And we, as a society, are conditioned to look to the uniforms for guidance in times of catastrophe or crisis.

In my workplace (and others like it), we have bi-annual catastrophe/evacuation drills and no one - I mean NO ONE - is exempt from the drills. There are dedicated people who are expected to take a role in co-ordinating evacuation or shelter-in-place.

No authority-projecting uniforms, just a readily identifiable hat and flag, and a willingness to step up and take responsibility if needed, even though personal risk might be involved.

Funny thing is, even as a kid, we had similar drills at school. The last thing the schools wanted in time of crisis was everyone screaming and blindly running around. Kind of funny, looking back. We'd be practicing fire drills, and the emphasis was to make as orderly an exit or shelter-in-place as possible.

Kind of like what flight attendants try to ensure during a flight evacuation.

Desk jockeys, school teachers, flight attendants - they're all expected to do better than run for their lives in a crisis. But TSA's 'academy' teaches 'every TSO for him/herself'. SMH.