I ran across this today in Wired News (I love this feed!!): Question Authorities: Why it’s smart to disobey officials in emergencies. The article looks at the finding of an NIST draft report called Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications. Among its findings: many people survived the 9/11 attacks on the WTC because they diregarded emergency instructions.

    Fortunately, this advice was mostly ignored. According to the engineers, use of elevators in the early phase of the evacuation, along with the decision to not stay put, saved roughly 2,500 lives. This disobedience had nothing to do with panic. The report documents how evacuees stopped to help the injured and assist the mobility-impaired, even to give emotional comfort. Not panic but what disaster experts call reasoned flight ruled the day.
    In fact, the people inside the towers were better informed and far more knowledgeable than emergency operators far from the scene. While walking down the stairs, they answered their cell phones and glanced at their BlackBerries, learning from friends that there had been a terrorist attack and that the Pentagon had also been hit. News of what was happening passed by word of mouth, and fellow workers pressed hesitating colleagues to continue their exit.
    We know that US borders are porous, that major targets are largely undefended, and that the multicolor threat alert scheme known affectionately as “the rainbow of doom” is a national joke. Anybody who has been paying attention probably suspects that if we rely on orders from above to protect us, we’ll be in terrible shape. But in a networked era, we have increasing opportunities to help ourselves. This is the real source of homeland security: not authoritarian schemes of surveillance and punishment, but multichannel networks of advice, information, and mutual aid.

I have always felt that the best change to come out of 9/11 is the sense that many of us now have that we need to take control, rather than passively wait for somebody to help us. We are, in fact, our own best homeland security. This report seems to reinforce that belief.

But some pretty funny stuff has come out of the government’s attempts to keep us on our toes (after all, as Reader’s Digest has been telling us for years, laughter is the best medicine): Duct and Cover, PMS Advisory System, and Operation Mandatory Patriotic Tattoo.