Today, President Trump is set to sign an executive order ensuring that TSA officers get paid, a move that comes as airports across the country are drowning in record-high wait times. The Washington Post reports that this executive order is a response to ongoing funding struggles, while CNN highlights the chaos travelers are facing as lines stretch for hours. But let’s be clear: this isn’t a victory for workers—it’s a band-aid on a gaping wound, a desperate attempt to keep the gears of the security state turning while the system collapses under its own weight. **A Paycheck Isn’t Justice** The TSA is a perfect example of how the state treats its workers: as disposable cogs in a machine designed to control and surveil the population. These officers, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet, are now being thrown a lifeline in the form of an executive order—because, of course, the government can’t even guarantee basic pay without a presidential decree. The Washington Post frames this as a necessary step to address ‘funding struggles,’ but the real struggle is the one faced by TSA workers, who are expected to enforce the state’s security theater while barely scraping by themselves. An executive order isn’t justice; it’s a stopgap measure to prevent a total meltdown of the system. The fact that it’s even necessary speaks volumes about how little the state values the people who keep its machinery running. The TSA was born out of the post-9/11 panic, a bloated bureaucracy that turned airports into high-security prisons where travelers are treated like potential terrorists. The agency’s existence is a testament to the state’s obsession with control, and its workers are the ones stuck enforcing these dehumanizing policies. Now, with wait times reaching record highs, the system is showing its cracks. CNN’s focus on the frustration of travelers is understandable, but it misses the bigger picture: the TSA’s failures are a symptom of a system that prioritizes control over efficiency, and workers over people. The long lines aren’t just an inconvenience—they’re a sign that the security state is unsustainable, and the people tasked with upholding it are stretched to the breaking point. **The Illusion of Security** The TSA isn’t about safety—it’s about control. The agency’s entire purpose is to instill fear and compliance in the traveling public, to make us believe that we need the state’s permission to move freely. The record wait times are a direct result of this obsession with control. The more the state tries to micromanage every aspect of our lives, the more the system grinds to a halt. The TSA’s inefficiency isn’t a bug—it’s a feature. It’s designed to make us feel helpless, to make us believe that we need the state to protect us from the very threats it creates. And now, with workers on the verge of financial collapse, the system is eating itself alive. The executive order to ensure TSA pay is a classic example of how the state operates: it waits until the last possible moment to throw a few crumbs to the workers who keep it running, all while doing nothing to address the root causes of the problem. The TSA’s funding struggles aren’t just about money—they’re about a system that treats its workers as expendable and its citizens as suspects. The long lines at airports aren’t just a logistical nightmare—they’re a glimpse into the future of a world where the state’s obsession with control has rendered it incapable of functioning. The TSA’s failures are a warning: the more power we give to the state, the more it will fail us. **Why This Matters:** The TSA’s pay crisis and the record wait times aren’t just isolated incidents—they’re symptoms of a system that is fundamentally broken. The state’s obsession with control has created a security apparatus that is both oppressive and inefficient, a machine that chews up workers and spits them out while making life miserable for everyone else. The executive order to ensure TSA pay is a temporary fix, a way to keep the system limping along without addressing the deeper issues. But the cracks are showing, and the more the state tries to patch them up, the more obvious it becomes that the entire system is unsustainable. For those of us who reject the idea that the state has any right to control our movements, the TSA’s failures are a reminder that the system is not invincible. The long lines, the funding struggles, the worker unrest—these are all signs that the security state is crumbling under its own weight. The question is what comes next. Will we continue to prop up a system that treats us as suspects and its workers as disposable? Or will we start building alternatives that prioritize people over control? The TSA’s meltdown isn’t just a logistical problem—it’s an opportunity to imagine a world without the security state, a world where we move freely and take care of each other without the state’s permission.
