That’s the subtitle of an article by Malcolm Gladwell that appeared in The New Yorker in October. It’s now almost two months old, but I’ve found myself in that time referring to it in conversation a lot, so it’s probably worth a read.

Gladwell — author of The Tipping Point as well as a lot of insightful and interesting articles — explores the connection between increasing security and enforcement and the actions of those who seek to (or succeed in) getting around that security.

He does manage to fall for the How-did-terrorists-get-those-knives-on-board idiocy (remember that on September 11, carrying Stanley knives onto an airplane was acceptable), but this is not a fatal flaw.