Technology and Its Discontents

Perhaps never. Laws made in crisis mode seldom vanish once the wartime footing ends. In response to rumors that TWA Flight 800 had been downed by terrorists, for example, Congress passed a law that made it easier to expel legal aliens. But when mechanical failure was revealed to be the culprit, the law remained on the books. Even if Al Qaeda is somehow dismantled in the coming years, one suspects that technology's carefree days were also a victim of September 11.

Illustration by Richard Borge

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More About

• London Heathrow Airport
• Matt Blaze
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• War and Conflict
• Terrorism

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Brendan I. Koerner is a Markle Fellow at the New America Foundation.