Community Walls

“Crazy to live without a wall to protect you.” (pg. 10, Parable of the Sower)

Community is an idea so central to the future, present, and past. What is a community? Why are we so driven to gather together? For protection, for safety, for survival? For vengeance, hatred, power? For support, love, companionship? One thing remains certain above all, alone, the individual will inevitably fail.

The connotation of the word community, is almost universally positive. Think of family and friends. In communities, pain is shared and thus mitigated. “In spite of your loss and pain, you aren’t alone. you still have people who care about you and want you to be all right. You still have family.” (pg. 303 PoS) We help those in our communities and care about each other. Although it can be correctly labeled as personally beneficial, aiding others in our communities is truly a heartwarming aspect of humanity. Furthermore, it has only been through our communal efforts that humans have achieved so much.

However, each time we form a community, we must eventually build walls. We do this to signify our difference, to enjoy our independence, to create a haven. There is nevertheless the other “side-effects” of walls. They keep others out, prevent exchange. They create a mentality of us and them, of privilege and poverty. In an unforgettable scene in the film The Children of Men, we see our protagonist cross over from the chaos and poverty of public London to the decadence and splendor of private London. Everything terrible and harmful about communities is symbolized in this cross over. While the world burns, the privileged hide behind walls of hate, indifference, and tanks.

What happens when these walls come down? Shouldn’t people rejoice in this breakdown of the status quo? The Fishers of The Children of Men believe so. The animal activists in 28 Days Later thought so as well. Without walls, can we not become a global community? Communities should be porous and without boundaries. Humans should be accepting of other humans. Refugees need shelter and homes too. Admirable ideas but we deny some of human nature in we hope to fully realize such goals. Reality is balance. “When apparent stability disintegrates, as it must... people tend to give in to fear and depression, to need and greed... They divide. They struggle, one against one, group against group, for survival, position, power. They remember old hates and generate new ones, they create chaos and nurture it. They kill and kill and kill....” (pg. 103 PoS).

Is there room for community without division? Can we overcome past hates, the “Rage” that the privileged have infected the impoverished with? It is crazy to live without walls but it is also terrible to live with them.