Walls

Koontz -

..."Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down."

Mending Wall by Robert Frost


Jodi and I have a photo-shoot project later today at a site that is part of a "gated community". There isn't actually a gate, at least not yet, but there is a wall seperating the development from the neighborhoods around it. I wonder about this phenomenon.

According to Wikipedia, as of the year 2000, eight million US residents lived in gated communities and from my research, it seems these housing developments are on the rise in all countries save Canada.

The walls and gates have little to do with literal security in US developments. The walls are easily scaleable, and it's no big trick to gain access with your car by tailgating onto another vehicle that enters the area. So I assume it's the sense of enclosure that attracts the residents.

Is it so very scary out there that we need this separation from everyone who isn't just like us?

Apparently so. Walls have a long history all over the world. The Great Wall in China, The Berlin Wall, The Gaza Wall. The idea of separation has not always (ever?) been successful, yet we continue to do it. In China all new developments are required to be gated and in Saudi Arabi, the gated communities where Westerners live are armed. Will I go to visit my brother at his gated community one day and find an armed guard at the entrance? Is the purpose to keep me out or to keep him in?

Everyone wants to feel secure, especially in their home, but I can't help but feel that what we are practicing is exclusion, not inclusion and I wonder what the long-term effects will be on us and on the children we raise in these sterile little neighborhoods. Everyone at the same general income level, everyone with one of three floor plans, everyone with the same landscaping, everyone with their pass-code.

It kind of creeps me out actually.