efficient, effective, or acceptable in a factory-oriented, manufacturing environment coming out of the Industrial Age, and into the 20th century. Eliminating judgement means turning off the mind, that is, deliberately creating ways to interfere with thinking. In other words, BAH systems are specifically designed to induce stupidity.

That's my explanation for the comical-if-it-weren't-so-sadly-true incident that occurred Monday at the Kelowna Airport, perpetrated by the bright lights from Garda Canada, the commercial outfit that provides the quote-unquote security at Canadian airports. A Toronto woman was told that she could not board her flight while wearing a 1.75-inch, sterling silver pendant of a Colt .45 gun. It was a "replica," you see, and replicas of weapons are not allowed according to the BAH rules. What's even more laughable is the response of an agent for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority who asked (and you've got to read this in a Bob and Doug McKenzie accent):

“How do you know it wasn‘t a real gun?” asked Guy, a security agent with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, who also declined to provide his last name. “Who knows if there is a gun that small that can shoot bullets? You don‘t know that.”

A photo of the potential security threat is on the blogTO post of this choice item; the full story is in the Kelowna Daily Courier.

All kidding and sarcasm aside, stories like this demonstrate the danger of BAH-ness: when the human mind is deliberately deactivated, when logic and reason are systemically suppressed, tragedies occur.

[Technorati tags: kelowna airport | airport security | garda canada | marnina norys | gun jewelry | silver gun pendant]