Today (06/11/14), I went to the US Consulate for my visa interview. For a B1 B2 visa interview that lasted no more than five minutes and three questions; Why are you going to the US? How long have you been living in Melbourne? Are your parents in Melbourne?; I was shocked at the height of security measures we were subjected to as applicants. I realise that they have every right to be uneasy after all of the embassy attacks that have been occurring all over the globe, but I’ve come to the realisation that these security measures were even stricter than that of 
Tullamarine’s. There were not as many guards standing around intimidating mischief-doers, though I couldn’t help but notice the AFP patrol car stationed at the exit, as I was crossing the busy St. Kilda Rd to search for a bathroom (yes, they had no bathrooms in the lobby). After being stripped of my prized possessions; my phone, laptop, keys, earphones, novel, belt and watch, I was escorted by a security guard along with three other applicants up a few levels, where a maximum of fifty people waited for their five minute spotlight. There, we were subjected to a ridiculously patriotic montage of America’s beautiful cities and bountiful resources on loop, as I waited for at least an hour for my stub number to be called out.
I couldn’t help but wonder where this paranoia originated from. That answer was easy. From history. Past events when anti-American foreigners of varied motivations attacked American establishments. Since the founding of the English colonies on North American soil, Americans have had many enemies and continue to do so as the biggest superpower in the world. It is this freedom that the States’ founding fathers fought for against their English superiors, the freedom that would later on translate to a cultural and political dominance on a worldwide scale–we’re not obsessed with Hollywood films through a coincidence. Today, American president Barrack Obama is considered the most powerful man in the world, often labeled “Leader of the Free World”. And there’s that free word again. Yet with this freedom comes the knowledge embedded within their citizens, that the ability to be free is binary to backdated opposition who will try to take this away. Citizens are oppressed by its own protection laws, for the reason of its own description, and it can’t be helped to perceive freedom as an illusion. These are similar sentiments to America’s Second Amendment; the right to bear arms is a promise of protection to its citizens, but is used as a tool for offensive measures like school shootings. How is it possible to detach minors from the danger of weapons, when it is easy to purchase such at the corner gun-shop?
Such is the price one pays for these freedoms. Dangerous words like liberty, birthright and meritocracy contest with fear, responsibility and capitalism.