Fences

     Why does anyone, anywhere and at any time, erect a fence?

     I have one around my backyard. It’s to keep my dogs in: that is, to lessen my fear that my dogs will run away, possibly to their deaths.

     When the patricians of other places erect fences, it’s usually to keep other people out: that is, to lessen their fear that other people will invade their privacy, possibly with ill intent.

     The village of Bedford, in Westchester County, New York, is laced with stone walls that demarcate the properties of wealthy individuals. For many years, those walls were almost all no more than three feet high: not serious obstacles to ingress, merely attractive property boundaries. In recent years, some residents have built higher walls than that: four to six feet. That caused some displeasure among older Bedfordites, who saw the walls as more decorative than functional. Among other things, the equestrians of the village could jump the older, low walls, which contributed to a sense of community among the “horsey set.” Walls that were high enough to present a substantial barrier were seen as a rebuff of that community. That did not deter the residents who erected the higher, jump-proof walls; they were more concerned with privacy and security than community.

     Fences and walls are intended to separate one area from another. In the usual case, they express either a preference for privacy or a fear of what lies outside them.

     What do these fences express?

     The rationale given for them is specious. Virtually no harm came to the Capitol, and none to any Congressman, because of the January 6 protest against the blatantly stolen elections. No one expects that the demonstrators who will congregate there today have anything in mind other than voicing their displeasure with the Usurper Regime. But the officials who “work” in that building are fearful all the same. They’re aware of the high – and still growing – national dissatisfaction with them, whether Democrat or Republican.

     Their fears may run well above the actual hazard to them, but that’s nothing new.

     “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson said it, and it is so. But what is the true “correlation of fears” today in these United States? Who currently holds the preponderance? Which way is it trending? Can anyone answer with confidence?

     I can’t. Yet it is plain that there’s fear in both camps. We the People have been subjected to a year and a half campaign to instill fear in us: fear of a virus. It was a pathetic thing to see, for the virus is no more dangerous than ordinary influenza. Americans are slowly but inexorably coming to realize that they’ve been hoodwinked: first by the Trump-averse legions of the Deep State; more recently by the Usurpers who stole the 2020 elections and are frantically maneuvering to cement themselves immovably into power. They — we — are shedding our inculcated fear of this phantasm.

     But another fear is rising: the Usurpers’ and the Deep State’s fear of what we might be moved to do. For a man who discovers that he’s been had will feel anger: some at himself, for having fallen for the con; more at those who hornswoggled him. If he can exact retribution from his defrauders, he will. Our defrauders know their position is shaky. They’re seeing the early-to-intermediate signs of a popular rising, and they know they’re unprepared to meet it.

     So they’ve erected a fence around their place of business.

     I don’t expect the demonstrators to attempt to breach that fence. But that won’t matter quite as much as their numbers and the palpability of their anger. The men inside that fence had better pay close attention. The confidence of their early two or three months has been eroding. Whether elected, appointed, or civil service, they know they are not perfectly secure in their seats.

     Ours is a time of grave portents. The events of the next few days, as public anger toward the Usurper Regime and its many unConstitutional and unAmerican actions swells, will speak loudly. Keep an ear cocked. There may yet be a shot heard ‘round the world.

1 comment

    • Butch DuCote on September 18, 2021 at 5:01 PM

    The fence in D.C. sends a clear message; “This is no longer a place of the people. We, your rulers, own it now.” If that message is true, may they enjoy their prison.

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