I was trying to give my students something besides a lecture on bureaucracy. The movie “Brazil,” released in 1985 starring Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Michael Palin, came to mind.

The movie is about, “Bureaucracy and ductwork run amok in the story of a paperwork mix up that leads to the imprisonment of Mr. Buttle, shoe repairman, instead of Harry Tuttle, illegal freelance Heating Engineer. Bureaucrat Sam Lowry (prone to escapes to a fantasy world) gets branded a terrorist and becomes hunted by the state himself in the process of correcting the mistake.”

Well it’s actually a chilling film about an inefficient, dirty, crowded, irrational, random and frightening totalitarian society. The government regulates everyone and everything but it is riddled with glitches and insane overreaction. Torture is used indiscriminately. False arrests, irrelevant and incomprehensible raids by the frightening jack booted thugs of the special police are rampant. Abu Ghraibe anyone?

At the same time that oppression is pervasive, and the government seems to have almost no control. Random bombings and other acts of terrorism are so frequent that no one is even surprised.

The upscale restaurant scene where delicious dishes are being consumed and then a whole wall is blown out by a bombing is unforgettable. The customers glance over their shoulders, and they return to their dishes and conversation with no sign of concern. 

We face continued and growing security concerns at airports, in the issuing of drivers licenses and in the creation of Homeland Security departments not just at the national level but in each state. “Homeland Security” is a state of war concept. The British had that at the height of WWII when they were subjected to nightly bombings and an imminent invasion from Nazi Germany. For the United States to have a permanent bureaucracy with that name is not reassuring. It is a sign that we are living in a new era of a “security state” which we used to call a “garrison state.” As I pondered all of this, I suddenly realized that we are now close to a perilous state of affairs because we are now all terrorists or criminal suspects. Read that again please.

When we enter an airport the screeners have almost no information on you and me. So, we are indistinguishable from the people who may have evil intentions. Thus everyone is treated with the same level of suspicion. Now that blonde, white and non-“middle eastern” looking men and women have been implicated with terrorist plots, we can’t even assume that terrorist profiling might be useful.

When a law enforcement officer stops you they are now trained to assume that you may be dangerous and a threat to him or her and society.

That was not always the case. We insisted that we are all innocent and the state including law enforcement must prove that we are guilty.

Also remember that some authorities actually have a huge amount of information about you from all the surveillance that was authorized especially since the September 11 terrorist attacks. They just can’t seem to get that information to the TSA folks at the airport.

Also remember that between federal, state and local laws in fact almost anything you are doing is probably in violation of some law. Speed limits, vehicle defects (broken taillight), no seat belt, erratic driving, slightly above the permissible alcohol level for driving, smoking in a restaurant or public building, public urination (which now makes one a sex offender), speeding, not stopping quickly enough when a fire, police, or other emergency vehicle has its emergency lights on, reading a text message while driving,  – well, you get the idea.

Last year a family friend was at a restaurant and complained about the terrible service it was getting. When he argued with the waiter and touched him the restaurant called the police and they threatened him with arrest for “assaulting” the waiter. He touched him. Since when did we codify that as “assault?” If we are going to go down that road we are truly moving towards an unsustainable definition of criminal behavior.

We have also decided to criminalize activities that were never treated as crimes except in Cotton Mather’s Massachusetts or Saudi Arabia. For example, a 22 year-old teacher female had consensual sex with a 17-year old male student. She was charged with rape, sexual assault, and she is now classified as a sexual predator. Is that a rational and sustainable policy?

The United States already has the largest prison population in the world. We also have 1 out of every 100 people either in jail or on parole. (I’ve written about this before).

The financial and social costs of this high level of  “securitization” of American society are a huge burden on our society. These are not economically productive investments (although they do generate lots of jobs and profit in the law enforcement, courts and justice system, and correctional industry).

Please go rent the movie Brazil by Terry Gilliam. It will set you thinking about where we are headed.

Steffen Schmidt is a professor of political science and chief political correspondent for www.insideriowa.com