The Age of Theater

All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.

-Seán O’Casey

Politics have always been theater. Julius Caesar was deliberate with his sayings and actions. “Let the die be cast!” as he crossed the Rubicon. His people were watching and taking note. He quoted himself in his writings. Churchill would make sure to be seen on the front lines and to have his signature cigar. When Teddy Roosevelt was President of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners, he took reporters with him to catch lazy patrolmen off their posts. Ben Franklin became a fashion icon in France by dressing plainly while wearing a fur hat. Franklin’s and others’ “private” letters were written for public consumption. Theater benefits the performer.

It’s all a show. People eat it up. We briefly convinced ourselves that politics were meant to be boring, but politicians continued to be dishonest scoundrels. If they’re going to be dishonest scoundrels, they might as well be entertaining, dishonest scoundrels. This is where we stand.

There’s a craving for theatrical companies, theatrical leaders. Meme stocks are theater. Crypto is theater. Security theater rose to prominence after 9/11.

The best example of security theater is the TSA:

The results of the tests showed that the TSA screeners failed to detect weapons, drugs, and explosives almost 80 percent of the time. While the exact failure rate is classified, multiple sources indicate it is greater than 70 percent.

TSA extensive screenings have not made air travel safer. TSA screenings have partially killed us all by cumulative minutes of wasted life. Now, security theater’s bastard cousin, safety theater has risen.

Safety theater is implementing policies that sound like they make us safer but actually don’t. During the height of the SARS2 pandemic scare– Santa Clara forbade drive-through celebrations (people met in person instead). Texas imposed a quarantine on those traveling from specific states into Texas (people got connecting flights to avoid quarantine, thus exposing more people to potential infection). Nursing homes were forced to take care of recovering SARS2 patients (it spread the disease in nursing homes). Gyms made people wear masks when entering, but it was ok to take off masks during heavy cardio workouts. I’ve been to numerous restaurants where they required everyone to wear masks except children. I wonder if this would have persisted if we had a real pandemic (i.e. a pandemic that kills 10%+ of the population).

Let’s steel man safety theater—

If the populace feels safer as a result of safety theater, then they may carry on activities they would have otherwise avoided. If people believe carrying around a pet rock will protect them and make them confident enough to resume normal life activities, then give the people pet rocks. Placebos are powerful. When people are scared, they want something done to make them feel safe, even if it doesn’t make them safer.

This is aiding and abetting the coddling of society. If a child is scared of a monster under their bed, you don’t say “yes, there’s a monster but don’t worry; I’ll stand guard all night.” When people are scared, they shouldn’t be placated. They should be encouraged to be strong and to leverage ingenuity to find solutions. And most importantly, they shouldn’t be lied to.

I hoped that safety theater would disappear. The same way US government spending went back to normal after WW1, and America became isolationists again. But I feel we reached a new era. Terrorist attacks have decreased since 9/11, and we still practice security theater. There’s a world in which parts of safety theater are here to stay. The same way we roll our eyes going through TSA, we grin and bear safety theater.

More and more people are becoming aware of the silliness of the public square. We’ll soon see the rise of “honest” theater. Intentional, good faith theatrics with hopefully, positive consequences.