I posted this in another thread, but the reasoning applies here. That thread was about mitigating risk, but it is the inability to mitigate risk that makes the casual or naive traveler willing to surrender to the TSA.

I would suggest that the reason there are many that are unwilling to accept risk in this particular area is that many of methods that we use to mitigate risk are taken away or not available when we travel by air. This creates helplessness as we really want to be secure but the only options that remain, because they are the only ones allowed, is to let someone else do it. The lashing out against those that wish to assume the risk, is a sign of that helplessness.

When we fly we surrender complete control of the means of travel to the pilot, when we drive or walk we can control that.

We have no control over the the rigidity of the schedule, or the option available when the schedules must change.

We have no control over whether we can take alternate routes to avoid bad weather.

We have little control over the provisions we can have in our immediate possessions. We can not take water unless we buy it at exorbitant prices.

We are prevented from having even rudimentary devices to protect us from personal attack, as unlikely as it would be that we would need them we are still more comfortable if we have them.

We are unsure of the maintenance of the aircraft. We know when the oil was changed in our car.

On most airlines, we can not control who we sit by unless we are in a group. we have to take whatever seat mate the airline has assigned.

We have to surrender control of many of our needed possessions in our luggage to unknown people in several cities and trust them to get those possessions back to us.

The process of traveling by air for the travel naive is confusing, frustrating and an often fearful event. We FF's know that many of these concerns are unjustified, but they do not and it is generally they that fall into the anything for our security group.

It is a natural reaction to seek the security they can not provide for themselves in a trusted authority. They have been stripped of almost all of the self preservation techniques at their disposal and feel vulnerable. They want to know they are secure, because they need to know that they are secure.

When we tell them about security theater, that it is all fake, that it really does not protect them, when we expose the procedures and techniques, we lay bare the hope that maybe, just maybe the system can protect them if they can not protect themselves.

It is different for us. Think about what is in your carry on. Many of the items are there to mitigate some of the risk of travel. We know how to check ahead on weather and schedules and how to rapidly redeploy resources to mitigate those losses. We know the skill of the pilot, and the mechanics and our experience has shown us the rarity of bad events. Most of us could in 30 minutes and one cab ride replace everything in our checked bag at a cost, but we could do it. We already know the train schedules if the air system goes down. We know that we could drive our rental car home across country, if we had to do so. We have people back at the office that know how to fill in for us for a while if we are delayed. We are old hands at mitigating risk. Security is just one more.

For the non-frequent traveler, they need the system to work. It has to work. It is all they have.