"Papers, Please" - in our lifetime?

[acroyear]

You Are No Longer Free To Move About the Country - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine:

It's not difficult to envision the day where anyone wishing to take mass transportation in this country will have to first submit to a government checkpoint, show ID, and answer questions about any excess cash, prescription medication, or any other items in his possession the government deems suspicious. If and when that happens, freedom of movement will essentially be dead. But it won't happen overnight. It'll happen incrementally. And each increment will, when taken in isolation, appear to some to be perfectly reasonable.

[emph mine]

Comments

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

*points you to my March 12, 2004 post (http://jmthane.livejournal.com/88718.html) regarding roughly the same idea and coming up with the same question you ask in your title*

Granted, the article is about mass transport and my post is about driving around in your own private vehicle, but still...

[uncle-possum.livejournal.com]

Yup--already, the media has completely "disappeared" the question of full body scans and patdowns, with some of the last commentary claiming this was merely a rightwing attempt to embarrass the administration. So, it wasn't a big deal, and it had little effect? And, the patdowns still continue, even for those who go through the scanners, some because they are chosen at random, others because they set off something (like a belt buckle, or an artificial knee or hip--a full patdown even if it's one localized anomaly). So, what's next? (we already have hundreds of cameras monitoring "motorists" and GPS on our cars and cellphones).