We have been following the increasing crackdown on passengers wearing T-Shirts on airlines deemed offensive or threatening. These cases often raise free speech questions, but also raise serious questions of the increasing irrationality of airline staff and some passengers. The t-shirt of Wynand Mullins is a good example. Mullins wore a t-shirt on a Qantas flight from Sydney with the well-known quote from Princess Bride by character Montoya (played in the film by Mandy Patinkin): “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.” Some passengers became alarmed by the t-shirt, presumably convinced that a terrorist would not only advertise his intent but choose a fictional character from a children’s book to represent his deep homicidal beliefs. Flight staff insisted that he change his shirt. Presumably, there was a passenger with five fingers that felt personally threatened by the quotation.
After he boarded his flight home to Auckland, New Zealand, a flight attendant took on the role of Count Rugen who insisted he did not like the line and told Montoya “Stop saying that!”
In this case, however, the flight attendant told him that the t-shirt was unacceptable for travel. He was only allowed to continue after he established that he did not have a change in shirts. You can see Mullins and his t-shirt at this site. I simply do not get how some passengers are so fearful that a joke t-shirt triggers such alarm. These are the same people presumably favoring greater and greater limitations on passengers and citizens under anti-terror laws. Fear has been wiped up to such a frenzy that passengers believe Al Qaeda is going into suicide missions wearing quotes from Rob Reiner films.
I only wish that when he was asked to change his shirt, Mullins pulled out a shirt quoting the character Vizzini: “you are friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless!”
The alternative lines may not be much an improvement for general acceptance of the passengers:
Westley to Buttercup: “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”
Westley: “DEATH FIRST!”
Westley: “We are men of action, lies do not become us.”
Vizzini: “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha… “
Of course, Montoya was warned that his “over-developed sense of vengeance is going to get you into trouble some day.”
Source: Daily Mail
Gene,
I have no idea how many times I have used that line or something like it. I use it when I am doing hypnotherapy for phobias, especially PTSD related stuff.
“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Frank Herbert
The government has been quite successful in convincing many of us that the Fire Swamp is where we live surrounded by R.O.U.S. (Rodents of Unusual Size), fire spouts, and lightning sand.
The fear mongering certeinly causes effects in the public. It is not just to crime or terrorism.
A big joke in Washington is how wimpy Seattleites are when it comes to snow or inclement weather (other than the permadrizzle that it experiences regularly)
If Seattle gets a half inch of snow, it literally goes into crisis mode. The news media then spend 90% of their broadcast time devoted to snow. People continue to panic until it melts away. Everywhere else in the state it is not even noticed that much.
During the snowless times several of the news stations make a big deal about their weather deparments. They whip it up to show images of cars crashing during the snow, linemen repairing downed power lines during high winds, flooding; then juxtapose it with “First ALERT Weather” with reporters covering it and war room like backdrops showing meteorologists mulling over weather patterns and doppler radar sweeps.
This type of reporting and the unreasonable reactions of worry in the public seems to get into a feedback loop which the news station management knows drums up viewer ratings. It’s all a waste of time to me. The weather is what it is.
bestest movie ever….
Indigo Jones
1, January 25, 2013 at 9:46 am
People are deeply afraid, and it’s profoundly irrational.
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People are deeply afraid, and it’s profoundly reasonable, given the behaviour of the courts , banks and politicians post 9/11.
If there is a silver lining to this story, it’s that it’s an Australian airline flying to New Zealand and presumably Australian and New Zealander passengers and air crew. I find some comfort that us Americans, while stupid when it comes to terrorism and fearfulness, are at least not uniquely stupid.
This is one of the best movies of all time.
Fear, just look at what their trying to do to the gun owners.
Nick,
I thought you were going to say more attorneys…..
(After looking at the Photo itself)
If I never had seen the movie & considering how many Nut cases there can be, this guy is a little Creepy. I wouldn’t tell him to change his shirt, but I would definitely keep a personal eye on the Boy.
Yet, I doubt “Terrorists” would advertise their intentions and Freedom to Express Yourself is just part of being in a Free Society.
I sometimes wonder if the “Fear of Terrorists on an Airplane” is the accepted excuse for what really ails the Fearful — the embarrassing “Fear of Flying” (or claustrophobia, or acrophobia) itself.
“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.” Some passengers became alarmed by ……. ”
It is quite worrying that on a random flight, there are some people who have killed a man who they suspect might be Inigo Montoya’s father.
Who else have they killed?
Killers On A Plane !!
Inconceivable!
Well AY, I would encourage you to watch one of the funniest movies of all time, The Big Lebowski. But, to answer your question. Walter Sobchak screamed that question to young, Larry Sellers, a middle school student who was flunking social studies. Walter thought Larry Sellers had stolen the Dude’s car which contained a briefcase of money. So, as Walter screamed he was beating on a new Corvette w/ a tire iron in front of the Sellers house that he ASSUMED was purchased by Sellers w/ the stolen money. It turns out the vette belonged to Seller’s next door neighbor. There are seldom easy answers to a question involving a Coen Bros. movie. But I think I gave a fairly succint answer.
As previously mentioned, “Stupid is as stupid does…”, The trouble is that stupid affects us all. Because we fear that someone will come onto our airplane with explosives in his show we all take our shoes off and get radiated so they can see our naked body.
Here is what you can to do put an end to it, refuse to be scanned. Have them pat you down and do it in public so everyone can see.
Our government is treating us all like we are potential terrorists. You buy a ticket and make a contract with an airline, a government agent jumps between you and the company you contracted with and tells you that unless you get scanned or patted you can’t proceed. What have we come to?
I think the fear factor, as Indigo said, is a major player that the media think they need in order to financially survive.
People are deeply afraid, and it’s profoundly irrational.
To my mind, an important thing to keep sight of here is that most Americans traumatized on 9-11 were traumatized by the media. This is in virtue of the fact that most Americans don’t live in New York. On 9-11 most people were watching TV in their kitchens, or in classrooms. The media are more dangrous than terrorists.
It’s a little ironic that residents of New York consider their City the intellectual capitol of the US, yet they are least equipped to rationally discuss the ramifications of 9-11. Most Americans are astronomically more likely to be killed by a drunk driver than a terrorist, but we don’t question our foundational values to protect people from weekends.
It seems to me that a lot of New Yorkers can be quite provincial urban bumpkins at times. You know the line, “Why would you want to leave Manhattan?” It’s a problem because a lot of bigwigs in the media are New Yorkers.
Midwesterner Kurt Vonnegut said it better than I ever could: “Unsettling business for an artist, where everything that happens in New York has universality, and everything that happens outside is ethnography.”
Nick,
So what do you get when you poke a stranger in the ass?
Stupid is as stupid does…. Just think, there’s plenty of stupid to go around…..
There are some t-shirts out there w/ quotes from the great philosopher, Walter Sobchak, that would probably get you thrown off a plane. “You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me.” Or, “This is what happens when you f@ck a stranger in the ass!!”
“Terrorism”: They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.