National Threat Advisory « Political Cartel

One of the most recognizable parts of the Department of Homeland Security is the National Threat Advisory that you find on their website. I got to thinking about that the other day and wondered if there has ever been a time that the threat has been below yellow. Well, I looked it up and, as you might expect, the answer is no. The DHS has a history of changes to the threat level. Its interesting reading but the one thing that struck me about it is it has never been below yellow.

The obvious question that I think has an equally obvious answer is, “Is it even possible for it to be below yellow?” The answer is of course not! No executive department is going to say that they are no longer important. They might as well just cut the whole left side of that thing off. It is a daily reminder that we need to be afraid.

I also wonder how many people really know what that thing means or even use it to make day to day decisions. I wonder how many national security-related agencies consult the national threat advisory for guidance in their day to day operations. Does anybody use that thing?!?! Or is it…well…propaganda? Quite frankly, its the slickest propaganda ever. We don’t even know it. It penetrates the guards of our intellect and leads us to view people we don’t understand with microscopic suspicion. I say we get rid of that horrid thing. I don’t want to go to war with Iran.

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May 2, 2008 at 8:18 am

I think it’s going to be one of those things we look back on in thirty years and say, “Last week (child’s name here) was coloring and upon seeing the red crayon in (child’s gender-specific pronoun here) hand I ran out onto my front yard screaming, terrorist, terrorist! When did we become afraid of colors?”

This was the most ill-conceived chart I’ve ever seen. I realized upon its release we would need to live in a utopia in order to even hit blue. Green would require a post-nuclear fallout society. Mutants basically. I thought it was something the news networks had birthed upon the public. Imagine my surprise!

S.C. Denney

The whole national threat advisory level is very Orwellian in nature. It is all about social engineering and population control. I think they should up it to Red, just to see what happens.

May 2, 2008 at 10:28 am

David M. Manes