ABSTRACT
In August 2004, a Washington Post article reported that Senator Ted Kennedy had experienced difficulties flying in March of that year because his name was on the government’s “no-fly list.” In spite of acknowledging that this incident emphasized the imperfect nature of the no-fly list, to their embarrassment, it still took federal air security officials more than three weeks to rectify the situation and remove Senator Kennedy from the list. Earlier in that same year, the internationally renowned Italian Philosopher Giorgio Agamben cancelled a series of lectures and teaching commitments at New York University, stating that he would not subject himself to the mandatory visa regulations the US had put in place for Europeans (and others). According to Agamben, these measures constituted a “bio-political tattoo” which was both inhumane and exceptional in the deepest sense of the word (Agamben 2004). These anecdotes are two among a burgeoning list of prevalent experiences of everyday life in the biometric state, where officials cultivate an almost obsessive preoccupation with where you are going and who you are.
