I found this account by a self-described “swarthy fellow with a funny, foreign name” of flying without ID quite cheerful. If if he’s not actually really that swarthy.
It seems not everyone has been subsumed by mindless slavish following of stupid rules. And that stories like this one are not even unusual!
My little sister is probably the opposite of swarthy, but travelled from San Francisco to JFK and back without any ID at all earlier this year. I was pretty shocked. ABC was handling her trip, and I guess that helped, and she was enjoying her 15 minutes of fame after being bit by a shark, and so the sympathy vote might have helped too.