“All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall.” ~Pink Floyd
Let’s talk about walls today.
Why do most people build walls?
I mean physical walls. Ostensibly, it’s to keep “them” out. To offer protection to those on “your” side of the wall.
It’s a filter just like the membrane around the cells of your body. It lets some things in, it keeps some things out. Exactly what those things are is determined by the governing intellect that constructed it. People, trade, environment, even philosophical and intellectual influences can be separated from the other side by a barrier.
The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier, but its primary function was as a symbol that defined, separated, and restrained the mingling of ideas and cultural axioms. This is why the destruction of The Berlin Wall was so pivotal in terms of human social evolution. It meant the free exchange of cultural differences could once again flow between consenting peoples.
Even with the removal of the physical wall, however, does The Berlin Wall still stand? I think so.
I think it remains symbolically, though the meaning has altered.
It is now an ephemeral wall, one that stands for something else. Its absence is a wall of its own, but one that is freely traversed.
Instead of a filter that blocks and separates, it is a permeable appliance that filters and cleanses negative influence. Forty years ago, when you spoke of The Berlin Wall it meant one thing. Now, it means something entirely different when you hear those words.
Currently, a great controversy exists in our country over the building of a wall.
It most certainly is touted as a static filter. To keep “them” out. The judgment of history will surely be given by our children’s children’s children and it is harder and harder for the “winners” to write their own version of history.
To use alternative facts.
The ebb and flow of world events have more eyes and more wills directed towards it than at any time in recorded history. The light of truth shines too bright to hide from it, and instead, those who wish to cast “them” in the role of villain can only run from that discerning illumination.
I suppose, in the end, no wall is ever purely physical in its construction.
There’s always a reason for a wall, and that cerebral mortar lines the space between each brick. You and I, dear reader, are the bricks ultimately because it is our individual consent or denial that places each brick in that wall.
It is only a matter of a moment’s consideration that changes a wall from keeping “them” out or keeping “us”…in.
Additional reading on the philopsophical and physical applications of walls:
What was the Berlin Wall and how did it Fall?
Time-Trump has no Problem Shutting Doing a 'Shut Down' if he Doesn't get Border Wall Funding