The ten billion dollar binky

Apparently the phenomenon I described as "Airport theater" is more well known and discussed than I originally thought.

The Wikipedia has an article on "Security Theater".

What galls me about the need for Security Theater is that it caters to the ignorance of the masses. We're not supposed to be children. We're not supposed to need the government to pop a ten billion dollar binky in our mouth when we're upset. That's all it is. The world's most expensive pacifier.

We bought that instead of safer cars. Why? Because people are perfectly fine hurtling down the highway at 80 miles an hour while talking on their cellphone, and trying to pick up their spilled cheetos off the floormat. Despite the fact that 40,000 people a year die in their cars, very little is done because masses aren't crying in their cars. They're crying at the airport.