(via Instapundit) One of my favorite, libertarian-esque themes is how much the press sees their role as cajoling the government into taking care of us rather than arming us with the info to take care of ourselves.   It's why students who stop another Columbine dead in its tracks receive no press coverage.   People making up their own minds, taking action -- especially heroic action -- doesn't make an editor's day the way finding some family that "fallen through the cracks" or "been left behind" does.   (Now, there is a sort of pseudo-heroic action they do admire which tends to be along the lines of a 12 yr old launching a protest against some corporation or an old boys club)

I firmly believe that many in the press fall prey to Economic Idiotarianism and have an affinity for these sorts of stories because they see resource allocations as the result of Command / Authority.  If something "stupid" happens (e.g. poverty), it's cuz someone in in authority is either Stupid, or Corrupt.  Their conception of power is institutional and it flows down from up-high.  And their primary relevance in life is to steer that power by influencing public opinion.   

I don't think they're evil about this - it's more of an axiomatic world view that's somewhat, well, ignorant.  Just the other night, I remember seeing an ad for our local TV news station that ballyhooed "KRON 4 reports, and the City of San Francisco takes action."   They were clearly proud of themselves and I couldn't help but think "oh geez."

And now it's why there's disgustingly little coverage of a significant news story in Australia.   Some whack job tried to hijack a Quantas flight and was stopped by the crew and ordinary passengers on board the flight:  

A man armed with two sharpened wooden stakes tried to hijack and crash a Qantas domestic jet with 47 passengers aboard shortly after take-off from Melbourne today, authorities said. The 40-year-old man stabbed two flight attendants and injured two other people before he was overpowered by crew and passengers aboard QF1737. He was in custody tonight.

...He said the male attendant and 25-year-old female attendant suffered gashes to the head and face during the struggle to subdue the attacker.

..."As he was being attacked, he put his head down into the man's chest and he pushed him back down the plane. "He had two severe injuries to his head; one was on the chin, one was on the top of his head," Mr Charlton said.

This anecdote - and many like it - reveal an alternate vision of power that flows from the individual in a decidedly apolitical manner.   This is the real reason we won't have more hijackings - we can reliably expect that at least a few random individuals on a plane will be willing to give up their lives to duel with a hijacker to the benefit of those who remain - for us.   Even a hijacker armed to the teeth.   No amount of government spending in homeland security and air marshalls will be able to replicate this decentralized force of individual will.   Thank God.

The fact that I can confidently profess my faith in the other individuals flying with me - and that most readers can confidently agree - says a lot about our deepest, most innate understanding about universal human nature.   Only the most bitterly cynical 2% among us would doubt that there's enough of it there to make a difference.

Espeically now that we know that hijackers may grab a plane not for some other ends but merely to use it as a guided missile, the world's calculus in dealing with them has shifted - to the hijacker's detriment.  Most of us know that somewhere, somehow there are enough people who will rise to the occasion without some sort of government coercion in the background and take action.  I almost pity the laughably old school hijacker who actually *wants* to land the plane on some desert tarmac somewhere to negotiate the release of his comrades in arms.   He's going to be in for a surprise.

Alas, msnbc.com and cnn.com have no interest in reporting an otherwise very uplifting story.  KRON's expose on undercover reporters who were able to sneak nail clippers through SFO airport security is news worthy - but isn't this story more significant and in a more lasting way?  And doesn't this one scare the bejesus out of a would be hijacker a heck of a lot more? 

(As an aside - and I don't feel like blogging about this at length - these different conceptions about sources of power, ablity to use it responsibly, and trust in the individual create the deepest, bedrock battle lines in the debate around Gun Control today.    Bill Whittle, for example, has an AMAZINGLY eloquent discourse on these issues here)