Schall on walls
Schall, writing at CrisisMagazine, is usually the sharpest and most insightful writer on cultural and moral questions. I always learn something new and important when I read his stuff. Today Schall writes a piece on a subject that I've often covered. Walls and borders, inspired of course by Trump vs the Antichrist. Perhaps uniquely, he doesn't hit it square. For the first and undoubtedly the only time, I feel that I've covered it better in general. Schall especially misses the natural-law or biological aspects of walls.

Schall does add a point that I (surprisingly!) haven't touched. Prison walls. He says:

There used to be a song that went something like “Oh, if I had the wings of an angel, over these prison walls I would fly.” The walls of prisons, of course, are intended, like most walls, both to keep in and keep out.

Why it's surprising that I didn't make this connection: When I was in prison in '69, I learned the difference between professional criminals and lawbreakers. One manifestation of this difference is the attitude toward walls. Pro criminals enjoy most aspects of prison. They get to practice and learn their trade in a controlled lab environment, with hacks ready to halt a fight that gets too deadly. The inmate government offers valuable internships in white-collar crime, learning how to bribe and blackmail real officials. Pro criminals get food and housing without the hassle of maintaining a harem of white bitches for welfare checks. All fine and dandy, EXCEPT the walls. Knowing that the walls restrict MY TOTAL FREEDOM is the one hitch in the setup. Pro criminals, like Randians and techbullies and stockbrokers, need In Di Vi Du Al Lib Er Ty above all else. The rest of us need walls to protect us from all four castes.

Non-pro lawbreakers are not bothered in the slightest by the walls. Non-pros are the disposable materials for the lab sessions, like wire in an electronics lab or formaldehyded frogs in a bio lab. They're too busy unsuccessfully fending off rapes and beatings by the pro criminals. Walls are not a problem.

Needless to say, Antichrist doesn't miss a point, never skips a chance to commit infinite evil. Antichrist wants to break prison walls as well as national boundaries, letting the pro criminals loose to rape and rob and murder all poor people. Eugenics by proxy.

Labels: defensible spaces

  ¶ 2:47 AM