Who decides?

There has been a lot of hand-wringing over the attempt made to detonate explosives during the Northwest flight into Detroit on Christmas Day. Google News is logging thousands, if not tens of thousands, of news reports about airport security in the wake of this event.

Many commentators suggest that there is no way to stop someone who is willing to die in order to harm or kill other people. In the case of terrorists who follow fundamentalist Islamic law/teachings, these commentators argue that the subject has dedicated his (occasionally her) life to the ideal that killing those who refuse to convert will earn him great rewards in the hereafter, and bring honor - if not monetary rewards - upon the family that survives him. The focus is between that individual and his God, and how the individual will be favored by God based upon what the individual did.

The bottom line seems to be: because this individual is focused only on himself and his presumed rewards, he cannot be stopped.

I wonder, though, how much of this same "me first" thinking affects/infects our ability to reduce threats from terrorists of all sorts.

For example, it would seem that the networks devised to provide information about potential threats had plenty of data regarding Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. If it is possible to cut through all the inter-agency finger-pointing, it becomes easy to imagine that at least one major reason Abdulmutallab was not stopped prior to boarding the flight was because individuals in various agencies were more concerned about protecting themselves or their agency than they were in stopping a potential threat. The focus was on their own interests rather than in service of the common good. Likewise, the same public that cries out about failures in intelligence systems is the same public that cries out about being asked to undergo security screenings they find inconvenient.

If one begins to view actions through that lens, it becomes possible to see how "me first" thinking threatens our culture in many ways that have nothing to do with airport security.

Think about protection of the environment, and how many individuals refuse to do their part in recycling, changing driving habits, or using energy-efficient materials because it inconveniences them.

Think about individuals who oppose health-care reform because the current system works well for them.

Think about individuals who, like fundamentalists of any religion, believe that "my religion" is the only true one, and want everyone else to live by that truth.

Sometimes Christians scoff at the command to love the neighbor, or they recast it so that loving the neighbor means making that neighbor do the "right" thing THEY want them to do! Doesn't sound much like love to me.